mastodon.xyz is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
A Mastodon instance, open to everyone, but mainly English and French speaking.

Administered by:

Server stats:

850
active users

#pharmacy

0 posts0 participants0 posts today

Health insurance companies are notorious for exploiting prior authorization schemes to avoid paying for care and have denied claims at alarming rates in recent years.

However, corporate consolidation of industry “middlemen” that experts say are partially to blame for the prescription drug affordability crisis has received less scrutiny from the general public,
despite efforts by lawmakers and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to shine light on the notoriously opaque and confusing corporate bureaucracy that determines the cost of medicine.

We often hear about Big Pharma selling drugs at high prices
and insurance companies dragging their feet when it comes time to pay the bill,
but the prices patients pay out of pocket for pharmaceuticals is largely shaped by the connective tissue between insurers and drug manufacturers: #pharmacy #benefit #managers, or PBMs.

PBMs have been around for decades, but the largest PBMs have merged with major insurance companies to form conglomerates,
including UnitedHealth Group’s #OptumRx.

In theory, PBMs negotiate discounts and rebates paid by drug makers that are passed onto insurance companies and their patients,
but the lack of transparency in that process has long frustrated lawmakers and regulators attempting to contain the skyrocketing cost of medicine.

The PBMs say their secret negotiations with drug companies make prescriptions more affordable for consumers,
but this system has not shown to protect patients from sticker shock at the pharmacy counter.

Nearly 30 percent of Americans say they haven’t taken prescribed medication due to cost,
and an estimated 1.1 million Medicare patients alone could die over the next decade because they cannot afford the drugs prescribed by their doctors,
according to the American Hospital Association.

The FTC reports that in 2023, the U.S. spent more than $722 billion on prescription drugs,
💥nearly as much as the rest of the world combined.

Clearly the system is not working for patients or public health,
and policy makers in both parties have increasingly focused on the PBMs
and their recent mergers with major insurance companies.

According to a two-year FTC investigation on health care conglomerates released in July,
PBMs are “powerful middlemen inflating drug costs and squeezing Main Street pharmacies.”

“We’ve heard accounts of how the business practices of PBMs may deprive patients of access to the most affordable medicines
and how doctors find themselves having to subordinate their independent medical judgment to PBMs’ decision-making at the expense of patient health,”
FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement at the time.
truthout.org/articles/its-not-

Health care advocates risk arrest protesting care denials at UnitedHealthcare headquarters on July 15, 2024, in Minnetonka, Minnesota.
Truthout · It’s Not Just Denied Claims. Insurance Firms Are Hiring Middlemen to Deny Meds.Lawmakers are looking to break up massive health care conglomerates that manage nearly 80 percent of prescriptions.

→ Why top internet sleuths say they won't help find the UnitedHealthcare CEO killer
nbcnews.com/tech/internet/inte

“[Savannah Sparks, who has 1.3 million followers on her TikTok account], who also works in health care as a lactation consultant and holds a doctorate of pharmacy, didn’t mince words when asked if her community was working to find the suspect in Thompson’s murder. "Absolutely the f--- not," she said.”

NBC News · Why internet sleuths say they won't help find the UnitedHealthcare CEO suspectBy Melissa Chan

1/2
Preface: today, I was told that WITH insurance, 7 doses (titrating on) of my new anti-depressant, #Trintellix , would cost me $60. For 7 god-damned pills.

⊹₊ ˚‧︵‿₊୨୧₊‿︵‧ ˚ ₊⊹

You know how certain stores have “store brands” since e.g. _Threshold_ sounds like a way cooler brand than “Target-brand cheap fitted bedsheets”?

Well hey, turns out, #UnitedHealthcare did that too! Fooled me; I am [an unhappy] United Health Care customer, and I thought that Optum was a separate company.

BURN IT ALL DOWN.

:DumpsterFire: :DumpsterFire: :DumpsterFire:

This guy gets it:

(Source: instagram.com/p/DCCgmmQCQL2/ )

DATE: November 18, 2024 at 03:15PM
SOURCE: HEALTHCARE INFO SECURITY

Direct article link at end of text block below.

#Cybercrime Gang Shaking Down #Pharmacy Group for Second Ransom Payment t.co/n8HyEP0yc9 #AAP

Here are any URLs found in the article text:

t.co/n8HyEP0yc9

Articles can be found by scrolling down the page at healthcareinfosecurity.com/ under the title "Latest"

-------------------------------------------------

Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: clinicians-exchange.org

Healthcare security & privacy posts not related to IT or infosec are at @HIPAABot . Even so, they mix in some infosec with the legal & regulatory information.

-------------------------------------------------

#security #healthcare #doctors #itsecurity #hacking #doxxing #psychotherapy #securitynews #psychotherapist #mentalhealth #psychiatry #hospital #socialwork #datasecurity #webbeacons #cookies #HIPAA #privacy #datanalytics #healthcaresecurity #healthitsecurity #patientrecords @infosec #telehealth #netneutrality #socialengineering

t.coGang Shaking Down Pharmacy Group for Second Ransom PaymentRansomware group Embargo is threatening to publish nearly 1.5 terabytes of data allegedly stolen in an attack on American Associated Pharmacies, a collaborative of

CVS Health replaced its CEO as the company struggles to drive higher profits and stock performance. CVS shares have fallen nearly 20% this year. CVS has faced challenges as higher #medical costs weigh on its #insurance unit, Aetna, and spending drops at its pharmacies.

