Volume 393, Number 10175
9 March 2019
WORLD REPORT A committee brought together Senators and drug company representatives to discuss why drug pricing in the USA is so high, but little progress was made, Susan Jaffe reports.
Tag: Gerard Anderson
House Drug Price Hearing Takes Aim at Industry
By Susan Jaffe | Contributing Writer | MedPageToday | January 30, 2019
WASHINGTON — Pharmaceutical companies were pummeled during Tuesday’s hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. The panel’s first hearing of the 116th Congress examined the reasons for rising drug prices and follows committee chairman Elijah Cummings’ (D-Md.) launch of an aggressive investigation into pharmaceutical pricing issues.
“For the past decade I’ve been trying to investigate the actions of drug companies for all sorts of drugs — old and new, generic and brand name,” Cummings said. “We have seen time after time drug companies make money hand over fist by raising the prices of their drugs often without justification…” [Continued at MedPageToday]
Want a good laugh? Head to the hospital.
By Susan Jaffe KAISER HEALTH NEWS | July 7, 2015 | This KHN story also ran in 
Every month, a group of older adults goes to Washington’s Sibley Memorial Hospital, but they don’t see a doctor or get tests. They’re not sick. They come just for laughs.
Joanne Philleo, 79, enjoys a joke at the monthly “Laugh Cafe” event at Sibley Memorial Hospital. (Amanda Voisard for The Washington Post)
They gather in a room next to the hospital cafeteria for the “Laugh Cafe,” one of the activities offered to local seniors, including the 7,300 members of Sibley’s Senior Association. The price of admission is one joke, recited out loud. Experts say laughing can be good for your health, and everyone in the room strongly agrees.
…The association for those age 50 or older also offers other activities, including French and Italian conversation classes, day trips to museums, a current events group, and — the latest addition — tango lessons. In addition, members receive discounts on hospital parking and at the gift shop, pharmacy and restaurant. In all, more than 10,000 seniors participate.
Sibley is one of several hospitals in the Washington area — along with others across the country — offering social activities and other benefits to help seniors stay healthy and out of the hospital, while encouraging them to visit. Participants do not need to have been patients.
But some experts are concerned that the activities are less about health than about marketing to Medicare beneficiaries, especially those who can go to the hospital of their choice when they need care because they are not enrolled in private insurance plans with limited provider networks.[Continued in Washington Post]…