Rx & Insurance News Archive

9/17/13: Drug May Work For Resistant CMV Infections in Transplant Recipients (Renal & Urology News)

9/4/13: Old cancer drug prevents transplant rejection (Medical News Today)

8/30/13: No Widespread Increase in Cost of Individual Health Policies Seen Under ACA (HealthNewsDigest.com)

12/18/12 Grapefruit Is a Culprit In More Drug Reactions

12/8/12 Study of Steroid and CNI Immunosuppression Withdrawal Post-Transplant

12/1/12 Beating the Odds, and a Storm, to Get a Transplant

11/23/12  Federal government releases long-awaited health reform rules

11/20/12 Novartis' Certican succeeds in phase III liver transplant trial

11/20/12  Why I Decided to Opt Out of Medicare As a Provider

11/11/12 A consumer's guide to health reform, post election

11/7/12 Living organ donors face insurance risks

11/3/12 Summary of Healthcare Reform Effects on Patient Coverage

10/24/12 New Kidney Patient Data Shows Strong Need for Immunosuppressive Drug Coverage Legislation

10/24/12 Penny Wise, Pound Foolish?  Coverage Limits Immunosuppression after Kidney Transplantation

9/4/12 An evidence based assessment of universal coverage

8/5/12 Ingestible Sensor Approved by FDA (size of a gain of sand!)

7/9/12 Easy to understand: Gout (history and treatment)

6/30/12 What health ruling means next for patients

6/19/12 Medicare Made Clear (video training resource)

6/15/12The Reward for Donating a Kidney: No Insurance

6/14/12 Blog: Our health problems will remain, despite how the Supreme Court rules

5/21/12 Pulse Pressure vs. Blood Pressure

4/26/12 3 in Five Americans Misuse Their Rx Drugs

3/21/12 Generic Drugs Proving Resistant to Damage Suits

3/15/12 Engineering Organs to Solve Donor Shortage

3/9/12 Transplant without drugs (a study)

2/17/12 New drug target found for lung cancer

1/28/12 Stopping Prednisone Soon After Transplant Found to be Safe

1/26/12 Why heart doctors are leaving practices and joining hospitals

1/20/12 New powerful painkiller has abuse experts worried

1/17/12 Daily Aspirin Is Not for Everyone, Study Suggests

Medicare Report from the Public Policy committee (Fall 2011)

How to know if your meds are counterfeit (11/10)

Why Anti-Rejection Drugs for Organ Transplant Patients Cause Hypertension (10/8/11)

New Regimen Frees Kidney-Transplant Patients from Dependency on Immuno Drugs (10/5/11)

Mistakes in Storage May Alter Medication (8/16/11)

Health Care Law Individual Mandate Ruled Unconstitutional by Appeals Court  (8/13/11)

Durbin, Cocran Introduce Legislation to Help Organ Transplant Recipients (36 mos extension plan)

Web resource for understanding lab tests

Medicare limits anti-rejection drugs that transplant patients need (coverage only for 36 mos) Part 1 of 2 - Part 2 of 2

FDA Approves New Drug for Kidney Transplant Immunosuppression (Belatacept)

Trial for Use of Stem Cell Treatment for Vision to Begin

More Cost-Effective Immune Suppressant for Transplants

Tackling Care as Chronic Ailments Pile Up

Before Trip, Make Plans... Rx's

Medicaid Beneficiary Tip Sheet (800kb PDF download)

Medicaid Part B Premium Cost for 2011 (43kb PDF download)

Medicaid Part D (Drugs) Premium Cost for 2011 (50kb PDF download)

Washington State Medicare Cuts Affecting Transplant Patient Meds - a call to action!

"Look out, your medicine is watching you" - 11/11/10: Reuters News reports on Novartis future plans for transplant meds with embedded microchip to monitor patient use

FDA Approves longer use of Valcyte for adult kidney transplant patients at high risk for CMV disease (<-- click for press release - a PDF download) - CMV disease is the most important serious infection complicating solid organ transplantation and a major cause of illness and disease during the first six months following transplantation.

Pfizer extends free aid to unemployed using its drugs through 2010

In an article published online on October 23, 2009, in The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, physicians representing the International Society for Heart & Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) Infectious Disease Council issued an advisory for all programs in cardiothoracic transplantation.  To download this 7 page (PDF file) technical article
click here --> Advisory

LA Times 10/10/09: Opinion article: Healthcare reform without drug price controls? That's sick (<-- click to read article) Post your comments on the bulletin board

9/2/09: OPTN/UNOS releases guidance regarding H1N1 and Implications for Transplantation

AP 8/13/09: Generic form of PROGRAF (i.e., tacrolimus) released.

8/13/09: Astellas Prograf Value Card Program offered to save patients using Prograf up to $100/mo for each Rx for one year. (Note: not available for all plans, especially for government plans; call your Rx provider to ask about using it with mail order, but reimbursement forms are available from the program if your mail order company doesn't accept it directly.)

Roche Offering $100 Coupon Card for Cellcept users

5/9/09: Generic form of Cellcept (i.e., Mycophenolate Mofetil) released

"Donut Hole" Rx cost calculator available: Check out ways to reduce your out of pocket Rx costs with this powerful on-line tool