Allan Coukell

🧐 this receipt from CVS, where the insurance is billed $363, and the customer pays $64.45/90 tabs of Atorvastatin. Here, that would be about $1.49 + a fair $5 member fee. For the doubters: a stock bottle that cost us just $11.88/1000ct. We can buy 5,425 tablets for $64.45!!

A spot-on bit for all my fellow nerds out there

Vaccinating Health Care Supply Chains Against Market Failure: The Case of Civica Rx: nej.md/465buYs @CivicaRx @SSMHealth

@NOELreports I had to refollow you just now.

In recent days my account has been limited in visibility and growth. Likes on my posts disappear, followers report that they have 'suddenly' unfollowed me and the amount of views on posts decreased significant. You can help me by actively responding to posts and liking them 🙏

SitRep - 06/10/23 - Another Su-34/35 down in Z-territory An overview of the daily events in Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Near Mariupol, Russian air defenses once again shot down their own Su fighter plane, well done Ivan! Extra Rubles for you. 1/X RT=appreciated!

@DanWuori And then for the rest of the life, she modeled her father who stood and filmed while her mother was throwing up.

Children learn what they live. When morning sickness overcame this mom, her toddler stepped in to provide comfort and support - modeling the very same language and behavior to which she, herself, has grown accustomed. There’s nothing being given here that this sweet little one hasn’t also received in abundance - and that’s a beautiful tribute to mom herself. Want your child to be a model of kindness? Compassion? Be a living example. (And feel better mom.) This little apprentice in caring was shared to TT by katherinexhagen.

.@Forbes released its 2023 philanthropy scorecard and once again, @johnarnold and @LauraArnoldFdn earned the highest score — a rare 5 — for their charitable giving. Only 11 people from the #Forbes400 have given away more than 20% of their wealth: bit.ly/3RGcRsI

@nbcwashington Rock Creek Park is a jewel of immeasurable value in the heart of the city. If it did not exist, we would gladly pay tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to have a place for walkers, runners and cyclists to enjoy nature free of cars.

Part of Beach Drive was shut down to traffic during the pandemic, but there are growing calls to reopen the road as more employees return to the workplace. What do you think? nbc4dc.com/p50b7wK

Or 300 students at U Mass. Just saying.

"Civica Rx significantly increased supply security and lowered the cost in aggregate...these medications are critical to patient care & have been prone to shortages." - Carter Dredge, @SSMHealth @nejmcatalyst @CivicaRx ssmhealth.com/newsroom/2023/…

Big PBMs say “Drugmakers alone have the power to set prices.” Then how is that the same PBM set five different prices for the same drug, at the same pharmacy, on the same day, where the delta between the bookends had an over 10x difference? Our latest: 3axisadvisors.com/projects/2023/…

@DrugChannels, in passing, on the difficulty or regulating PBMS.

Do Plan Sponsors Understand How Their PBMs Make Money? My $0.02 on how #PBMs' profit model has evolved—and why a plan sponsor can feel satisfied with PBM transparency while remaining unaware of how its PBM actually earns money. @psgconsults drugch.nl/3EIogQT

“Across a selection of these so-called specialty generic drugs, Cigna and CVS’s prices were at least 24 times higher on average than roughly what the medicines’ manufacturers charge, the @WSJ found.” - @joewalkerWSJ wsj.com/health/healthc…

"Civica is the only pharma created specifically to address drug shortages. The drugs we deliver are not chosen for return-on-investment. They are chosen by hospitals because they are in shortage or at risk of shortage." @coukell, @CivicaRx at U.S. Subcommittee on Health hearing

ICYMI - @mganio_ASHP @coukell @CivicaRx @ASHPOfficial provided great recs on fixing the drug shortages problem during todays hearing energycommerce.house.gov/events/health-…

"Generic drugs should be cheap, but insurers are charging thousands of dollars for them" (NB - in place of "insurer" read "PBM," though sometimes they are one and the same.) wsj.com/health/healthc…

It has been a busy few years…

Can’t say we weren’t warned.

@DomNicholls Enjoy the pod, but the first day of Autumn (aka Fall) is Sept 23.

Ukraine came to the aid of the United States after we were attacked on 9/11 and deployed troops to support the ISAF mission in Afghanistan for almost 14 years