Category: Healthcare Reform

Healthcare Reform, Prescription Drugs
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Trump’s Speech on Drug Prices Boosts Pharmaceutical Stocks

President Donald Trump gave a speech about pharmaceutical drug prices last month. During his presidential campaign and leading up to his inauguration, he accused pharmaceutical companies with “getting away with murder” for what they charge patients for prescriptions and promised to enact reforms to lower drug prices. After sixteen months in office, his speech last month consisted of few proposals as opposed to proposing meaningful legislation or guidelines that could have an immediate effect on prescription costs and actually led to pharmaceutical stocks rising.   Trump took aim at Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) who he referred to as “middlemen” who […]

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Affordable Care Act, Awareness, Health, Healthcare Reform, Patient Assistance
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Women’s Health Week

This past Mother’s Day launched the 19th annual National Women’s Health Week. Led by the US Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health, the goal is to empower women to make their health a priority and raise awareness of the steps one can take to improve their health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends many common measures, such as proper health screenings, staying physically active, eating healthy, and promoting other healthy behaviors. Healthy behaviors include getting enough sleep, being smoke-free, washing your hands, not texting while driving, or wearing a seatbelt, a bicycle helmet, […]

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Healthcare Reform, Prescription Drugs, Specialty Drugs
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Getting out of the Weeds with Medicinal Cannabis

Medicinal cannabis (aka medical marijuana) is a growing topic in the United States. Today, there are 29 states (plus Washington DC) where cannabis is a legal medical option for patients. Cannabis is mostly prescribed for pain relief but can also be used to treat muscle spasms caused by multiple sclerosis, chemotherapy-induced nausea, lack of appetite from chronic illness, seizure disorders, Crohn’s disease, and more. However, cannabis exists in a legal gray area: while medicinally legal in a majority states, it is federally illegal and considered a Schedule I controlled substance by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)—defined as having no acceptable […]

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Drug Discount Card, Healthcare Reform, Prescription Drugs
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Laws Proposed to Protect Patients from Artificially High Prescription Costs

In a previous blog post, we explored “clawback” and how it affects the prices of prescriptions. In short, Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) negotiate copay prices for insurers that are often higher than the cash price paid by uninsured patients all while instituting a “gag rule” for pharmacists to forbid them from revealing the price discrepancy to patients unless asked directly. A number of states have already passed laws banning clawback and gag rules, though a group of bipartisan U.S. senators have introduced a bill the ban gag clauses for PBM-negotiated contracts nationwide. A recent study by Journal of the American […]

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Affordable Care Act, Awareness, Health, Healthcare Reform, Mental Health, Safety
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LGBT Health Awareness Week 2018

The last week of March has been LGBT Health Awareness Week since 2003. We have gone over some of the barriers to health care for some of the transgender community in previous blog posts, but it remains important to bring awareness to the unique healthcare needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and the health disparities that continue to beleaguer the lives of so many Americans. Experts report that LGBT people often avoid seeking out medical care or refrain from “coming out” to their healthcare provider. This compromises an entire community of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals who […]

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About Us

Welcome to the NeedyMeds Voice! We look forward to presenting you with timely, provocative pieces on healthcare reform, patient advocacy, medication and healthcare access, and other health-related news. Our goals are to educate, enlighten, and elucidate; together, we will try to make sense of the myriad and ongoing healthcare-related changes in the U.S. today.