{"id":11340,"date":"2018-10-16T14:53:52","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T20:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=11340"},"modified":"2018-10-16T14:53:52","modified_gmt":"2018-10-16T20:53:52","slug":"coming-soon-to-tv-commercials-drug-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2018\/10\/coming-soon-to-tv-commercials-drug-prices.html","title":{"rendered":"Coming soon to TV commercials: drug prices?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the news today (in this case, via AP):\u00a0 \u201cUS wants drug prices in TV ads: \u2018Patients deserve to know\u2019<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The federal government said Monday that it wants to force drugmakers to disclose prices for prescription medicines in their TV commercials. . . .<\/p>\n

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar unveiled a proposal that would apply to all brand-name drugs covered by the Medicare and Medicaid programs, which is most medicines. . . .<\/p>\n

Most Americans don\u2019t pay the full price for prescriptions \u2014 one reason drugmakers have opposed disclosing the list prices, arguing that would just confuse the public. But insurance plans base their copayments on the list price set by drugmakers. And patients with high-deductibles plans or no insurance sometimes pay full price.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think that\u2019s an awesome idea.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s already the case that drugmakers are required to list side-effects of the drugs they market on TV. Yes, the narrator does so in a manner designed so that viewers won\u2019t really digest the information, with a happy grandmother playing with her childen\u00a0now that the medicine has freed her from arthritis or depression or whatever her ailment is, or a woman freed to wear a bathing suit now that she\u2019s no longer shamed by her condition, with joyful music in the background, but nonetheless, the drugmakers comply.\u00a0 Why not also list drug prices?<\/p>\n

After all, some of these medications are not as cheap as you\u2019d think they\u2019d be for how commonly they\u2019re on TV.\u00a0 Humira, used for everything from arthritis to Crohn\u2019s to psoriasis<\/a>, runs over $7,000 per month<\/a> for its use as a Crohn\u2019s treatment.\u00a0 A 2015 report lists eye-popping numbers<\/a>, many of them running well into 6 digits for a treatment cycle or a year\u2019s worth of medication, for a long list of medications, though many of them are visibly for rare diseases or deadly cancers, and are lifesaving for those who receive them.\u00a0 At the same time, others are high-priced treatments for more ordinary conditions, conditions where there may be a range of treatment options, and the fortunate patient, when faced with a high deductible, will have a doctor who will be likewise well-versed in the costs and benefits of those treatment options \u2014 but the reality is that doctors generally don\u2019t, and can\u2019t, keep track of which drugs are on what formularies and what the negotiated agreements are with various insurance plans, or to what extent uninsured patients can benefit from patient assistance programs or whether they even qualify based on income requirements.<\/p>\n

Would a requirement that Humira commercials state, \u201cthe MSRP for Humira is $7,500 per month\u201d or \u201cthe list price for Otezla is $3,500 per month<\/a>\u201d provide meaningful information for patients with health insurance which negotiates a lower rate?\u00a0 Not in itself.\u00a0 But the knowledge that they\u2019d have to disclose this information could help at the margins, in sparking conversations with doctors about price and value, and the drug companies themselves, in cases where their list prices are eye-poppingly higher than the negotiated discounts with insurers, and priced that way to give them leverage, to allow them to collect more revenue from the government, and to cash in on uninsured folk who for whatever reason don\u2019t seek out or don\u2019t qualify for drug assistance programs, may be shamed into ending, or moderating these tactics, anyway.<\/p>\n

And no, making the list prices available on a website rather than as part of the commercial, won\u2019t have anything remotely like the same effect \u2014 which is why the drugmakers are proposing the website alternative.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image\u00a0from pixabay.com; https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/diet-pills-medication-pharmacy-sick-1328802\/; public domain<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the news today (in this case, via AP):\u00a0 \u201cUS wants drug prices in TV ads: \u2018Patients deserve to know\u2019.\u201d The federal government said Monday that it wants to force drugmakers to disclose prices for prescription medicines in their TV commercials. . . . Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar unveiled a proposal that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":6047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1092,564,584],"class_list":["post-11340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-drug-costs","tag-drugs","tag-healthcare-costs"],"yoast_head":"\nComing soon to TV commercials: drug prices?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the news today (in this case, via AP):\u00a0 "US wants drug prices in TV ads: \u2018Patients deserve to know\u2019." 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