KaloBios bows to the price pressure Gods (I’m quoted)
Pharma bad boy Martin Shkreli, formerly CEO of KaloBios Pharmaceuticals put the company in an uncomfortable spot with plans to jack the price of a drug for Chagas disease.
Today Fierce PharmaMarketing features me in its story explaining what’s going on at KaloBios and the implications for the broader industry. (In Shkreli’s aftermath, KaloBios vows fair pricing. Will others follow its lead?)
The company has really abased itself, essentially putting forward a plan to act like a non-profit. The industry as a whole won’t be following that maneuver! In the story I share my view that pharma has boxed itself i...
Source: Health Business Blog - April 13, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: dewe67 Tags: Pharma Policy and politics Source Type: blogs
The decline of white women ’ s health
The Washington Post (A great divide in American death: Statistics show widening urban-rural gap) examined death statistics and found that death rates for white women –especially rural white women– have been climbing fast. Key culprits? Self-destructive behavior such as over-eating, opioid abuse, heavy drinking, smoking, and suicide. White women still live longer than other groups, but the trend for them is bad.
According to the Post:
In at least 30 counties in the South, black women in midlife now have a lower mortality rate than middle-aged white women, The Post found. That’s up from a single such county ...
Source: Health Business Blog - April 12, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: dewe67 Tags: Culture Research Source Type: blogs
The decline of white women’s health
The Washington Post (A great divide in American death: Statistics show widening urban-rural gap) examined death statistics and found that death rates for white women –especially rural white women– have been climbing fast. Key culprits? Self-destructive behavior such as over-eating, opioid abuse, heavy drinking, smoking, and suicide. White women still live longer than other groups, but the trend for them is bad.
According to the Post:
In at least 30 counties in the South, black women in midlife now have a lower mortality rate than middle-aged white women, The Post found. That’s up from a single such county ...
Source: Health Business Blog - April 12, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: dewe67 Tags: Culture Research Source Type: blogs
Uber the ambulance chaser
Uber and to a lesser degree Lyft have decimated the taxi industry with a disruptive model that lowers costs, improves service, and identifies the few bad apples among drivers and passengers. Now both companies are venturing into a niche market that’s in need of serious reform: medical transportation.
Some patients need help to get to their medical appointments and Medicaid and Medicare step in as needed to pay for transportation. However, too often a patient is transported in an expensive limo or even an ambulance when a regular car would have been fine. The government recognizes the problem and has taken some ste...
Source: Health Business Blog - April 8, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: dewe67 Tags: Entrepreneurs Patients Technology Source Type: blogs
Health Wonk Review is up at Population Health Blog
Jaan Sidrov has done us all a favor by hosting a Presidential Politics-Free Health Wonk Review. Thanks, Jaan! My own recent edition may have been a bit too Trumpy.
In place of the candidates we have posts on the Affordable Care Act, mobile health, outcomes, pharma misbehavior, health savings accounts, the minimum wage, drug pricing and more.
Enjoy. (Source: Health Business Blog)
Source: Health Business Blog - April 7, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: dewe67 Tags: Announcements Blogs Source Type: blogs
Vision Zero: The poem
Oops, didn’t see that coming
My father, Allan F. Williams is a renowned highway safety expert, sometimes called the Grandfather of Graduated Licensing. He retired from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety as Chief Scientist in 2004.
Recently he told me about Vision Zero, a Swedish notion, now popular in the US, that there should be no deaths or serious injuries on the highways. But one problem with this idea is that about three-quarters of people think they are superior drivers and that the highway safety problem is due to the “other” driver.
He wrote a little poem to explain what’s happ...
Source: Health Business Blog - April 5, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: dewe67 Tags: Amusements Research Source Type: blogs
Is pharma industry too meek on pricing?
What were we thinking?
The biopharmaceutical industry has been under attack for some time for the high and rising prices of its products. Pressure has increased recently with the arrival of costly medications for oncology, hepatitis, high cholesterol and more. Expect even further pressure as more specialty drugs are introduced, and then really significant pushback once seriously costly innovations such as gene therapy come online.
I’ve noticed that the pool of people complaining about drug pricing is widening. Now, even doctors are picking up the megaphone. For example, the American College of Physicians (ACP...
Source: Health Business Blog - April 1, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: dewe67 Tags: Pharma Policy and politics Source Type: blogs
Health Wonk Review is up!
Check out the ACA Anniversary edition of the Health Wonk Review over at ACASignups. It’s a nice crisp edition (Source: Health Business Blog)
Source: Health Business Blog - March 25, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: dewe67 Tags: Announcements Source Type: blogs
