Certain practices of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) have helped jack up drug prices to the point where many people can no longer afford their medications. For example, PBMs charge health plans considerably more for a drug than they pay pharmacies for the same medication. This “ingredient spread,” which generates much of the PBMs’ profits, results in health plans placing drugs into a higher-price tier. As a result, members’ copayments go up. Sometimes they’re higher than the cash prices for
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How Telemedicine is Transforming the Doctor-Patient Relationship
If telemedicine hasn’t revolutionized healthcare, it has certainly revamped it. It has extended providers’ reach to areas where care might not be readily available, and allowed patients much-needed access.Such convenience is the primary reason telemedicine -- defined as two-way, real-time interactive communication between a healthcare professional and a patient -- has taken hold, among not only among those in far-flung areas but those in urban settings where healthcare might be lacking. Cost is
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Is GDPR The Latest Call for the Healthcare Industry to Address Its Paper Problem?
After four years of extensive preparation and debate, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will go into effect on May 25, 2018. U.S. healthcare systems globally expanded or actively marketing and delivering care to EU patients will need to comply. While few U.S. healthcare providers have expanded globally, those that have include prominent organizations such as Johns Hopkins Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Mayo Clinic and UPMC. Other healthcare systems are likely
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How the Internet of Things is Revolutionizing Medical Adherence
Every day, doctors and medical researchers are challenged to find new, improved drugs and courses of treatment for chronic disease. But, what if the answer to improving health outcomes for many patients was simpler than developing new drugs? What if it was as simple as ensuring more patients stick to their treatment regimens?Medical non-adherence is a massive challenge all over the world. According to the World Health Organization, half of patients in long-term treatment for chronic illnesses
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Memo to Apple: Convenience is Key to Fixing US Healthcare
Millions of Americans have uncorrected vision impairment, costing billions and increasing other health risks. We have everything we need to help them – if we can just get them into the eye care systemThe news that Apple is forming its own network of health clinics to serve its employees set off a frenzy of speculation about how the world’s most valuable company might disrupt the archaic healthcare system. The excitement is certainly justified. Apple has a sterling track record of revolutionizing
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EMR Workflow Optimization: The Lynchpin to Ameliorating Physician Burnout
Healthcare have been transformed over the last decade as electronic medical records have been rolled out across America. Unfortunately, information technology has not yet fulfilled its immense promise. To a great extent, this is because most EMRs were designed primarily as giant billing systems. They were not conceived as patient care systems, and efforts to use them for patient care have been compromised by issues of usability and efficiency. Of equal concern have been the effects on morale
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5 Ways to Drive Healthcare Innovation That Will Deliver Better Care
Ensuring high-quality patient care for Americans remains a top priority for the government and health care providers alike. As such, effectively using data to better manage the healthcare system and deliver the best treatment will only become more critical — especially as the number of Americans ages 65 and older is projected to more than double from 46 million today to over 98 million by 2060, and the population overall is set to increase exponentially over the next 30 years. What does the
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The Day My Dad Got Cancer
Somehow, as a 20 year pediatrician, I have had a charmed life as it relates to the big C. Of course, my residency training at St Louis Children's Hospital had many months on the pediatric cancer wards, bone marrow transplant patients, the works. In my many years of general practice, cancer is but a tiny portion of my outpatient medicine experience. I read once that statistically we "get" a Pre-B Cell ALL every seven years. Poor little ones with T Cell Lymphoma, Burkitt's Lymphoma, and
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5 Tips for Protecting Your IoT-enabled Medical Devices
Research shows us that security breaches can greatly impact a healthcare organization’s reputation. Unfortunately, healthcare leaders are stuck in the cross hairs of consumers and hackers. While consumers want transparency, access to information and assurance their personal information will remain safe, hackers are busy compromising patient information at a faster speed than ever before.As healthcare IT organizations strive to become more accessible and “open” to support patient engagement
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The Often-Overlooked Role of Provider Data Management in Population Health
Editor’s Note: Erin Jospe, MD is the Chief Medical Officer at Kyruus, a leader in provider search and scheduling solutions, helping health systems optimize patient access enterprise-wide.Health systems today have access to a tremendous amount of data with which to understand their patient populations better. The population health movement represents a paradigm shift away from merely generating data, to now harnessing it as a means through which to understand the factors and determinants
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