🧵Re baby formula #shortages: @PressSec us pediatricians cannot conjure up baby formula.
We will do whatever we can to help our patients but you and @POTUS need to own the colossal supply chain mess that now threatens babies.
🧵HealthTrust is a GPO owned by HCA... a big hospital conglomerate.
They buy in bulk through GPO.
We should be asking these hospitals how much supply they have @PressSec and @POTUS
From: healthtrustpg.com/thesource/clin…
🧵Perhaps if #GPO middlemen were not allowed to legally collect #kickbacks then maybe we would not have almost all formula coming from 3 companies . But these companies can pay to make most of the hospital formula, then dominate the market.
🧵I am glad Kansas pediatricians are sounding the alarm bell of the danger of making homemade formula, or watering down formula.
I recall in residency, babies presenting with seizures from low sodium from watered down formula kansascity.com/news/nation-wo…@RogerMarshallMD@RepMann
🧵Re the mess of the supply chain and #babyformula :
Physicians feel a LOT like the characters in MASH... our profession is far from home, dealing with shortages, patients keep coming.
You figure out YOUR part @PressSec@POTUS
Supply chain is ON YOU and the corporate suits
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Years ago, I went to a meeting in Philadelphia. The after lunch lecture was all about quality measures. They were all the CMS people up on stage yapping about what the quality measures were doing. I honestly don’t even know what they were saying. When they were done, they asked for questions.…1/3
@EdGainesIII …. So, CMS experts, I get it, you want to make sure you’re getting value from physicians so you have this MIPS. How much did it cost to plan launch and implement MIPS, and is there any data that it’s saving America 🇺🇸 money 💰?
The CMS experts all looked at each other… 2/4 🧵
And one of the CMS experts said “ma’am, I don’t know how much we spent. It might be on our website and we’re hoping we’ll have some data in a couple of years that shows we’re making savings.”
( incidentally if you meet me in person, please everyone call me ‘Miss’ so I can feel a little bit younger. Haha 3/4 🧵
.@ChrisMurphyCT, we can't help Denise ( and many other patients) with unaffordable meds without #PBM reform. PBM are at the center of drug finances...Pic from Millman
a 🧵 milliman.com/en/insight/pri…
Some of those 'rebates' in the pic above are really kickbacks that were legalized by our government. First for middlemen #GPO ( GPO in first pic on this thread) and then later for PBM
Great read here in @econliberties
Pic shows short letter to @WSJ 2 🧵economicliberties.us/press-release/…
There is almost no transparency on where the #PBM kickbacks that they call 'rebates' are going. @CVSHealth revealed at @SenateHELP hearing last year that the kickbacks are going to a GPO that PBM created. One of these GPO is in Switzerland. 🧵 3
Pic from this @realclearpolicy article realclearhealth.com/articles/2023/…
a 🧵 In prep 4 today's 1pm @SenateHELP hearing on making #insulin affordable.
On graph: list price is roughly = net price (what pharma collects) + "rebates"/fees collected by Pharmacy Benefit Managers (#PBM) .
3. If @SenateDems and @SenateGOP and @USCongress and @POTUS want to remedy the cost of Insulin and other drugs, hopefully they won't make the same mistake they did with the Inflation reduction act, "USA will NEVER solve the drug pricing problem without PBM reform – and instead… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
"the kind of misinformation that leads to more school closings as well as burdensome mask and quarantine mandates." Thank you, @DrJBhattacharya 1/4 🧵 wsj.com/articles/the-w…
🧵As a mom who breast fed all 3 for a year each, I can tell you that both establishing nursing and sustaining it is NOT easy. That first week was HARDER THAN INTERNSHIP.
We must give grace to those who cannot breastfeed, yet try to encourage it…
🧵As a pediatrician, I think there are too many advantages to breastfeeding. We must stop right now and promote and encourage our new moms to nurse when possible!
Mr. Scott of @pcmanet, the lobby group for #PBM has been called one of The Hill newspaper’s “Top Association Lobbyists” each year from 2015 to 2020.
Yesterday he spoke at the @FTC hearing on how mergers are affecting healthcare. Let's dissect what this lobbyist said 🧵1/6....
Scott of @pcmanet told @FTC that there were over 70 #PBM.
True, but from DrugChannels, we can see that SIX PBM control 95% of the prescription drug claims in the US
THAT is one WAAAAAY conslidated market! 🧵2/6
The lobbyist Scott of @pcmanet told @linakhanFTC that #PBM were the only players in the market that saved money on prescription drugs.
Whatever you are "doing " to "save 💵"
it ain't working.
Meanwhile #PBM and associated co are at the top of the fortune 500. 🤔 🧵3/6