News & Features

April, 2008

April edition of M.D. Pharmacy's monthly newsletter. Articles regarding your medications, their safety, and the politics behind the price you pay for them. Please share this with your neighbors.

Budget Proposes $560 Billion Cut in Medicare, but Insurance Companies' Subsidy Remains Intact

Government subsidies to insurance companies worth an estimated $150 Billion over the next decade will remain untouched, while the Bush administration would cut roughly $560 Billion in benefit money from the Medicare program over the same period. The Bush White House has fought congressional efforts to cut subsidized payments to insurers in the past, and argues in the new budget request that the "sweetheart" subsidies allow insurers to "offer beneficiaries greater choices and higher-quality health care". Without citing meaningful examples, the budget says that it "proposes to encourage greater individual responsibility for health care choices and costs". The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimates that the overpayments to insurers increase costs and will shorten the program's fiscal solvency by two years. (Wall Street Journal)

Proposal Would Increase Medicare Premiums

The Bush administration's proposal calls for reduced subsidies for single people with incomes greater than $82,000 and married couples with incomes greater than $164,000. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, said the proposal would unfairly shift more costs to seniors. Dingell was quoted saying "the President's idea for â€˜improving' the program is to stick the beneficiaries with more of the bill". (United Press International).

Heart Drug Compliance Saves Lives, Costs

A U.S. study found that 50 percent of heart patients significantly under-use medications to prevent recurrence of heart attacks, mainly because of cost. The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, found if heart attack survivors had full heart drug compliance,-average cost of the drugs is more than $400 per year-it could help heart attack survivors live longer, better lives and lower the nation's health-care costs. A combination of a beta-blocker, a statin, an angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitor (ACE inhibitor) and aspirin has reduced coronary heart disease death by 80 percent compared to placebo. (United Press International)

Medicare Advantage Plans Ripe for Fraud

Medicare Advantage plans can be an attractive solution for many seniors, but the plans are also ripe for fraud because the government gives private insurers generous subsidies to sign people up. To grab a lucrative share of the action, insurers pay agents commissions ranging from $60 to $80 for each person they enroll in a Part D prescription drug plan, but they get a whopping $400 to $500 for enrolling someone in a Medicare Advantage plan according to a report by the Medicare Rights Center. The result may be a hard sell, with agents pushing Medicare Advantage rather than Part D. Those commissions may be an incentive to commit fraud. Several incidents of fraudulent activities have already been recorded. (Kiplinger's Personal Finance)

FDA: More Foreign Inspectors Needed

The Food and Drug Administration needs more inspectors and a comprehensive computer database to better track products entering the United States from a growing number of drug manufacturers, brokers and distributors, said a top drug safety official to lawmakers. The FDA focuses its inspections on domestic companies, with about 1200 inspections annually in the U.S. Meanwhile, only about 300 foreign facilities are inspected each year, accounting for only about 10 percent of the firms shipping prescription drugs or their ingredients into the U.S. This small number of inspections seemed particularly relevant this month as a result of concerns about the blood thinner Heparin, which has been linked to four deaths, and adverse reactions in about 350 other patients. Millions of patients take the drug every year to avoid potentially life-threatening blood clots. The FDA was to have inspected the Chinese maker of an ingredient of the drug, but apparently inspected the wrong factory, and the wrong firm was entered into the FDA database. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., chairman of the panel responsible for funding the FDA called the case "embarrassing", but more than that, it helped demonstrate the FDA's "myriad failures under the Bush administration. (Associated Press)

The pharmacists and staff at M.D. Pharmacy, your neighborhood pharmacy.

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