drugs
ICER seeks nominations for New England Comparative Effectiveness voting panel
The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review has opened nominations for membership on their New England Comparative Effectiveness Public Advisory Council. New England CEPAC meets three times each year in public forums across the region to assess the evidence for treatments for specific conditions with input from stakeholders including patients affected by the condition. In…
Read MoreBipartisan Insurance Committee forum finds a lot of consensus on potential reforms
Download the CTHPP presentation Yesterday the Chairs and Ranking Members of the Insurance Committee convened a forum on potential reforms to lower healthcare costs. Legislators invited David Seltz from the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission. Connecticut speakers included representatives from the insurance industry, providers, state officials, a foundation and advocates. A recurring theme was the need…
Read MoreCTNJ: Analysis — How industries influence healthcare spending, and it’s working
There are a thousand ways that healthcare is different than other economic sectors and those differences keep the market from working to keep care affordable. . . . An important way the healthcare market fails is that industries have powerful tools to drive the prices and use of their products that most consumers aren’t aware…
Read MoreJoin webinar for patients on leading methodology to evaluate the value of costly treatments
September 4th all patients and groups are invited to a webinar to give input on ICER’s Value Assessment Framework methods. The non-profit Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) is the nation’s leading independent analyst of evidence on the effectiveness and value of drugs and other treatments. ICER produces public reports used by Medicare, Medicaid,…
Read More2019 Connecticut legislative session – what happened and what didn’t happen
Download the full report Connecticut’s General Assembly debated an unusually large number of health-related proposals this year. Some were new and some have been debated for years. Some passed, some were rejected, and some are on hold for next year. As of this writing, only the minimum wage increase bill has been signed into law…
Read MorePublic option gone but good pieces remain
Negotiations over a public health insurance option in CT have broken down but other good parts of the deal remain. Reportedly, there is a budget agreement to restore HUSKY eligibility for some of the 11,000 working parents cut in 2016. DSS reports found that the large majority of the low-income parents cut from HUSKY were…
Read MoreCTNJ: Better Public Option Bill Looks to Bigger Picture
Rising health insurance costs are crushing Connecticut families and small businesses. From 2008 to 2014 deductibles in our state rose 67% for families and 50% for small businesses. The Connecticut Option, Democrats’ newest public health insurance option bill, not only improves feasibility of the concept but also begins to address the foundations of rising health…
Read MoreCTNJ: AG expands generic drug price-fixing lawsuit
Friday, Connecticut’s Attorney General Tong and 43 other Attorneys General filed a federal lawsuit alleging that 20 generic drug manufacturers and 15 individuals conspired to inflate prices for 114 drugs that treat a multitude of conditions. The complaint outlines a broad, coordinated campaign across the industry to fix prices, allocate markets and rig bids. Price-fixing…
Read MoreWhat We’re Reading
Pharma lobbyists flooded Maryland to block a drug-pricing bill. Opponents pushed back – and won. STAT – The story behind the story of how a group of consumer advocates and legislators were able to prevail over Pharma’s considerable resources to get a bill passed to push back on sky high drug prices and protect consumers…
Read MoreInsurance Committee to hear prescription cost control bill tomorrow – it’s a good start
Raised bill No. 7174 includes some important provisions that would help moderate drug prices and limit increases. The CT Health Policy Project supports them all but urges the Committee to go farther. Drug costs in Connecticut are out of control. We can’t wait for federal action. An array of substantial, bold measures at the state…
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