Copay assistance is meant to defray patient drug costs; some insurers keep it instead.
For years, Larry Gruber used coupon cards from a drugmaker to help him meet his insurance plan’s out-of-pocket maximum, reducing his cost for psoriatic arthritis medication to $0 for the rest of the year. This year, his new health insurer, Oscar HMO of Florida, pocketed the coupon card and made Gruber use his own money to meet the cost-sharing requirements. (Scott McIntyre for KFF Health News) ~~~~~ For 16 years, Larry Gruber, a fitness coach from Wilton Manors, Florida, received a coupon card to help him pay for a psoriatic arthritis medication he needs that costs more than $7,700 a month. Each year, Amgen, which makes the drug, called Enbrel, sent the coupon card worth thousands of...
A Popular Doctor Had Long Warned That Vitamin K Shots Are Risky for Newborns. Now He’s Changed His Tune.
For more than a decade, Dr. Joseph Mercola cautioned parents against a potentially lifesaving shot of vitamin K for their newborn babies: “Vitamin K shots are completely unnecessary for your newborn.” But now, in a break from his past warnings, Mercola is saying he no longer believes that. ProPublica contacted Mercola recently as it was preparing an article about babies who died as a result of their parents turning down the vitamin K shot. Mercola’s new point of view is just as unequivocal as his old one: “The data is clear: vitamin K saves lives,” he wrote in an April article on his website two days after ProPublica contacted him. He added: “Based on the totality of the published...
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Quartz countertops are driving a public health crisis in the US – 2 occupational health experts explain the surge of lung transplants and lawsuits
Engineered stone, also called quartz, has become the most popular material for kitchen countertops. Guillermo Spelucin Runciman/iStock/Getty Images Plus ~~~~~ If you walk into a Costco, Home Depot or Lowe’s and order a countertop for your kitchen renovation, the store will likely contract with a local fabrication shop, instructing them to make one from a material called engineered stone. Often marketed as “quartz,” engineered stone is a synthetic product that contains up to 95% finely ground quartz mixed with polyester resins and pigments. The ease with which consumers can order it obscures the fact that workers who cut, grind and polish these kitchen countertops risk developing a terrible...
To heal stubborn wounds, scientists look to nanomaterials
Slow-healing lesions — common in diabetics and burn victims — can lead to lingering infections that resist antibiotic treatment. A new approach using light-activated therapies may offer a solution. For most people, a minor cut or scrape is no big deal — the body heals itself quickly, and antibiotics can deal with any infections. But some wounds, such as severe burns and diabetic ulcers, are prone to bacterial infections that can become resistant to antibiotics. “Diabetic wounds are very difficult to heal and people live with these wounds for pretty much the rest of their life,” says Vitaliy Khutoryanskiy, a materials scientist at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. To address...
