News
from the fight to #SaveIndiePharmacy
New York Times’ The Middlemen series
Alarm Bells are Ringing: Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program Will Fail Without Changes
If CMS doesn’t reconsider its mandate, which forces independent pharmacies to go deep into a hole and lose money, many of them will close.
Sen. Grassley Opens Inquiry Into UnitedHealth’s Medicare Billing Practices
The Iowa Republican’s letter to the company cites findings from a series of Wall Street Journal articles.
UnitedHealth Group Is Being Investigated by the Department of Justice
UnitedHealth Group, the largest U.S. health insurer, is once again under federal scrutiny—this time for potentially fraudulent Medicare billing practices.
Medicare Drug Coverage Is Often Inadequate—Here’s Why
American healthcare spending dwarfs that of every other wealthy country, and the cost of Medicare, alone, threatens the fiscal viability of the federal government. If insurers do not try to hold down the cost of American medical care, who will?
Drug Costs and Their Impact on Care: Insights from Medicare Patients and Providers
Prescription drug costs are a barrier to care for many patients, but especially so for the nine of 10 Medicare beneficiaries who report taking prescription drugs regularly. In fact, 14 percent of beneficiaries age 65 or older say they skip taking or sometimes do not even fill their prescriptions because of the expense.
How Medicare Says It Arrives At ‘Fair’ Prescription Drug Prices
When former President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law in 2022, he said that drug price negotiations and other provisions in the legislation would help lower costs for Medicare beneficiaries by bringing down the prices of certain medicines and capping out-of-pocket costs for many others. What remained hidden from view, however, is how the so-called maximum fair prices of the drugs selected for negotiation are determined. Now we have a glimpse behind the curtain. But it is only a peek.
Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter Delivers Remarks on the Platformization of Health care
“In 2010, the big insurers promoted the narrative that single payer was a threat to Americans. Nearly 15 years later, we may well be accelerating the march to single payer, just not the kind anyone imagined in 2010, or wants today.
The moment for this discussion is now and the timing is urgent.” —AAG Jonathan Kanter
‘Ghost network’ of US healthcare providers amounts to fraud, lawsuit says
Class action finds ‘staggering’ cases of people struggling to find mental health care coinciding with mental health crisis
Medicare patient wrongly sent to collections in dispute between two UnitedHealth Group entities
The Minnesota-based insurer said he owed $275. The surgery center in St. Cloud wanted another $3,300. UnitedHealth owns both and is now apologizing.
Drugmakers including Purdue Pharma paid pharmacy benefit managers not to restrict painkiller prescriptions, a New York Times investigation found.