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 report published last week suggested that making certain prescription medications available as over-the-counter drugs could save Canadian insurers, employers, governments and patients $1 billion each year. The report dealt with proton pump inhibitors (which treat gastroesophageal reflux disease), oral contraceptives and erectile dysfunction drugs. Researchers noted making them available as over-the-counter products could lower drug costs […]
Switching three prescription drugs classes to over-the-counter medications could save Canadians, employers, insurers and the health-care system $1 billion annually, according to a new report by the Conference Board of Canada. According to the report, the economic value of switching to over-the-counter medications is an estimated $709.9 million for proton pump inhibitors, which treat gastroesophageal […]
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 […]
Patients with chronic pain and mental-health conditions prefer taking cannabis to prescribed opioid medication, a study published in the International Journal of Drug Policy has found. Researchers from the University of British Columbia and the University of Victoria tracked more than 250 patients who were being treated for conditions such as chronic pain, mental health and gastrointestinal […]
The federal government should allow each province to decide which health-care services would best serve their populations, a report from the Montreal Economic Institute argues. Ottawa plans to force the provinces to spend a portion of the federal health transfer on specific areas, such as mental-health programs and home-care services. “Health care is an area […]
The medications that cure nearly 90 per cent of hepatitis C patients but come with wallet-busting prices have another downside, a report by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices in the United States has found. In its quarterly report, it identified 1,582 cases in which direct-acting antiviral drugs for hepatitis C, such as Sovaldi and Harvoni, reactivated […]
When Andrew Martin joined the HR department at Joey Restaurant Group eight years ago, the company hadn’t touched its paper-based, administrative services-only drug plan in many years. Martin was quick to make changes, bringing in a flexible plan, drug cards, generic substitution and copayments based on dispensing fees. Still, he stopped short of reducing the […]
With drug prices on the rise, you’d think employers would be making plenty of changes to save costs for their benefits plans. Surprisingly, that’s not the case. As Barbara Martinez, practice leader for drug benefits solutions at Great-West Life, told Benefits Canada’s Face-to-Face Drug Plan Management Forum last month, 90% of the insurer’s clients hadn’t […]