Consequences of Tariffs on Pharmaceutical Products

That is the topic of a JMCP Viewpoint by Sean Sullivan, Jens Grueger, Aidan Sullivan, and Scott Ramsey. Some excerpts: The Budget Lab at Yale University projected that a 25% ad valorem tariff would increase medication costs by an “average of around $600 per year per household in the United States.”3 Tariffs can also create supply…

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KFF Health News’ ‘What the Health?’: Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Lands in Senate. Our 400th Episode!

The Host Julie Rovner KFF Health News @jrovner @julierovner.bsky.social Read Julie’s stories. Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Health News’ weekly health policy news podcast, “What the Health?” A noted expert on health policy issues, Julie is the author of the critically praised reference book “Health Care Politics and Policy A…

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Waste, Fraud and Abuse – Oh, My!

By KIM BELLARD So the House has passed their “big, beautiful bill,” by the narrowest of margins. Crucial to the bill are large savings from Medicaid, which in past years Republicans would have taken some glee from but now they are careful to explain away as just cutting “waste, fraud and abuse,” having finally realized…

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Factors That Increase Utilization Management Risk

That is the title of a new paper published in the American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC) with co-authors Jacob Fajnor, Shurui Zhang, and Donald Nichols. The abstract is below. Objectives: To (1) develop a metric that quantitatively measures the risk that utilization management (UM) policies pose to patients and (2) measure the relationship between…

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An Arm and a Leg: A Mathematical Solution for US Hospitals?

What do the KGB and the former CEO of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital have in common? Eugene Litvak. The Soviet intelligence agency and the children’s hospital have each separately looked to the Ukrainian émigré with a PhD in mathematics for help. He turned down the KGB, but Litvak saved Cincinnati Children’s Hospital more than $100 million…

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The Crawfish Chronicles: An NIH Fixed Cost Cap Parable

By GREGROY HOPSON T-Maître Pierre’s Family Restaurant was a Louisiana institution. The kind of place where generations gathered over steaming mountains of boiled crawfish, spicy corn, and seasoned potatoes. A place where Clifton Chenier’s Louisiana Blues & Zydeco played in the background and the waitstaff wore starched white shirts with bright-colored bow ties. The walls…

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