Wait, What’s a PBM?
Pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, are companies that negotiate the prices of prescription drugs. Hear about their role in raising drug prices and the ongoing efforts to regulate this complex industry.
Drugs
261-280 of 1,318 results
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What You Need to Know About the Drug Price Fight in Those TV Ads
At least nine bills introduced in Congress take aim at pharmacy benefit managers, the powerful middlemen that channel prescription drugs to patients.
By Arthur Allen -
Why the Next Big Hope for Alzheimer鈥檚 Might Not Help Most Black Patients
Black patients and other minorities tend to be diagnosed at later stages of the disease, which would exclude them from use of Leqembi. Few Black people were included in the main trial of the drug.
By Arthur Allen -
Patients Squeezed in Fight Over Who Gets to Bill for Pricey Infusion Drugs
To drive down costs, insurers are bypassing hospital system pharmacies and delivering high-priced infusion drugs, including some used in chemotherapy, via third-party pharmacies. Smarting from losing out on billing for those drugs, hospitals and clinics are trying to convince states to limit this practice, known as "white bagging."
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Need to Get Plan B or an HIV Test Online? Facebook May Know About It
Twelve of the largest drugstores in the U.S. sent shoppers鈥 sensitive health information to Facebook or other platforms, according to an investigation by The Markup and 杨贵妃传媒視頻 Health News.
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The DEA Relaxed Online Prescribing Rules During Covid. Now It Wants to Rein Them In.
Supporters say the proposed rules would balance the goals of increasing access to health care and helping prevent medication misuse. Opponents say the rules would make it difficult for some patients 鈥 especially those in rural areas 鈥 to get care.
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Drugmakers Are Abandoning Cheap Generics, and Now US Cancer Patients Can鈥檛 Get Meds
A quality-control crisis at an Indian pharmaceutical factory has left doctors and their patients with impossible choices as cheap, effective, generic cancer drugs go out of stock.
By Arthur Allen -
Tech Luminaries Give RFK Jr.鈥檚 Anti-Vaccine Message a Boost
The views of the leader of a broad anti-vaccine movement who is now running for president are unchallenged in public forums run by several prominent Silicon Valley figures.
By Darius Tahir Debt Deal Leaves Health Programs (Mostly) Intact
Episode 301The bipartisan deal to extend the U.S. government鈥檚 borrowing authority includes future cuts to federal health agencies, but they are smaller than many expected and do not touch Medicare and Medicaid. Meanwhile, Merck & Co. becomes the first drugmaker to sue Medicare officials over the federal health insurance program鈥檚 new authority to negotiate drug prices. Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, Lauren Weber of The Washington Post, and Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call join 杨贵妃传媒視頻 Health News鈥 chief Washington correspondent, Julie Rovner, to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews 杨贵妃传媒視頻 Health News senior correspondent Sarah Jane Tribble, who reported the latest 杨贵妃传媒視頻 Health News-NPR 鈥淏ill of the Month鈥 feature, about the perils of visiting the U.S. with European health insurance.
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Many People Living in the ‘Diabetes Belt’ Are Plagued With Medical Debt
The 鈥淒iabetes Belt,鈥 as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, comprises 644 mostly Southern counties where diabetes rates are high. Of those counties, 杨贵妃传媒視頻 Health News and NPR found, more than half also have high levels of medical debt.
When an Anti-Vaccine Activist Runs for President
Episode 299Robert F. Kennedy Jr.鈥檚 official entry into the presidential race poses a thorny challenge for journalists: how to cover a candidate who鈥檚 opposed to vaccines without amplifying misinformation. And South Carolina becomes the latest state in the South to ban abortion after roughly six weeks of pregnancy. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Rachel Cohrs of Stat, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join 杨贵妃传媒視頻 Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews 杨贵妃传媒視頻 Health News senior correspondent Aneri Pattani about her project to track the billions of dollars coming from opioid makers to settle lawsuits.
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This Panel Will Decide Whose Medicine to Make Affordable. Its Choice Will Be Tricky.
Colorado鈥檚 new Prescription Drug Affordability Board could cap what health plans and consumers pay for certain medications starting next year. The process will pit patient groups against one another.
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A More Aggressive FTC Is Starting to Target Drug Mergers and Industry Middlemen
Industry analysts are skeptical that Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan can win her first fight against a drug industry merger. It will be reviewed by a judge appointed by then-President Donald Trump.
By Arthur Allen -
Are US Prescription Drug Prices 10 Times Those of Other Nations? Only Sometimes
Sen. Bernie Sanders鈥 broad statement that some U.S. drug prices are 10 times those of other nations doesn鈥檛 paint the full picture. Studies we examined generally found that U.S. prices were two to four times those in other countries, not 10.
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A Rural County鈥檚 Choice: Use Opioid Funds to Pay Off Debt, or Pay Them Forward to Curb Crisis
Greene County, Tennessee, so far has received more than $2.7 million from regional and national settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors. But most of the money is not going to help people and families harmed by addiction.
The Crisis Is Officially Ending, but Covid Confusion Lives On
Episode 297The public health emergency declaration for covid-19 ends May 11, ushering in major changes in how Americans can access and pay for the vaccines, treatments, and tests particular to the culprit coronavirus. But not everyone will experience the same changes, creating a confusing patchwork of coverage 鈥 not unlike health coverage for other diseases. Meanwhile, outside advisers to the FDA formally recommended allowing a birth control pill to be sold without a prescription. If the FDA follows the recommendation, it would represent the first over-the-counter form of hormonal contraception. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Tami Luhby of CNN, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico join 杨贵妃传媒視頻 Health News鈥 Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus for 鈥渆xtra credit鈥 the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week they think you should read, too.
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PBMs, the Brokers Who Control Drug Prices, Finally Get Washington鈥檚 Attention
Drugmakers, pharmacies, and physicians blame pharmacy benefit managers for high drug prices. Congress is finally on board, too, but will it matter?
By Arthur Allen -
California Confronts Overdose Epidemic Among Former Prison Inmates
Individuals newly released from prison are 40 times as likely to die of opioid overdoses than members of the general population, researchers say. In response, California corrections officials aim to arm departing inmates with an antidote that can be used to reverse the effects of opioid poisoning.
By Don Thompson -
Colorado Becomes the First State to Ban So-Called Abortion Pill Reversals
The controversial practice of administering progesterone to people after they have taken the abortion pill mifepristone may be coming to an end in Colorado. Pills have emerged as the latest front in the war over abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer.
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Listen: How Are States Spending Money From the Opioid Settlements? It鈥檚 Not Easy to Know
杨贵妃传媒視頻 Health News senior correspondent Aneri Pattani appeared on NPR鈥檚 鈥1A鈥 on May 1 to discuss issues related to how opioid settlement funds are being distributed.