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Drug companies are sitting on generics—43% of recently approved aren't for sale
Of the more than 1,600 generic drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration since January of 2017, more than 700—or 43 percent—are not for sale in the US, according to a new analysis by Kaiser Health News.
The finding means that many pricy, brand-name drugs are not facing the competition that could help drive down soaring prices. Among the drugs missing in action are generic versions of the expensive blood thinner Brilinta and the HIV medication Truvada. Moreover, of the approved drugs that would offer a brand-name drug its first competition, 36 percent are being held off the market, the analysis found.
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Drug Companies are Sitting on Generics—43% of Recently Approved Aren’t for Sale
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If bankers can count, how come they have eight windows and only four tellers?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Monday February 11 2019, @01:59AM (1 child)
I fought the hospital for a year over that bill. Demanded the line item break down. Questioned their numbers, the items, the insurance adjustments. The bill just seemed too high. Their fantasy list price was $21k. Insurance adjusted it to about $4k, and I was on the hook for the entire amount thanks to the $6k deductible a lot of insurance plans have. They told me that if I didn't have insurance, they would discount the price a whopping 86%, for a bill of about $2.5k. Medicare says the services they provided were actually worth a bit under $300. I learned of medical billing advocates, and they pointed out 1 error in the bill, for a savings of $150. Weirdest of all was radically different prices for the same things. For 3 $2 bags of saline solution for which the hospital charged $307 each, insurance adjusted them to $150, $64, and $27 respectively. I wanted to know how that was not a mistake, and no one could explain it. It's their business to know, and they didn't. On 3 different calls to insurance, got 3 different wrong explanations by call center flunkies who pretended they knew. The many other times I called, they admitted they couldn't explain it either. I finally took the hints, and told the hospital to shove their insane bills. I paid what Medicare said their services were worth. I also finally heard from elsewhere what I think is the correct explanation, and I decided that if that was so, I did not agree with the system, and was not going to pay their prices regardless.
I realize that's a lot more effort than most people are willing or able to devote. Most of all, people would rather just believe in doctors, take them at their word that the medical organizations are asking a fair price, though they really do know better. I was even castigated for being "ungrateful". I was asked how could I cheat the doctors, as if they were holy ones, and questioning the bill was akin to stealing money from the collection plate at church on Sunday.
Another fight I fought was a red light camera ticket. I asked for a hearing, knowing that the system was rigged and I was unlikely to see any justice. What I was really aiming for was to deny them any profit. The cost of holding a hearing was very likely quite a bit more than the fine, and I understood the real motivation behind the system was money, safety be damned. Nevertheless, I prepared evidence of their cheating. The light was improperly timed, and I brought along proof of that. The judge wouldn't even look at my evidence, it was outside the scope of the hearing, and ruled against me. Said that I could pursue the matter of improper timing in municipal court. I decided against that. Had played their game quite enough and wasn't willing to go further with that mockery of justice, not in their own muni court, no way. If I was going to do that, I'd want a court outside their jurisdiction. Instead, I boycotted the city. I don't shop there any more.
So that's a sample of the sorts of things citizens ought to do. If a lot more citizens fought back against these sorts of injustices, many of these corrupt money grabs would collapse under their own expenses.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday February 11 2019, @07:00AM
I think in a lot of cases, they overcharge so they can negotiate down, and to try to cover some of the costs of indigent people who don't have anything they can collect. At least they provided medical care, though. Your insurance, though, all they do is have a computer spit out random numbers and then justify them with bad explanations.*
Seems like this is exactly the kind of thing local news is good at exposing, especially since they sometimes have to look for stories that aren't already all over the Internet already.
* Maybe it was a buy-one, get the next two cheap sale-ine.