Healthcare

The next two problem/solution pairs proposed in Steve Laffey’s plan to remedy high drug costs concern different aspects of the problem of regulation. (The first two problem/solution pairs are discussed here) . 1. The first issue is the relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and the Food and Drug Administration…Today’s Problem: FDA regulates drugs foremost on…

The most difficult part of Steve Laffey’s campaign platform for the traditional Republican base to swallow (so to speak) has been his promise to “fight the big drug companies”. On Monday, Mayor Laffey laid out in detail his plan to remedy high drug costs. (Katherine Gregg and Jim Baron both provide good tastes of the…

…Continued from the previous post. Health insurers saw in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) an incentive to sell as much insurance through employers as possible, because ERISA insulated them from any liability greater than the actual costs of treatments. This aspect of the law was the key factor in making employer-based…

From the December 19, 2005 issue of BioCentury, a biotechnology industry publication available only by subscription, comes a story entitled “FDA seizes imported drugs.” FDA said that in 1,700 parcels intercepted at three U.S. airports over a few days in August, only 15% of drugs that were promoted as “Canadian” actually originated in Canada. The…

From Tuesday’s Pawtucket Times…The tentative contract agreement, reached in private talks conducted well below the public radar, besides the 3 percent pay increase would change no other contract language, including the current lack of a health coverage co-pay. School Committee Chairman Alan Tenreiro confirmed those details Monday night. Addressing the lack of a co-pay provision,…

This would certainly be good news: In recent months, a number of researchers have begun to assemble intriguing evidence that it is possible to generate embryonic stem cells without having to create or destroy new human embryos. The research is still young and largely unpublished, and in some cases it is limited to animal cells.…

I have had the privilege of working in the healthcare industry since 1983, joining my first biotechnology startup company in 1985. Just like physics had many of its heady years in the early part of the 20th century, the last 30 years have been similarly exciting times in biology. And there is no end in…

A new report by Rudy Giuliani has found some flaws in importing drugs from other countries for use in the U.S. I note that the report was commissioned by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association, so that must be weighed. But I would also stress that Giuliani has certainly shown his integrity in the past.…

Providence Journal editor Don Sockol ends with a question a piece that laments his daughter’s fear of losing healthcare if she returns to Rhode Island, loses whatever job allowed her to move back, and loses her health insurance: There’s been talk about school systems banding into larger purchasing groups to cut health-insurance costs. What if…

I’d already added the Patients First Coalition to the list of links at left, but looking at their “Fast Facts on Why Rhode Island Needs Medical Liability Reform,” I thought the following particularly noteworthy: 48% of physicians planning to leave Rhode Island within the next three years to practice elsewhere cite Rhode Island’s high malpractice…