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Friday, August 28, 2015

Cost

No one knows the value of a prescription medicine. If we want to improve healthcare, we need to revisit our approach to pricing.
Everyone knows how much a gallon of milk is worth. And a gallon of gas. The harder something is to produce, or the harder to find, the more expensive it becomes. Think lobster (outside of Maine), caviar, truffles, Kobe Beef, Lamborghinis, etc.
Thanks to insurances, no one can appreciate the true value of a prescription medication. Let's develop a chart and pricing scheme for illnesses. The more common your disease and the easier to treat, the cheaper your medication.
We could introduce tiers to each classification.
Infections: A. General, B. Complicated, C. Lethal
Heart Disease: A. Basic, B. Complicated, C: Imminent Death
Diabetes: A. Madonna (Borderline), B. Illegal Immigrant (Over the borderline)

I think we need to publish a list of costs...Acquisition Costs (AC).
American Healthcare (weigh in if your country is different) needs to use a better pricing scheme than Average Wholesaler Price (AWP) when looking at costs of medications.
Why do some companies consider Generic Zofran (Ondansetron) to be a specialty drug? Cost.
AWP is listed around $700.00 while AC (the cost the pharmacy paid for it) is closer to $4.00 for a bottle of 30 tablets.
Insurances require prior authorizations on this due to cost.
Make healthcare more affordable. Charge $20.00. That's $10.00 for the basic cost to fill a prescription with NO drug in it, plus the price you paid, plus a $6.00 dispensing fee.

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