How can the U.S. government lower the high price of prescription drugs? Entrepreneur Mark Cuban may have the answers.
Medicare could have saved nearly $4 billion in 2020 by purchasing generic drugs at the same prices offered by Cost Plus Drug Company, Cuban's online pharmacy that launched this year, according to a study published Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
The study"does show that Medicare is overpaying for some of the generic drugs," said Dr. Hussain Saleem Lalani, a researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and the study’s lead author."And this is a conservative estimate, so the actual savings are likely higher.” Juliette Cubanski, deputy director of the program on Medicare policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said the study certainly raised the question of whether Medicare plans are leaving money on the table, and could be getting better deals on drugs.Right now, price negotiation is “just a completely black box. There’s not a lot of transparency,” she said.
However, making changes that could tackle the problems of generic drug pricing has not been the primary focus of policymakers, Cubanski said. That’s because the kinds of medications patients usually struggle to pay for are brand-name drugs.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Mark Ingram Praises Saints for Keeping Team ‘DNA’ With Dennis Allen HireMark Ingram believes keeping the coaching change in-house was important for the Saints
Read more »
Political commentator and columnist Mark Shields dies at 85Political commentator and columnist Mark Shields, who shared his insight into American politics and wit on “PBS NewsHour” for decades, has died.
Read more »
Yankees’ Clay Holmes breaks Mariano Rivera’s scoreless innings markYankees' Clay Holmes breaks Mariano Rivera's scoreless innings mark
Read more »
Chicago-Area Residents Mark Juneteenth With Celebrations and Service ProjectsJuneteenth marks the day in 1865 when the Emancipation Proclamation was brought to enslaved people in Texas — more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued it, and Chicago-area residents are marking the holiday in a wide variety of ways this weekend.
Read more »
Mark Shields, Political Commentator and Columnist, Dies at 85Shields was a regular on the show starting in 1987, the year the show began, and stepped down from his regular Friday night discussion segment in December 2020.
Read more »
Political Commentator and Columnist Mark Shields Dies at 85Political commentator and columnist Mark Shields, who shared his insight into American politics and wit on “PBS NewsHour” for decades, died Saturday. He was 85. Shields died at his Chevy Chase, Maryland, home, from kidney failure, “PBS NewsHour” spokesman Nick Massella said. Shields was a regular on the show starting in 1987, the year the show began, and stepped down…
Read more »