Mail-Back Envelopes Will Be Dispensed With Outpatient Opioid Scripts
The FDA will require manufacturers of opioid drugs that are dispensed in outpatient settings to provide prepaid mail-back envelopes to outpatient pharmacies and other dispensers, the agency announced Monday. The move is part of the FDA’s comprehensive approach to addressing the overdose crisis, according to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, MD. “We believe these efforts will […]
Opinion | Moderna’s Steep COVID Vaccine Price: Corporate Greed or Capitalism?
On May 11, the U.S. public health emergency (PHE) for COVID-19 will end. And with it, many Americans will no longer have access to free, government-sponsored COVID vaccines. Under the Public Health Service (PHS) Act, the U.S. government purchased and distributed COVID-19 vaccines for free to its populace, regardless of insurance or citizenship status. The […]
Opinion | ‘It Is a Horrifying Prospect’: What We Heard This Week
“It is a horrifying prospect that many more individuals could die because they will be forced to remain pregnant against their will.” — Jen Villavicencio, MD, of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, on how maternal mortality in the U.S. will likely be impacted by the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade. “Besides […]
MedPAC Considers Reference Pricing and Other Ideas for Cutting Part B Drug Costs
Congress will need to use a multipronged approach to bring down prescription drug costs in the Medicare Part B program, members of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) agreed at their March meeting on Thursday. MedPAC members discussed three draft recommendations being considered for inclusion in the commission’s June report to Congress. The recommendations addressed […]
Medical School Dating and Relationships 101
[embedded content] Some people will tell you that relationships during medical school are impossible. They’ll say that you don’t have enough time for romance and you should focus solely on your studies. But I disagree. Although medical school is incredibly demanding, to say that it’s impossible to have a healthy relationship during this time is […]
Accelerated Approval Not the Finish Line, Says FDA Commissioner
Drugmakers will no longer be able to slow-walk their accelerated approvals to full regulatory approval, said FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, MD, during the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on Tuesday, while also fielding questions on gene therapies and the modernization of clinical trials, among other topics. Accelerated Approval When asked about the kind of data needed […]
White House Drug Control Office Focused on Improving Treatment Access
Improving access to addiction treatment and disrupting the supply of illicit drugs will be the big goals this year for the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), according to its director, Rahul Gupta, MD, MPH. One big order of business will be to fully implement the Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment (MAT) Act, which was included […]
Opinion | Shouldn’t Doctors Be Paid for Responding to Health Portal Messages?
The Cleveland Clinic recently announced they will begin charging patients a fee for online correspondence with physicians through their online portal. Such fees are perhaps a necessary response to the ever-growing volume of portal messages, through which patients seek advice outside of the traditional structure of a billable visit. As a busy clinical cardiologist, my […]
Opinion | ‘Sit Down, Shut Up and Sign, Don’t Make Waves’: What We Heard This Week
“Some nursing homes and chains will hire medical directors to just do what I call the three S’s: Sit down. Shut up and sign. Don’t make waves.” — Karl Steinberg, MD, immediate past president of the Society for Post-Acute and Long Term Care Medicine, on a proposed bill requiring all 15,000 Medicare-approved nursing homes to […]
House Bill Would Fix Glitch in Medicare Non-Emergency Ambulance Transport Program
WASHINGTON — Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) will introduce a bill in the House on Thursday that is aimed at fixing problems with Medicare’s program for non-emergency ambulance transport for certain low-income beneficiaries, MedPage Today has learned. The Repetitive, Scheduled Non-Emergent Ambulance Transport (RSNAT) prior authorization model started in 2014 as a project of the Centers […]