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Millions To Be Made On…Generic Drugs?
It is well accepted among health economics wonks that the lion’s share of pharmaceutical company profits come when these companies hold exclusive rights to their products. Once their blockbuster pills go “generic,” competitors enter the marketplace and profits plummet. Consider captopril, a groundbreaking heart failure medication introduced in the early 80s by Bristol-Myers Squibb under…
Tough decision? Take it piece by piece
Brian Zikmund-Fisher took the lead on a study published this week in which we found evidence that when people face tough decisions, it helps for them to break the decision into smaller pieces, and take it one step at a time. Here is a link to some media coverage in India.
Time To Take Tax Breaks Away From Non-Profit Hospitals
Many wealthy nonprofit hospitals provide surprisingly little charitable care.
Should Your Doctor Talk With You About the Cost of Your Pills?
In the last few decades, medical schools have been teaching us doctors to inform patients about their treatment alternatives, so our patients can pick the alternative that best fits with their individual values. Which raises the question: Should doctors take the time to figure out the cost of treatment alternatives and communicate such information to…
When Less is More
Here is a news article discussing a paper I wrote with Michael Volk, in which we try to find ways to keep doctors from harming patients by finding and then getting all worked up over what we in medicine call incidentalomas–unexpected and ultimately benign findings that show up with unnecessary tests. The article is in the Archives of Internal Medicine this week.
American Healthcare Prices -Simply Outrageous
When it comes to healthcare spending, the U.S. is without peer. Consider the 20 countries making up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (called the OECD by the cool kids). The organization includes countries like Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, and the Czech Republic. Oh also Finland, France, Germany…you get the idea. It also…