“Health reform is pressuring employers, providers, insurers and pharmaceutical manufacturers to be more cost-conscious and accountable for costs, quality and performance,” PwC’s Michael Galper said in a statement, ”and they will need to work together to provide better, coordinated care, greater transparency in pricing and more patient-friendly practices.” I think some of the changes that are […]

Healthcare inflation has been slowed over the last two years by the weak economy, Thompson says, but as the economy recovers, costs are increasing too. “To some degree we have found that healthcare costs actually grow as a percentage of the economy during down cycles,” Thompson says. “Interestingly though, this year we found more of […]

Avandia was once the world’s best-selling diabetes pill. It boasted $3 billion in annual revenue. But by last year, that figure had dropped to $680 million, and in the future, GSK expects much less. As part of the new U.S. restrictions, GSK agreed not to market the drug at all, and with the risk-management program coming […]

The expense is huge. Last year, Americans and their insurers spent $307.4 billion on prescription medicines, according to IMS Health, which tracks data for the healthcare industry. Medco’s latest report offers a look at how generic versions of top-selling cholesterol-lowering drugs and anti-depressants will help limit overall spending increases in the coming years even as […]

Any means-testing program that actually saved money would need to affect the middle class as well as the hyper-affluent, and clearly “across-the-board co-payments and deductibles” are going to create a gap between the amount of care the government is willing to pay for and the amount of care that seniors want (and their doctors recommend). […]

Patrick told the packed Statehouse hearing that while the state’s 2006 universal health insurance law has been a “resounding success,” only by lowering costs for consumers, small businesses and municipalities will the state be able to continue its economic recovery. Maltz said Blue Cross’s goal is to make a small operating gain each quarter while […]

“That’s ultimately what the right to free healthcare would be. If you believe in a right to healthcare, you’re believing in basically the use of force to conscript someone to do your bidding.” Whether the person being conscripted is the actual healthcare provider or, say, a construction worker, the fruits of whose labor are being […]

One of Obamacare’s main goals is to cut costs — President Obama has said so repeatedly. Because Medicare is such a big dog in health care, and the government’s single largest toe-hold in the industry, Obama was counting on using it to shape providers’ behavior in the direction of cutting costs. So far, their efforts […]

Approximately, 3,000 people a year are diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma in the United States. The incidence of mesothelioma has increased in recent decades. Many of people who develop mesothelioma worked in occupations that exposed them to asbestos dust, though the disease symptoms typically don’t appear for 20 to 40 years. Radical Surgery The U.K. Mesothelioma […]

Consistent with previous years, over 75 percent of total drug spend was associated with medications used for the treatment of pain. Narcotic analgesics continued to lead overall spending; however, other medication classes, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and skeletal muscle relaxants were used earlier in the course of therapy compared to narcotics. Also of note […]