For Chronic Low Back Pain, Mindfulness Can Beat Painkillers
Meditation can help relieve chronic back pain, and so can cognitive behavioral therapy, a study finds. But good luck getting insurance to pay for it.
Pharmaceuticals
Anthem Sues Express Scripts For A Bigger Slice Of Drug Savings
The giant health insurer says Express Scripts, a manager of drug benefits, should be passing along more of the savings it negotiates with drugmakers.
Seniors Face Higher Drug Costs As Coinsurance Becomes More Common
How coinsurance hurts: If a drug costs $200, a patient may owe 20 percent of the cost, or $40, instead of a flat copayment of $20. The higher the cost of the drug, the bigger the coinsurance bite.
Cancer And Arthritis Drugs Drive Up Spending On Medicines
Patients switching to generic medicines and hard bargaining with drugmakers helped moderate spending on prescription drugs in 2015, according to Express Scripts, a manager of drug benefits.
Medicare Looks To Cut Drug Costs By Changing How It Pays Doctors
The agency plans to reduce the incentive for doctors to use the most expensive drugs and link prices to patient outcomes, perhaps paying less when patients have to be admitted to a hospital.
High Costs For Drugs Used By A Few Are Starting To Add Up
A cystic fibrosis drug that is expected to be taken by only a few hundred people may drain almost $36 million from California's general fund over two fiscal years.
A Peek Inside Turing Pharmaceuticals: 'Another $7.2 Million. Pow!'
Congressional investigators have pried loose emails showing how the company's executives anticipated huge profits from a 5,000 percent drug price increase. They were blindsided by the blowback.
Modest Price Cut Expected For Generic Version Of Cancer Pill Gleevec
The generic form of the blockbuster cancer drug is being shipped to pharmacies. The generic is likely to cost 30 percent less than the brand-name version, but Gleevec's price doubled in recent years.
States Deny Pricey Hepatitis C Drugs To Most Medicaid Patients
Effective treatments for hepatitis C cost as much as $95,000. Medicaid in many states, including Indiana, is mostly limiting the drugs' use to very advanced cases. ACLU of Indiana is suing the state.
Hepatitis Drug Among The Most Costly For Medicaid
A Senate investigation finds that Medicaid programs in 33 states spent more than $1 billion on the hepatitis C drug Sovaldi in a single year.