Pharmaceuticals

Complaints from patient groups and increased regulatory oversight appear to be leading to changes in the way some marketplace health plans cover expensive drugs.

When a special coating was added to the opioid Opana, it deterred people from abusing the pills by crushing and snorting them. But some users soon learned how to prepare the pills for injection.

Two academics suggest that loans financed by the private sector could be one way to help patients cover the cost of expensive, curative pharmaceuticals. Think mortgages.

Seconal used to cost less than $200 a bottle. After Valeant Pharmaceuticals bought the medication, the cost rose to $3,000. Advocates for aid in dying say that's a burden for the terminally ill.

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.

The giant health insurer says Express Scripts, a manager of drug benefits, should be passing along more of the savings it negotiates with drugmakers.

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.

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.

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.