Latest News On Prescription Drugs

Latest KFF Health News Stories

Medicare To Test New Payment Approaches For Some Prescription Medications

KFF Health News Original

Regulators unveiled a two-part plan that will change payments and test ways in which the Medicare Part B program can change the incentives that some policy experts say encourage doctors to choose higher-cost medications.

Study: Doctors’ Texts Can Prod Patients To Take Drugs, But Questions Linger

KFF Health News Original

In an analysis published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers found that text message reminders help patients do better when it comes to taking their medicines. But questions about the specific ways to make the most of this strategy remain.

Research Gives Context To Addressing Nation’s Drug Abuse Crisis, Review Finds

KFF Health News Original

As presidential candidates, state officials and even President Barack Obama wrestle with how to handle drug addiction, scientists lay out some of the intersections between opioid prescriptions and heroin abuse in the New England Journal of Medicine, including findings that crackdowns on opioid prescriptions may not fuel increases in heroin use.