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Study finds dramatic decreases in antibiotic dispensing for children during the pandemic

As children made fewer visits to health facilities and engaged in social distancing and other COVID-19 mitigation measures, a smaller number of them also received prescription drugs, a new study suggests.

20 Jul 2021

Sen. Wyden: $3.5T budget may have to trim but it can set a path to ‘ambitious goals’

Exactly what American health care will look like if Democrats can pass their $3.5 trillion spending plan is unclear, but the senator negotiating its health-related provisions hopes what emerges will be dramatic: the first complete health care system for older Americans and significantly reduced costs for everyone else.

20 Jul 2021

Biden’s July executive order includes drug pricing provisions. But will they do enough?

President Joe Biden's executive order of July 9 included various steps toward making good on campaign promises to take on pharmaceutical companies by allowing the importation of prescription drugs and curbing the high cost of medicines.

19 Jul 2021

Senate Democrats’ plan boosts spending on Medicare, ACA subsidies, long-term care

The budget package Democrats are assembling in Congress would likely provide the biggest jolt to the American health care system since the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, according to sources familiar with work on the plan.

15 Jul 2021

As Congress wrestles with plans to expand Medicare, Becerra says any one will do

The Biden administration will support whatever expansions to Medicare Congress is willing to make, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Tuesday.

13 Jul 2021

Studies provide new evidence of impact of drug price hikes on U.S. patients

Two recent studies led by researchers from the University of Minnesota Medical School add new evidence to the impact of how drug price increases affect U.S. patients and the overall cost of health care.

21 Jun 2021

Drug rebates were associated with higher out-of-pocket costs for patients

Federal agencies that regulate drug pricing and healthcare insurance are concerned that an industry practice of using rebates to lower drug costs for insurers has led to increases in list prices and out-of-pockets costs for patients.

16 Jun 2021

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: The drug price dilemma

The high cost of prescription drugs is among consumers' top health policy issues, according to public opinion polls.

3 Jun 2021

Colorado lawmakers wage multifront assault on high drug costs

Tired of waiting for federal action to reduce prescription drug costs, Colorado is acting on its own — even if it must do so with one arm tied behind its back.

25 May 2021

Medicare negotiation could save billions of dollars in lower commercial health insurance costs by 2030

As Congress considers legislation to reform prescription drug pricing, a new analysis conducted by the West Health Policy Center and released by its Council for Informed Drug Spending Analysis (CIDSA) estimates that the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act (H.R. 3) could result in hundreds of billions of dollars in lower commercial health insurance costs by 2030.

20 May 2021

Case study examines prescriptions and healthcare use in non-hospitalized COVID-19 recoverers

In a new study published in The Lancet, a team of researchers examined prescription drug and healthcare use after SARS-CoV-2 infection in those who did not require hospital admission.

12 May 2021

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Sharing vaccines with the world

The Biden administration — keeping a campaign promise — announced it would back a temporary waiver of patent protections for the covid-19 vaccines, arousing the ire of the drug industry.

6 May 2021

Fear of losing employer-sponsored health insurance keeps 1 in 6 workers in their jobs

One out of every six adult workers (16%) in the United States are staying in jobs they might otherwise leave out of fear of losing their employer-sponsored health insurance, according to a new West Health-Gallup survey of more than 3,800 U.S. adults.

6 May 2021

Hit by higher prices for gear, doctors and dentists want insurers to pay

Treating patients has become more expensive during the pandemic, and doctors and dentists don't want to be on the hook for all the new costs.

5 May 2021

Covid shot in the arm not enough to keep pharmacies in business

Tobin's pharmacy and department store had already stocked its shelves with Easter and Mother's Day items last spring, and the staff had just placed the Christmas orders.

5 May 2021

Democrats disagree about how to spend potential prescription drug windfall

One of the few surprises in President Joe Biden's social safety-net proposal, the American Families Plan, was something that didn't make it into the final version: any mention of reining in the price of prescription drugs.

4 May 2021

Novel non-opioid approach to relieve pain after knee surgery

A new study by Henry Ford Health System published in Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic and Related Surgery may signal a first step toward eliminating the use of opioids to relieve pain after knee surgery.

26 Apr 2021

Shifts in care due to COVID-19 pandemic likely to drive drug expenditures in 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic heavily influenced spending on prescription drugs in the U.S. in 2020, according to the ASHP's (American Society of Health-System Pharmacists) National Trends in Prescription Drug Expenditures and Projections for 2021.

21 Apr 2021

The FDA seeks a new way to review old drugs without causing prices to soar

Chuck Peterson of Omaha, Nebraska, recently experienced a swollen, painful knuckle caused by arthritis. He got a prescription for colchicine.

15 Apr 2021

Researchers propose new solutions to fill gaps in Medicare coverage

"Near-poor" Americans-;people just above the federal poverty level but still well below the average U.S. income-;who rely on Medicare for health insurance face high medical bills and may forgo essential health care, according to new research led by health policy scientists at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

6 Apr 2021