Electronic prescribing resulted in greater generic and formulary drug use, according to Crystal Chang, PharmD, and colleagues at Blue Shield of California, San Francisco. It also led to an average cost savings of 17.3% for both the member and the payer. More »
Common behaviors of patients taking prescription drugs, such as forgetfulness and procrastination, may result in wasteful spending of $163 billion annually, according to the recently released 2009 Drug Trend Report from Express Scripts. More »
As publicly funded health care payment programs have grown over decades because of demographic shifts and expansion of coverage, comparative effectiveness research (CER) has emerged to address value in health care. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2008 (ARRA) included $1.1 billion for CER initiatives, and the new health care legislation created the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, which will be funded with $500 million or more annually. In these efforts exist the... More »
The pharmaceutical industry aggressively supported efforts to pass health care reform, even pledging to trim drug costs by $80 billion.1 In addition, it pumped millions of dollars into lobbying and ad campaigns to push the legislation to a successful conclusion, even joining with groups such as Families USA, which ironically spent years attacking drug makers in the early part of the decade.2 More »
In the United States, it has been estimated that 7.8% of the total population has diabetes. In 2007, the direct medical expenditures for diabetes were about $116 billion and the total direct and indirect costs were $174 billion, according to the CDC.1 More »
