Category: Healthcosts

JGrimes
Amid all the ink going to what the proposed health-care overhaul would do, we wanted to note an easy-to-overlook provision that it won’t do: eliminate many so-called pay-for-delay deals.
Those are the oft-criticized pacts under which branded drug makers give something to generic makers stall cheaper copycat versions coming on the market. The deals, […]

JGrimes
One of the most contentious front lines in the health-care cost wars is between hospitals and private insurers. That battle zone has gotten particularly hot in recent contract negotiations over reimbursement rates that hospitals are demanding from the insurers.
“We’ve never seen the kind of increases we’re seeing right now” from hospitals, Aetna President […]

JGrimes
The Congressional Budget Office has finished its preliminary run-through of cost numbers for the latest — and perhaps final — version of the Democratic health plan before it comes to an expected vote as early as Sunday. Democrats liked what they saw and President Obama again delayed an Asia trip to […]

JGrimes
Remember that investors meeting that WellPoint had planned in Indianapolis last month? The one that was canceled when CEO Angela Braly was summoned before a congressional committee to explain her company’s requested 39% rate hike in California?
Well, it resurfaced in the form of a 15-minute conference call this morning. Here’s what happened:
CFO […]

JGrimes
This post by WSJ’s Naftali Bendavid also appears on the Washington Wire blog.
We’re not doing anything wrong. And besides, the Republicans did it more.
That was much of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s message today as he struck back at critics of the legislative tactics Democrats are using to push through their health overhaul […]

JGrimes
The number of Americans without health insurance could rise to almost 60 million by 2015 from 49 million today if nothing is done to overhaul the health-care system, a new forecast says.
The uninsured could reach more than 67 million in 10 years, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which paid for the […]

JGrimes
Some wrinkles in the health-overhaul orchestrations are in the news this morning:
Washington Democrats are working on an idea to pair the health-care bill bill with another Democratic priority of increasing federal aid for college students. The notion isn’t a firm plan, but as Senate Budget Committee head Kent Conrad told the Washington Post, […]

JGrimes
Fast-growing spending on imaging tests in Massachusetts gives a closeup view to the many-sided question of whether improved technology is really worth the extra cost.
The facts, as laid out by the Boston Globe this morning: Spending on MRIs, mammograms, and other imaging tests for privately insured Massachusetts residents jumped 20%, or $214 million, […]

JGrimes
The Orphan Drug Act has been around since 1983 offering tax incentives and competition protection for drugs aimed at treating rare diseases. But there have been relatively few orphan drugs developed, so the FDA is beating the bushes for more participation.
FDA staffers recently ran a two-day workshop in Claremont, Calif., to help drug […]

JGrimes
It’s crunch time in the fight over a health-care bill, so groups for and against the legislation are getting ready for a final push before congressional votes that could come later this month.
These efforts take money, of course, and advocate groups have put together war chests, much of it slated to go to […]