Is Trump Opening New Front in War on Drug Prices?

Pharma executives were beaming as their stock prices soared in the days after Donald Trump’s poll-defying victory, and their sentiments rose even higher with the defeat of a California ballot initiative that would have instituted price controls on state-purchased drugs. Then Trump held his first post-election press conference last week, saying that pharma was “getting…

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CMS Opens Sunshine Act Review

Physicians have 45 days to review and dispute payments from industry. The Ophthalmology Innovation Summit opening on Thursday is clear evidence of the advances that can come with clinicians and industry working together. But such cooperation comes with oversight. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has opened its Open Pay-ments system to allow…

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AAO Sees Good and Bad in Consolidation

Speaking at the recent OIS@AAO meeting, American Academy of Ophthalmology EVP and CEO David W. Parke II, MD, highlighted health care system integration forces that are aggregating physicians into larger groups, encouraging hospital mergers, and accelerating physician employment. Much of the consolidation is happening as part of the push towards accountable care organizations (ACOs). About…

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