The patient arrived in my clinic, their right big toe the color of a spring strawberry. The lightest touch caused exquisite pain. Fortunately, I was able to prescribe a pill (an ancient medicine, actually) and the patient was better by the next day.
Too bad that simple treatment is becoming unaffordable, through a maddening combination of greed and regulatory failure.
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Latuda is a drug to treat schizophrenia. It costs about $4,000 per month in the U.S. In Canada, the price is closer to $500.
Ibrance, a breast cancer drug, costs $10,000 more per month in the U.S. than in Canada.
Why these enormous price differences?
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How is a physician supposed to know which medicine is most affordable under which insurance plan?
Fortunately, there are tools coming into use designed to help clinicians figure out patient-specific costs of any medication they prescribe. The tools (jargon alert!) are called RTBTs, for real-time benefit tools.
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You wake up in the post-operative recovery area, still groggy, the full effects of the procedure obscured by an anesthetic haze. You begin to ponder several questions: Was the surgery a success? Did the surgeon find anything unexpected? How quickly will the procedure make you feel better?
There’s another question you might ask yourself. A few weeks from now, is anyone involved in your care going to send you a surprise bill?
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Could ACOs be costing us money?
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My visit to this well-intentioned dermatologist illustrates one of the flaws of this idea of consumer empowerment.
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Here is an awful thing about high deductible health plans: They delay breast cancer diagnosis and get in the way of proper breast cancer care.
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The problem with American healthcare is not the existence of greed.
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The US is rapidly becoming a high out-of-pocket healthcare system, often with disastrous results.
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American healthcare is ridiculously expensive.
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