Innovation – A Life Improving and Life Saving Solution

(Take our survey and join our discussion with Newt Gingrich – see below)

Each month, one or more of my blogs would focus on a specific health issue or disease that was highlighted that month, like the American Heart Month that was the subject of my February 7^th blog. March has five health observances (You can click “Link” to find more about each observance).

• National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month – Link
• National Kidney Month – Link
• National Nutrition Month® – Link  
• National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day – Link  
• World Tuberculosis Day – Link  

A part of each one of these observances encourages us to take advantage of the new medical discoveries available to us today. There are tests and procedures to help make early diagnosis. There are procedures that can alleviate or eliminate the problem. There are medicines that can lengthen or save our lives. In every instance some sort of innovation or discovery has made that medical problem less deadly or has improved the quality of life for those who are suffering. Even getting the most out of the food we eat has benefited from innovation. People with digestive problems and food absorption problems have more medical options that can help alleviate their problems.

The benefit of these innovations was revealed a little over 15 years ago when Medicare’s prescription drug program, Part D, was implemented. That year the number of elderly patients admitted to the hospital fell. The only plausible reason was the new accessibility to prescription drugs made possible by Medicare Part D. We often forget the broad impact that these new drugs have, not only on our quality of life, but also on the overall cost of our healthcare.

One of the problems with Medicare accounting is each of the parts is its own silo. Each of the Medicare Parts (Part A – provides inpatient/hospital coverage, Part B – provides outpatient/medical coverage, Part C – an alternate way to receive Medicare benefits, and, Part D – provides prescription drug coverage) has a closed accounting system, and is not financially connected to the other parts. None of the hospital admittance savings that were made possible by the implementation of Part D were credited to Part D. The true cost and savings of Part D were not recognized. This lack of broad recognition of the value of a new medical discovery, especially in prescription drugs, has hindered the move to a more equitable way to price these new innovations and discoveries.

The President, in his State of the Union address, once again brought up his desire to lower the cost of prescription drugs. To me this statement always begs the question, what is the true cost and who pays that cost? If we truly account for the broad savings of less hospital visits, the reduction in caregivers’ time, the economic impact of less lost days of work and less doctor visits, we might find that the cost of the drug is much less when the overall savings to our economy is recognized.

What will these proposed changes do to the prescription drug costs that we pay? The government’s nonpartisan accounting agency, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), has said that some of the price cutting solutions proposed to lower drug costs would have negligible effect on the Medicare patient’s out-of-pocket costs. That doesn’t sound very reassuring to me that my costs are going to go down.

What worries me the most about these changes to Part D is the affect it will have on innovation. Politicians are quick to say that the “rich” drug companies will do just fine, that innovation will continue. The CBO has done some preliminary work and has concluded that there will be a reduction in the number of new medicines discovered if the proposed Part D changes are implemented. I think that any reduction is worrisome. If the drug that saves the life of my grandchild is not discovered because of these changes, I’m against the changes. We are at the cusp of life changing and life saving discoveries. The new COVID-19 vaccines are evidence of the impact of innovation. With all the progress in understanding the ways different cancers work, we now can dare to imagine a time when cancer is conquered. We are understanding how to repair DNA. Now is not the time to change the mechanism that has brought us to this dawn of discovery.

As our national leaders ponder these questions, we thought it was important to hear from you. We have created a survey that asks you how you feel about these issues. We encourage you take the survey and tell us how you feel. Click here to take the survey.

You also have the chance to tune into a Facebook live discussion concerning the survey results and the drug pricing question with former Speaker of the House, the Honorable Newt Gingrich and me. It will be held at 1:00 PM ET on Thursday, March 24^th. You can tune into the event once it is live with the below link. If you’re able to attend, mark yourself as “interested” in attending.

https://fb.me/e/1x0psWUNA

I hope you take the time to take the survey and then to join us as we discuss this important issue.

Best, Thair