Maybe try this -- F* the shareholders. Make enough profit to cover costs and grow a little. Make your employees happy. Make your #pharmacy a great place to be.

Let go of #greed. #profit doesn't = #happiness

Dear #CVS #Pharmacy: Just want you to know your #automated #phone tree system is some of the most fucking #useless tech I've encountered in my life, and I've lived nearly 55 years and seen some stupid shit. To check the status of my Rx with a human, it was literally easier to go to CVS and deal with the issue in person than it was to get through to a pharmacist on the phone. I TRIED FIVE FUCKING TIMES before I gave up.

You do business with the public, which means you're in customer service, and this was an abject service failure. WHEN you go out of business I will sing a rousing chorus of "Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead." kthxbai

When I returned to North Loup, Nebraska this summer to bury my mother, I realized I hadn’t been back to that beautiful village for 40 years! It seemed impossible that I’d been away from the braided prairie for two generations! I discovered the last time I visited North Loup was in 1984 when I published a photo memory. Today, 14,600 days later, I present a new photo memory of the North Loup that raised me, and that lifted all the hopes of my curious childhood in far away in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Popcorn is big in North Loup. There’s a popcorn factory that employs many of the residents and the yearly, century old, Popcorn Days celebration is still crowning Popcorn Queens!

The residue of the popped delight is a year-round mark of pride, and belonging, in the small village of 221 people. 40 years ago, 400 people lived in North Loup. Everything decays. Time. People. Populations. Popcorn!

One big change for me to see was seeing the new water tower.

The old tower looked like a silver, shining coffee pot percolating in the sun — this newfangled version looks like a turkey baster!

North Loup doesn’t really have addresses.

You just sort of point a person to a destination in town, or you gradually walk them through a — “turn right, then left, carry on straight a bit, there” — pathway pocked with recognizable landmarks.

There are, however, some homemade street signs for those who want navigable names along with directions.

Some of the places I remember from 40 years ago are still standing — they may no longer be there — but they are still standing; like this gas station.

My grandfather’s house is now unrecognizable. All the old wood slat character has been stripped away by siding.

It’s been remade from the outside in, and a ramp was added to what used to be the front porch.

My grandfather’s old pharmacy is now an insurance company.

No pharmacy in North Loup now.

Also, now long gone in North Loup are the three bars, the Jack and Jill grocery store, Vera’s clothing store and the North Loup Cafe. All disappeared. All lost. All not replaced. I guess if you want to eat, drink, and shop you head on up Highway 11 to Ord, 11 miles away.

Maybe the town motto might just be, “North Loup: We won’t feed you, heal you, liquor you up, or clothe you — but you can get whole life insurance coverage day or night!”

The all-volunteer fire department is the same as it ever was.

Your neighbors are your rescuers; you rescue your neighbors.

Here’s the North Loup library. I think there used to be a skating rink inside.

The building looks the same as it ever was four decades ago.

This is the building where, after my grandfather died, we spent $400 to buy four used tires for his 1966 Plymouth Fury II (with Positraction)!

His old car became my first car in 1980. I street named the Plymouth, “The Porsche.”

The “North Loup Valley Bank” bank looks the same — but now bears a new name and ownership.

The beautiful old brick Post Office is now an art gallery, and so now there’s a whole new, standalone, Post Office building right next to a new war memorial for the local missing and the dead.

The Nebraska Cornhuskers are almost as popular as Popcorn in North Loup!

Sure, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is a “football school” but the Loup Valley is still prime scarlet and cream country!

Fun family members Russ and Kathy are even on the Go Big Red team with their ephemeral “Big Red Donuts” food truck that satiates palates all over Valley County!

I believe the Donut Truck began life as some sort of paramedic rescue truck. Still is, I guess. “Rescued by a Glazed Bear Claw with Sprinkles!”

While North Loup loves their Huskers — they just plain love their Popcorn more. Popcorn butters the bills. Popcorn kernels the family. Popcorn eats history.

Popcorn pops the future!

This wraps up our 2024 tour of North Loup, Nebraska. So many things have changed, and so many things that have died have not been replaced. The rise of a cross-county Co-Op brings great hope for the economic and social future expansion of North Loup.

For me, North Loup, Nebraska will always remain the beloved home I never had, and the place I never wanted to leave. Let’s hope it won’t be another 40 years before I return!

https://bolesblogs.com/2024/08/09/return-to-the-braided-prairie-a-2024-north-loup-photo-memory/

#1984 #braidedPrairie #donutTruck #firehouse #grandpa #nebraska #northLoup #pharmacy #photographs #plymouthFuryIi #popcornDays #russAndKathy #smallTown #village

David Boles, Blogs · Wilma’s Boy | David Boles, BlogsMy mother, Wilma Jean Boles, died on June 24, 2024. She was 85-years-old. Her death was unfortunate, and unnecessarily gruesome in that, in the end, she chose not to walk, or eat, or take her medic…