Health Headlines for Wednesday, December 23

Patients Fear Spike in Price of Old Drugs

New York Times

Fred Kellerman, a retired car salesman from Los Angeles, was bedridden with a rare neuromuscular disease when he started taking a drug in the 1990s at Duke University in North Carolina. It changed his life.

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Report: Regulators at fault in New York health insurance co-op collapse

Albany Business Review

State regulators should have taken action to prevent the collapse of a health insurance co-op created under Obamacare, a new report says.

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Panel OKs abuse-deterrent drugs bill amid debate over benefits, costs

Capital New York

Everyone agrees New Jersey is in the midst of an opioid epidemic, with more than 28,000 people seeking treatment for heroin or opioid abuse so far this year.

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Independent group says new Glaxo asthma drug far too expensive

Reuters

An independent nonprofit organization that evaluates clinical and cost effectiveness of new medicines found the price of GlaxoSmithKline’s new drug for severe asthma should be as much as 76 percent lower to justify its value, according to the group’s latest draft report.

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Q&A: Doctor turned insurer CEO says Drug pricing ‘immoral and often illegal’

Modern Health Care

Dr. John Bennett, president and CEO of Capital District Physicians’ Health Plan (CDPHP), has run the Albany, N.Y.-based not-for-profit health insurer since 2008.

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