Dear Secretary Becerra: I understand folks in your vast Department of Health and Human Services are planning to tighten up the regulations around prescription drug advertisements. It seems they’ve decided some of the ads don’t do a good enough job explaining the potential side effects of the drugs they want us to talk to our doctors about–or at least that the images and music in some ads can be too distracting.
Direct to consumer market for medicines in the U.S. is a $10b a year industry. On top of the billions in stock buy backs each year, on top of $20m salaries+ bonuses for pharma CEOs. The whole health care system needs to be burned to the ground and recreated to benefit the public.
I am a pharmacist in a community pharmacy. My boss had me review a remittance of claims from CVS Caremark Medicare advantage plans last week. There were $12,000 in claims paid. CVS Caremark charged $20,000 in pnr fees. What are pnr fees you ask? Proactive Not Reactive fees. CVS Caremark wants to impose adherence policy on patients comsuming blood pressure meds, Statins for cholesterol and diabetes meds.
They have workers working remotely monitoring whether people are getting refills on time.
They used to charge pharmacies fees if we billed too early before 30 days.
Now they charge pnr Prosctive Not Reactive Fees if we don't refill and call the customer by 31 or 32 days; even if the medication is not needed any more.
CVS Caremark also announced they want to charge our pharmacy an additional $71,000 over the next trimesters this year; in other words they plan to keep our money for every prescription.
All to make sure pts adhere to therapy even if adherence is detrimental for them; like if they advance to needing pain meds or psych meds or diabetes meds or chemo as a result of taking statins.
Wendell - what are you suggesting seniors choose that's affordable to supplement basic Medicare? Should they be so fortunate as to be able to avoid something besides Medicare Advantage plans. Like United? Or Humana? Or Kaiser? Seriously want to know.
You are correct. I pay $217 a month for my Medicare Supplement Plan. This is in addition to my $165 for Medicare Part B and over $30 a month for Medicare Part D Drug Plan. This is currently $412 per month. I don’t know how much longer I can afford this. The only answer is to upgrade Medicare to cover 100% instead of just 80%. Actually our Healthcare System is seriously broken for just about everyone.
It's working just the way it was built. As long as politicians can take money from the very companies they are supposed to be regulating, a la Citizens United, nothing is going to change.
Direct to consumer market for medicines in the U.S. is a $10b a year industry. On top of the billions in stock buy backs each year, on top of $20m salaries+ bonuses for pharma CEOs. The whole health care system needs to be burned to the ground and recreated to benefit the public.
I would say the health care FINANCE system needs to be burned to the ground.
I am a pharmacist in a community pharmacy. My boss had me review a remittance of claims from CVS Caremark Medicare advantage plans last week. There were $12,000 in claims paid. CVS Caremark charged $20,000 in pnr fees. What are pnr fees you ask? Proactive Not Reactive fees. CVS Caremark wants to impose adherence policy on patients comsuming blood pressure meds, Statins for cholesterol and diabetes meds.
They have workers working remotely monitoring whether people are getting refills on time.
They used to charge pharmacies fees if we billed too early before 30 days.
Now they charge pnr Prosctive Not Reactive Fees if we don't refill and call the customer by 31 or 32 days; even if the medication is not needed any more.
CVS Caremark also announced they want to charge our pharmacy an additional $71,000 over the next trimesters this year; in other words they plan to keep our money for every prescription.
All to make sure pts adhere to therapy even if adherence is detrimental for them; like if they advance to needing pain meds or psych meds or diabetes meds or chemo as a result of taking statins.
Wendell - what are you suggesting seniors choose that's affordable to supplement basic Medicare? Should they be so fortunate as to be able to avoid something besides Medicare Advantage plans. Like United? Or Humana? Or Kaiser? Seriously want to know.
You are correct. I pay $217 a month for my Medicare Supplement Plan. This is in addition to my $165 for Medicare Part B and over $30 a month for Medicare Part D Drug Plan. This is currently $412 per month. I don’t know how much longer I can afford this. The only answer is to upgrade Medicare to cover 100% instead of just 80%. Actually our Healthcare System is seriously broken for just about everyone.
It's working just the way it was built. As long as politicians can take money from the very companies they are supposed to be regulating, a la Citizens United, nothing is going to change.