Aug 6, 2019 | Federal Issues, Issues
WHAT IS ICER? An organization most patients never heard of is now hard at work determining whether recently approved drugs for serious and often life-threatening diseases should be covered by private health plans and made available to patients. Called the Institute...
Aug 6, 2019 | Federal Issues, Issues
The Issue Since 2003, the Medicare Part D drug benefit has provided prescription drug coverage to more than 44 million Americans, both seniors and those with disabilities.[1] This translates into one in eight Americans who now have access to a wide range of oral and...
Aug 6, 2019 | Issues, State Issues
The Issue To reduce patients’ spending on prescription drugs, both Congress and a number of states are considering legislation that would allow Americans to purchase supposedly much cheaper medicines from Canada and elsewhere, which could put Americans’ health and...
Aug 6, 2019 | Issues, State Issues
Although it is now possible to detect diseases earlier and treat them more effectively, the reality is many Americans are not getting timely access to the new technologies and improved therapies responsible for these gains. One reason has to do with prior...
Aug 6, 2019 | Issues, State Issues
In 2018, many insurers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) introduced copay accumulator programs to the American public, using such pleasant sounding names as “Out of Pocket Protection” and “Coupon Adjustment: Benefit Plan Protection” to lull consumers into believing...
Aug 6, 2019 | Issues, State Issues
Under a practice known as nonmedical switching, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) can force patients to change from a medication they rely on to a less costly and possibly less effective drug for financial reasons, not medical ones. PBMs accomplish this by dropping the...
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