The Medical Care Blog is preparing for its full return later this month. Until then, we are continuing to highlight articles published by our contributors on timely topics. A federal bill currently looms that would allow Medicare to begin negotiating drug prices for the very first time. Even though it would begin with only 10 drugs, this would expand over time, and would dramatically lower costs and spending for the federal government and Medicare’s enrollees. In light of this, we highlight five of our posts that offer helpful perspectives on prescription drugs in the U.S.
Prescription drug advertising: viewer beware by Eunice Zhang
In 2018, Dr. Zhang explained how the U.S. is the only developed country to allow direct-to-consumer drug advertising. She argues that the ethics of such ads comes down to information asymmetry. Who should educate the public: a for-profit drug company or a for-profit medical provider?
The second decade of Medicare Part D: Time to modernize? by Fang He et al
In 2021, Dr. He and colleagues at RTI International highlighted how Medicare drug spending had doubled over a ten-year period. These were driven by higher utilization and higher prices. As a result, Medicare began a five-year test of a strategy to reduce these costs. They review the key components of the modernization and its early results.
Part D senior savings: Medicare’s new approach to paying for insulin by Benjamin Silver et al
Written in 2021, Dr. Silver and colleagues described a unique strategy that Medicare launched to help with drugs costs for seniors with diabetes. The plan assures that patients can receive insulin at no more than $35 per month, but the holes that the plan patches and how it does this are not easy to understand. This articles explains these complexities in detail.
Medication overload: The drug epidemic that no one is talking about by Shannon Brownlee and Judith Garber
In 2019, Ms. Brownlee and Ms. Garber of the Lown Institute described the problems associated with our national dependence on prescription drugs. They reminded us that about 40% of older adults are taking at least 5 prescription medications. And their writing emphasized that the “pill for every ill” culture in the U.S. has some major implications for our health and health care spending.
How do physicians learn about medication safety information? by Suzanne West and colleagues.
Dr. West and colleagues from RTI International wrote this post in 2019. They described a partnership with the Food and Drug Administration to understand whether and how doctors encounter communications about drug safety. The bottom line is that most physicians find keeping up with medication safety information overwhelming.