Pharma Pays Shrinks Top Dollar In Vermont

May 6th, 2009. By Evelyn Pringle

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Making Sense of Out of Network Medical Overcharges: Get it, Got it, Good!

May 5th, 2009. By LucyC

 

Here’s a riddle: what’s something you never want to be without but you can never quite “get”?

 

Answer: Health Insurance.

 

Particularly if you live in New York and you’ve been trying to “get” your out of network Explanation of Benefits statements. The recent NY Attorney General’s Health Care Report determined the database used by many big-name insurers (think Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Health Link, Unicare, United Health Care, Wellpoint/Anthem) to compute out-of-network fees has been understating “usual and customary” rates. Translation: you may have paid more than you should’ve when going out-of-network.

 

How so? Here an example. Read the rest of this entry »

Grassley Likely to Stay on Finance Committee

May 4th, 2009. By Evelyn Pringle

May 4, 2009

Update

In great news to start off the week, Congressional Quarterly’s Kathleen Hunter is reporting that Senator Charles Grassley will likely hold onto his position on the US Senate Finance Committee until 2011.

“Grassley said last week that he preferred to remain as the top Republican on the Finance panel for the remainder of the 111th Congress but might reconsider if something was “going to happen in the interim” that would keep him from taking over the top Judiciary post in 2011,” she wrote.

“Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions will take over the top Republican spot on the Judiciary Committee for the remainder of the 111th Congress and then yield to Charles E. Grassley of Iowa in 2011, under a deal reached between the two, a senior GOP aide confirmed Monday,” Hunter reports.

This news has to be a big let down for Big Pharma and all the hangers-on whose financial dealings with drug and device companies have come under the microscope through Grassley’s relentless investigations.

Say It Isn’t So – Grassley May Leave Finance Committee

May 1st, 2009. By Evelyn Pringle

In what could be the best news in years for certain FDA officials, Big Pharma and drug company funded front groups, The Hill is reporting that Senator Charles Grassley is considering leaving his high ranking post on the US Senate Finance Committee to become the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Read the rest of this entry »

Mothers Act Disease Mongering

April 27th, 2009. By Evelyn Pringle

Katherine Stone’s website, Postpartum Progress, serves as one of the most prolific disease mongering campaigns on the internet in support of the Mothers Act legislation, coming up for vote in the US Senate in the near future. Read the rest of this entry »