Pharmaceutical makers issued drug price increases on more than 40 drugs by an average 13.1%; New York City's public hospital system will reject $1.3 million in federal funding over the Trump administration's gag rule; Virginia has announced efforts to lower maternal mortality among black women.
Twenty pharmaceutical makers opened up the month of July with price hikes on over 40 drugs by an average 13.1%. B. Braun Medical Inc. issued over a dozen price increases, including a more than 50% increase on its hospital-administered antibiotic cefazolin, which will now cost more than $9 a package. The drug, which has been on the market for decades, is currently in short supply. Amneal Pharmaceuticals, Fortovia Therapeutics, Cerecor issued price hikes of nearly 10% on some of their drugs. According to The Wall Street Journal, some of the biggest drug makers did not raise prices, but they could do so later this month. Last July, 16 drug makers raised list prices of drugs by an average 7.8%.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday that the city’s public hospital system will reject $1.3 million in federal funding over the Trump administration’s so-called “gag rule” that revokes Title X funds for clinics that perform abortion or make abortion referrals, reported Bloomberg. Currently, 22 New York City-based providers receive Title X funding for more than 50 centers throughout the city, including the 10 public hospitals that receive $1.3 million in funding under the program. The hospitals will continue to offer full reproductive care, according to de Blasio, who said no public hospital in the city will be prohibited from providing truthful advice to their patients.
The Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services has announced a new outreach program and other initiatives to try and lower the maternal mortality of black women, including technology upgrades to mitigate delays in healthcare treatment for pregnant women on Medicaid. The Associated Press reported that the agency also said that it’s trying to increase treatment for pregnant women with substance use disorders. The announcement comes a month after Governor Ralph Northam, D-Virginia, announced the goal of eliminating the racial disparity of mortality rates by 2025. African American mothers are 3.5 times more likely to die in childbirth, or shortly afterward, than white women.
Urticaria Diagnosis Challenged by Overlapping Pruritic Skin Conditions
April 23rd 2025Urticaria is complicated to diagnose by its symptomatic overlap with other skin conditions and the frequent misclassification in literature of distinct pathologies like vasculitic urticaria and bullous pemphigus.
Read More
New Research Challenges Assumptions About Hospital-Physician Integration, Medicare Patient Mix
April 22nd 2025On this episode of Managed Care Cast, Brady Post, PhD, lead author of a study published in the April 2025 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care®, challenges the claim that hospital-employed physicians serve a more complex patient mix.
Listen
Personalized Care Key as Tirzepatide Use Expands Rapidly
April 15th 2025Using commercial insurance claims data and the US launch of tirzepatide as their dividing point, John Ostrominski, MD, Harvard Medical School, and his team studied trends in the use of both glucose-lowering and weight-lowering medications, comparing outcomes between adults with and without type 2 diabetes.
Listen
ACOs’ Focus on Rooting Out Fraud Aligns With CMS Vision Under Oz
April 23rd 2025Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are increasingly playing the role of data sleuths as they identify and report trends of anomalous billing in hopes of salvaging their shared savings. This mission dovetails with that of CMS, which under the new administration plans to prioritize rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse.
Read More