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BLOG: Additional player responsible for increased health care costs
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When polled on the cause of increased costs in health care, physicians average a solid 50% no matter who is asked. Mind you, because of the way the question is usually asked, this means that people are saying that 50% of health care expenditures in the U.S. are going into the yawning pockets of American physicians. These polls are typically accompanied by editorials bemoaning the raging avarice of doctors, with damning rhetoric all around.
The truth is that only 22% of health care dollars go to physician compensation. The lion’s share goes to pay for hospital costs, medicines and administrative (read: profit) expenses. The pharmaceutical manufacturers have come in for scathing criticism of late, much of it self-inflicted. I’m a bit puzzled about one player in the game making windfall profits on the backs of patients that is getting a pass from pretty much everyone.
When my patient gets a $1,200 retail price for a med that wholesales for a fraction of that, one that is covered by insurance for a fraction of that, why do CVS/Walgreens/Rite Aid et al get off with nary a peep from pretty much anyone?
Remember the outrage about doctors and hospitals charging uninsured patients full fees? There was an avalanche of shaming and a couple of lawsuits against high-profile institutions (like Yale). These resulted in changes in how “retail” patients are charged in both offices and hospitals. I prescribe necessary medications for dry eye patients who suffer without them, medicines that have no generic equivalent. Why is it justifiable for huge, massively profitable companies to gouge my patients? Where is the outrage?
This is one reason why I want someone to buy AzaSite (azithromycin ophthalmic solution 1%, Akorn) and give it some support. At least those so-called greedy pharmaceutical companies are actually making something that helps my patients.
Disclosure: White reports he is a consultant for Bausch + Lomb, Allergan, Shire and Eyemaginations; is on the speakers board for Bausch + Lomb, Allergan and Shire; and has a financial interest in TearScience.