Episodes
Feb. 8, 2024
QALY Ban Passes House 😎
On Wednesday morning, the House passed H.R. 485, the Protecting Care for All Patients Act, which bans the use of Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) in federal health programs. Bill Smith, a Senior Fellow at the Pioneer Inst…
Feb. 6, 2024
QALY Ban Bill Progresses
Michael Riotto, a Patient Advocate and member of Patients Rising, tells us how the exciting developments with the QALY ban bill could affect him and his health if it moves forward. Riotto discusses how the QALY negatively af…
Feb. 1, 2024
March-In Deadline Looms
Joe Allen, Executive Director of the Bayh-Dole Coalition, discusses a proposed framework announced by the Biden administration that would allow march-in rights to be used when a company’s drug price is deemed unreasonable. A…
Dec. 21, 2023
Policy Supports to Aging in Place
Dan Weinrieb, the Head of Strategic Partnerships at Jukebox Health, discusses aging at home and the federal policies that need to be improved in order to support it; and Stealth BioTherapeutics is considering giving up on ge…
Dec. 19, 2023
Suspicious CVS Announcement 🤥
Alan Gilbert, Vice President for Policy at Purchaser Business Group on Health, discusses whether CVS’s new pharmacy reimbursement model will provide transparency and decrease drug prices; and HHS has created regulations requ…
Dec. 14, 2023
Why is Telehealth on the Hot Seat?
Kyle Zebley, Senior Vice President of Public Policy for the American Telemedicine Association, warns that the end of Telehealth care could be on the horizon. Learn why and what needs to be done to extend the life of Teleheal…
Dec. 12, 2023
“Marching-In” A Step Too Far
MacKay Jimeson, Executive Director of Patients Rising, breaks down the most recent announcement from the White House that they may begin using their “march-in” rights on patents to try to curb drug prices. Hear why Jimeson s…
Dec. 7, 2023
Beginning of the End for Alzheimer's
Mark Roithmayr, CEO of the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation, talks about the breakthroughs being made in Alzheimer's treatments and shows how these developments are right on time; and CVS is making big changes to how th…
Dec. 5, 2023
Serving Up Justice 💼
Robert Salim, attorney at law and patient, discusses his legal fight with insurance to cover his medically necessary cancer treatments; and the Arizona Attorney General is suing insulin manufacturers and PBMs for allegedly i…
Nov. 30, 2023
Patient Groups Target ICER 🎯
Terry Wilcox, Patients Rising CEO, along with Rick Chapman, the Chief Science Officer at the Innovation and Value Initiative, and Darius Lakdawalla, the Chief Scientific Officer at EntityRisk, hold a patient advocate event f…
Nov. 28, 2023
Time to Expose Discriminatory Formulary Practices
Dr. Robert Popovian, Chief Science Policy Officer for the Global Healthy Living Foundation, discusses the GLHF’s recent webinar on formulary exclusions; and a Forbes article outlines how two states are taking action to prote…
Nov. 21, 2023
Bill Gets Benefits to Patients Faster 💨
U.S. Representative Diana Harshbarger of Tennessee, discusses the importance of the Immediate Access for the Terminally Ill Act that she and Senator Mike Lee introduced last week; and Patients Rising CEO Terry Wilcox, gives …
Nov. 16, 2023
IRA Lawsuits for Days 🏛
Ilana Eisenstein, Chair of U.S. Litigation at DLA Piper, breaks down multiple lawsuits against the CMS drug price negotiations within the IRA; and a gene-editing treatment that could cure sickle cell disease awaits approval …
Nov. 14, 2023
Healthcare AI Overreach 🤔
Naomi Lopez, Founder of Nexus Policy Consulting, reacts to the recent White House executive order on Artificial Intelligence and tells us why it might hamper innovation; and the Jax Act is a bill we’ve been following all yea…
Nov. 9, 2023
CMS Listening Sessions: Real or Placebo?
Dr. Bruce Altevogt, who served on the Board of Health Sciences Policy at the Institute of Medicine, discusses the impactfulness of CMS Listening Sessions; an article from The Wall Street Journal explains why many patients ar…
Nov. 7, 2023
340B Website
Dr. Robert Popovian, Senior Visiting Health Policy Fellow at Pioneer Institute, tells us how Pioneer’s new 340B website will allow everyone to evaluate how well the 340B program is working; Senator Mike Braun discusses the P…
Nov. 2, 2023
Healthcare Fix: Allow New Ideas
Jonathan Weiss, CEO of HealthEngine, reveals the challenges that companies face when breaking into the marketplace for healthcare services; Congresswoman Nanette Barragan and Terry Wilcox, CEO of Patients Rising, authored an…
Oct. 31, 2023
Patients Race the Clock: Where is the FDA? 👀
Pam Andrews, Mother of Two Children with Niemann Pick Disease Type C1, discusses how The Promising Pathway Act could help her children with an approved treatment; and Senator Mike Braun delivered marks about The Promising Pa…
Oct. 26, 2023
Formulary Practices Hurting Patients
MacKay Jimeson, Executive Director of the Patients Rising Patient Access and Affordability Project, tells us about their newly-released working paper called ”Prescription Drug Formularies Transparency and Reform.”; Ike Brann…
Oct. 24, 2023
Health Care Worker Strikes
Dr. Benson Hsu, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine, discusses the ins and outs of the Kaiser Permanente Strike and tells us that while this strike is over there is still a lo…
Oct. 19, 2023
Biosimilars' Slow Uptake
Wayne Winegarden, Senior Fellow at the Pacific Research Institute, discusses the news that AbbVie still controls more than 97 percent of the market nearly a year after Humira biosimilars launched; Darius Lakdawalla, Co-Autho…
Oct. 17, 2023
Copay Accumulator Victory
George Huntley, CEO of the Diabetes Leadership Council, explains a major victory for patients in a court case regarding Copay Accumulator practices; Cigna has agreed to pay $172 million dollars after allegations the submitte…
Oct. 12, 2023
Coverage with Evidence Development
Kirsten Axelsen, Senior Policy Advisor with global law firm DLA Piper, explains what Coverage with Evidence Development is and how it restricts patients access; the manufacturers of all 10 of the first drugs announced for Me…
Oct. 10, 2023
AI & Healthcare + Open Enrollment Innovation
AI has impacted healthcare and where the technology might take us; Brad O’Neil, President and Managing Director of the ICHRA Shop, explains how an Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement (ICHRA) works and what i…