As the nomination of Dr. Robert Califf to head the federal Food and Drug Administration advances, he and the agency already are confronting a major regulatory crisis over Aduhelm, a prescription drug targeted for Alzheimer’s treatment and approved on the thinnest of evidence. An FDA sister agency, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS),….
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Poor FDA communication harms patients, taxpayers, other agencies
Critics are slamming the federal Food and Drug Administration for dropping the ball in informing the U.S. officials who run the Medicare, Medicaid, and veterans’ health programs about crucial regulatory decisions, leading the federal government apparently to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for patients to get a defective heart device and potentially to pay….
Continue ReadingGood news in ’22: Patients mostly see end to ‘surprise’ medical bills
Here’s a bit of good news that may make patients jump for joy to start off 2022: Surprise medical bills mostly are supposed to end, effective Jan. 1. Consumers still must watch out for potential big hits on their emergency transportation costs and they will need to ensure scheduled services with medical providers occur “in….
Continue ReadingHospices a hot investment as profiteers seek a buck to life’s very end
Profit-raking private investors, aka hedge funders, have taken aim at operations intended to help the elderly, desperately ill, and grievously injured experience a dignified death. The rapacious takeover of the hospice industry nationwide ought to be setting off political and regulatory alarms in a rapidly graying nation. As is typically the case when MBA-driven interests….
Continue ReadingSenator from small, poor state roils big plan to improve U.S. health
Record numbers of poor, working poor, and middle-class Americans are signing up to receive federal help to get affordable insurance to safeguard their health and finances. But will congressional politicking cost them this invaluable coverage — just before the nation goes to the polls for midterm elections? For months now, President Biden and the Democrats….
Continue ReadingU.S. panel rips drug prices as ‘unsustainable, unjustifiable, unfair’
Regular folks have known it, chapter and verse, forever. They experience it every time they pay for their prescription drugs. But Democrats in the U.S. House report in a 269-page study that they have spent three years on, have concluded that Big Pharma runs a world-class cash-raising racket that would make street crooks blush. Well,….
Continue ReadingShots and boosters get yet more emphasis as Omicron spreads
The steady, global spread of the Omicron variant and the huge uncertainty about what menace it may pose also may provide a powerful prod for anyone still fence-sitting to finally get those coronavirus vaccinations, including booster shots. Experts are furiously researching and may not know for weeks or longer whether Omicron will be worse than….
Continue ReadingIn year-end crunch, Senate weighs Biden plan for health care boost
Leave it to lawmakers on Capitol Hill to wait until the year’s end to take up a major package pushed by congressional Democrats and the Biden Administration and that could potentially improve Americans’ health — big time. The machinations by which the proponents hope to pass the “Build Back Better” program have, sadly and significantly,….
Continue ReadingFDA under renewed fire over dubious approval of Alzheimer’s drug
Taxpayers and patients are suffering the rising negative consequences of the federal Food and Drug Administration’s dubious decision to overrule its own independent expert advisors and to approve on scant evidence Aduhelm. It is a prescription drug targeting Alzheimer’s disease, and concerns are rising about the medication’s safety and costs, not to mention whether it….
Continue ReadingWorkers lose more ground as health insurance costs keep creeping up
Most Americans get their health insurance through their jobs, and that coverage continues to increase in cost with the average annual premiums in 2021 exceeding $22,200 for families and $7,700 for individuals — a 4% rise from 2020. The price increases affecting 155 million non-elderly people with employer-provided coverage, as detailed in the annual Kaiser….
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