Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Number Of Providers Prescribing Millions Of Dollars' Worth Of Pills Surges
ProPublica: High-Dollar Prescribers Proliferate In Medicare’s Drug Program
The number of doctors who each prescribe millions of dollars of medications annually in Medicare’s drug program has soared, driven by expensive hepatitis C treatments and rising drug prices overall, federal data obtained by ProPublica shows. The number of providers who topped the $5 million mark for prescriptions increased more than tenfold, from 41 in 2011 to 514 in 2015. The number of prescribers—mostly physicians but also nurse practitioners–exceeding $10 million in drug costs jumped from two to 70 over the same time period, according to the data. (Ornstein and Jones, 11/17)
The Associated Press: Drug Prices Don’t Budge Even After Pressure From Congress
Congress’s routine of publicly shaming drug company executives over high prices works no better than a placebo: It may make some people feel better, but it doesn’t treat the problem. In the last two years, House and Senate committees issued more than a dozen subpoenas to price-hiking drugmakers, collecting hundreds of thousands of documents and berating executives for more than 16 hours of public hearings. (Perrone, 11/16)
