Visiting branded drug websites can increase medication adherence, comScore finds
Unique visits to online health sites continue to grow as a proportion of total unique visitors to the Internet, based on comScore’s research of web activity from January 2010 to January 2011. comScore published its Fifth Annual Online Marketing Effectiveness Benchmarks for the Pharmaceutical Industry in March 2011 based on a one million person U.S. panel coupled with 77 studies into specific pharmaceutical cases. The growth in people using online health resources is an opportunity for health marketers — in this case, pharmaceutical drug marketers — to reach potential patients and develop more effective education campaigns that are unbranded (to provide information
Independent drugstores — facing tough health and retail economics — are still beloved by consumers
In the pharmacy market battle between Davids and the Goliath, David wins in the latest Consumer Reports survey on best drugstores according to consumers: independent pharmacies come out on top, and Walmart ranks last on the roster. The most highly-rated chains, highly indexed at 90 or more points, Health-Mart, The Medicine Shoppe, Bi-Mart, Publix, Hy-Vee, and Wegmans. Target, which was just ranked the #1 retailer in brand equity by the Harris Poll (where Target also beats Walmart in general retailing brand equity), ranked lower with an 88: much higher than Walmart with a 78 index, but below Walmart’s Sam’s Club and several grocery
Drugs & Deli retail pharmacy in the Caribbean – a harbinger of things-to-come in U.S. health care?
The Family Sarasohn-Kahn is sailing on the Caribbean this week for a long-overdue winter break. Imagine my surprise and ironic delight when at our port this morning we happened onto a storefront called, “Drugs & Deli.” Inside, there’s the usual combination of barcodes that are the hallmark of convenience stores: Pringles, Gatorade, candy, gum, and since we’re on the sea, sunscreen. But there’s another product group sold here in a very retail way: prescription drugs. The décor tells the story: while the name of the store tells the headline, the interior of the shop screams the storyline. Above our heads
Mayo finds heart patients skip meds due to costs; self-rationing in health continues
If you are a person with heart disease and you have received treatment at the Mayo Clinic, you’re certainly a fortunate health citizen. The hospital was just ranked #2 best hospital in the U.S. by US News & World Report. However, if that’s you and the costs of post-op treatment — namely prescription drugs — are out of your financial reach, then you might skip them; thus, undoing your top-notch acute care. This scenario is discussed in the April 2011 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, which describes a study by Mayo researchers among 209 patients with heart failure who were prescribed
Health consumers spend more out-of-pocket than the Federal government counts
Consumers have been shell-shocked with health care costs — an increasing proportion of household spending in the U.S. This is true for the increasing costs consumers bear in the traditional health system. However, consumers are continuing to spend discretionary income on non-traditional health services such as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) providers and products, along with vitamins/minerals/supplements and weight loss regimes. With increasing health cost burdens on households, those householders have less money to allocate to other aspects of life. In particular, growing medical costs have translated into greater credit problems for American consumers, according to The hidden costs of
Branded prescription drug prices increased between 2006-2010 while generic prices fell
The Federal government covers about $1 in every $3 of spending on prescription drugs in the U.S. That equates to $78 bn of the total $250 bn spent on Rx in 2009. Between 2006 and 2010, the indexed cost of the usual and customary price for commonly used branded prescription drugs grew by 8.3%; in that period the price of commonly used generic drugs fell by 2.6%. The General Accounting Office (GAO), those nonpartisan bean-counters in Washington DC, analyzed pricing trends of prescription drugs over the most recent five years, based on changes from first quarter to first quarter in each subsequent year. The GAO also
Welcome Migraine.com to the health care community
About 1 in 10 people in the U.S. suffer from migraine headaches. The direct cost to business for medical care and wage replacement is over $1 bn, but this underestimates the total economic impact of lost productivity to the economy and personal lives (for more on whole-health costs, read yesterday’s Health Populi, Lost Costs: Lost Productivity Represents One-Half of Health Costs for U.S. Employers). There are actually 14 kinds of headaches, as classified by the International Headache Society (IHS). Among these, there are four primary headache types: migraine, tension-type headaches, cluster headaches and trigeminal autonomic cephalagias, and a fourth
Bending the health cost curve by spending more on Rx: adherence can lower costs
For every $1 spent on health care in the U.S., 10 cents goes to prescription drugs, 31 cents goes to hospital care, and 27 cents goes to professionals (doctors, dentists, and other services), based on 2009 health spending reported to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). There’s evidence that by spending a bit more on medication and bolstering prescription drug adherence among patients, total health spending can be lowered for vascular medical conditions. The study and data which leads to this conclusion is published in Medication Adherence Leads to Lower Health Care Use And Costs Despite Increased Drug Spending appears in
From the fiscal to the physical: insured workers try to lower their medical costs
This is open enrollment season for those workers fortunate enough to (1) still be employed and (2) still be offered a health benefit. It’s also the season of economic decline. According to Watson Wyatt, these workers are making different health and benefit decisions in this fiscally-constrained era. Watson Wyatt has released its 2008 version of the report, Employee Perspective on Health Care. Some of the most dramatic health behavior changes this year include: Only 19% of employees are willing to pay higher premiums to keep deductibles and copayments lower. In 2007, 38% were willing to do so. 66% of
Drugstore Dominance, and the Walmart Wild Card
While reading the August 16/17 2008 issue of the Financial Times to keep up with the global political news in Russia and Georgia, and Olympic medal drama in Beijing, I ran across a story that hit much closer-to-home: “Bitter pills in fight for drugstore dominance.” The announcement by CVS Caremark that it would acquire the Longs Drugs store chain for over $2.5 billion is the latest salvo in the battle for the neighborhood pharmacy. This is CVS’s major incursion into California and other western states, where Walgreens enjoys a dominant market share. The most important point in the FT article
Jane will be working with EU- and UK-based clients in September and October 2026, collaborating with stakeholders in digital health, public/community health, retail health, and growing opportunities for health-at-home. Stay tuned to her updates here on Health Populi on-the-ground as she lives the digital nomadic work-life in Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and in London.
I was grateful to be Jasmine's first conversation-guest on her new podcast, "Aperture - Widen the Frame," where this expert in narrative medicine is bringing together the broad range of voices to sit at the table and address what health care needs: those humans in the health-system-loop who address health equity and empathy along with delivering evidence-based medicine for all.
Jane joined host Dr. Geeta "Dr. G" Nayyar and colleagues to brainstorm the value of vaccines for public and individual health in this challenging environment for health literacy, health politics, and health citizen grievance. Click onto the Pfizer Value of Vaccines site and you can watch four episodes covering the challenges with adult vaccination, the employer and health plan member's journey to vaccination, reimbursement, and collaborating for proactive prevention.