Coupons for Prescription Drugs: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Drug Coupons Explained We encourage and help anyone we can to obtain a coupon for their prescriptions.. We know, however, that there are emerging issues with them. Some background  Drug manufacturers have some amazing but expensive medications. They have created...

Pharmacy Coupons and Insurance Companies Making Adjustments

This is an example of one Ohio company adjusting how they administer coupons people use at the pharmacy.  The program helps make sure members’ out-of-pocket cost for prescription drugs are properly applied to deductibles and maximum out-of-pocket amounts. The benefit...

Using An Old Opening Joke Line To Illustrate Costs In Healthcare

We have all heard jokes that begin with “Three guys walk into a bar….” I thought it might make sense to use that model to explain why “referenced-based pricing” and general consumer awareness in healthcare are important to consider. Here...

THE LAW OF DISPROPORTIONATE COSTS: SMALL NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES ACCOUNT FOR LION’S SHARE OF GROUP HEALTH PLAN MEDICAL COSTS

There’s plenty of cost related analytics available to support the disproportionate cost premise that medical expenses are highly concentrated among a very small proportion of enrolled employees.  These highlights, for example, from a Agency for Healthcare Research and...

If You Want A Pragmatic Understanding of the Opioid Epidemic You May Want to Listen to This

This post follows up on last week’s primer on how abuse of prescription pain medications has led to what’s now recognized as a true national crisis. The new podcast Embedded provides a riveting inside look at how the use of one particularly powerful prescription...

Pain Meds and The Opioid Epidemic: 10 Things To Know

There’s a lot in the news these days about what’s referred to as the opioid crisis or epidemic. Just yesterday for instance —  highly respected healthcare consultant (and close friend) Joe Paduda, fresh off of speaking at a national drug summit in Atlanta, wrote...