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Medicare could eliminate the so-called "doughnut-hole" gap in coverage under the new prescription drug plan if patients could get their drugs at Canadian or European prices, according to a new analysis available online today.
The new drug insurance program for seniors and disabled people slated to begin in 2006 was deliberately set up by Congress not to pay prescription bills totaling between $2,251 and $5,100 in order to keep the program within a $400-billion budget.
About 42 percent of Medicare beneficiaries have annual drug expenditures of more than $2,251, and therefore will be affected by the coverage gap.
But researchers at the Johns Hopkins and Pennsylvania State universities calculate that if Medicare patients could get the same discounts found on key drugs in Canada, France and Great Britain, prices could be an average of 45 percent lower and total spending for drugs would be about $28-billion a year less, allowing complete coverage through the insurance program.
In their analysis, published by the journal Health Affairs (www.healthaffairs.org) researchers compared the average wholesale price of 30 drugs from the United States that are also sold in other countries.
Cholesterol drugs safe in children, study saysCHICAGO - Statin drugs, prescribed to millions of American adults to ward off heart attacks and strokes, can safely reduce cholesterol levels and even reverse narrowing of the arteries in children with inherited high cholesterol, a two-year study found.
About one in 500 children worldwide is born with the condition, called familial hypercholesterolemia, which can lead to heart attacks in early adulthood.
Cholesterol levels fell 24 percent in children ages 8 to 18 who were given pravastatin, sold as Pravachol, for two years. And artery-narrowing reversed course with no serious side effects.
Hospital inspections miss major flaws, report saysWASHINGTON - The private organization that clears hospitals to receive Medicare payments missed problems later identified by state inspectors, potentially compromising safety, congressional investigators said Tuesday.
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, made up mainly of health professionals, failed to find 167 of 241 "serious deficiencies" in a survey of 500 hospitals that were reviewed between 2000 and 2002, the Government Accountability Office said. Many of the overlooked problems related to fire safety, while others involved substandard care.