The number of high-cost drugs and patients with multiple chronic conditions continues to rise, according to Express Scripts Canada’s drug trend report for 2016. While some plan sponsors have addressed increasing costs with measures such as generic pricing or limiting access to some drugs, the report suggested they should focus on providing certain plan members […]
Some see it as an eternal struggle: the goodhearted doctor championing the best treatments, no matter the cost, while doing battle against the tightfisted insurance company denying claims for expensive but life-saving medications. But when you get down to it, their goals often dovetail: the best care for patients at affordable prices. After all, even […]
I remember when employers were concerned about the potential impact of a little blue pill called Viagra that came with an annual price tag of about $1,200. In those days, $1,200 would have been a high-cost drug. In 2017, that seems like a bargain, as today’s specialty drugs cost tens of thousands of dollars per patient per year. For […]
All Ontarians under the age of 65 who spend a significant amount of their annual household income on prescription drugs are eligible for the Trillium drug program, provided their private plan doesn’t cover the entire cost of their medications. But besides eligibility, how does the program work? Ontarians using the Trillium program must pay a deductible […]
A group of Toronto physicians have drafted a list of 125 essential medicines for use in Canada, publishing their findings in the Canadian Medical Association Journal’s online publication CMAJ Open. Provincial formularies that list thousands of medications — the Ontario Drug Benefit formulary lists 3,800 drugs, for example — make it difficult for physicians to […]
British Columbia’s Pharmacare program will expand its drug coverage for hepatitis C treatments in March as a result of successful negotiations brokered by the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance. PharmaCare is expanding the criteria to provide coverage to more patients living with the disease in March. From 2018, PharmaCare will provide coverage for any British Columbian living […]
An argument for national pharmacare is the number of older Canadians who either don’t fill prescriptions or skip doses because they’re too expensive, a new study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal suggests. “Universal access to necessary medicines is one of the measurable goals of the United Nations drive for universal health coverage in all countries,” wrote the […]
This year, Canadian health spending will increase by 2.1 per cent, the Canadian Institute for Health Information predicts. The amount, which includes public, insurer and individual spending, totals $228 billion, or 11.1 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product, and varies by geography. In Newfoundland and Labrador, for instance, the per capita cost is $7,256, […]
The $2-million fake lake in Muskoka. Bev Oda’s $16 orange juice. Even defined benefit pension plans for civil servants. The public sector doesn’t have a reputation as a beacon for effective cost management but it has made some progress when it comes to drug plans. Of the $81 billion private plans spent on medications in […]
The Canadian public health-care system is among the most expensive among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries as well as the least efficient, according to a new report by the Fraser Institute. Looking at data from 2012 or later, the study determined Canada spends 10.6 per cent of its GDP on health care, which is only […]