Main Street Dollars

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DermTech, the California lab behind an adhesive-patch skin test marketed as a needle-free alternative to a mole biopsy, has reached a deal with the Justice Department over how it billed Medicare for that test. The company, now unwinding in Chapter 11 bankruptcy as DTech Liquidating Inc., is turning over an allowed unsecured bankruptcy claim of…

Insurers told the government in June which Medicare Advantage plans they would not renew, and members hear in October

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Long before any Medicare Advantage member gets a letter about their plan disappearing, the insurer running that plan has already told the federal government its decision. Federal regulation requires a Medicare Advantage organization to notify the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in writing by the first Monday in June if it won’t renew its…

About 2.28 million people on Medicare filled Ozempic, Rybelsus or Wegovy in one year, costing plans $15.16 billion

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No drug on Medicare’s newly negotiated price list cost the program more in 2024 than the trio of Ozempic, Rybelsus and Wegovy. All three are versions of the same active ingredient, semaglutide, sold by Novo Nordisk under different brand names for different uses. Together they were dispensed to about 2.28 million people with Medicare Part…

The 85 percent cut on the diabetes pill Janumet works out to $80 a month, down from $526

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Of the 15 drugs Medicare negotiated new prices for in its second round of talks, none got a bigger percentage discount than Janumet. Merck has agreed to sell the diabetes pill to Medicare drug plans for $80 for a 30-day supply starting January 1, 2027, down from a $526 list price in 2024. That’s an…

The negotiated Medicare price for the bowel drug Linzess is $136 a month, against a $539 list price

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Linzess is not a specialty cancer drug or a rare-disease treatment. It’s a capsule millions of Americans with chronic constipation or irritable bowel syndrome take every day, and it’s now one of the 15 drugs Medicare has negotiated a lower price for. Starting January 1, 2027, a Medicare drug plan will pay AbbVie $136 for…

A month of the prostate cancer drug Xtandi will cost a Medicare drug plan $7,004 in January instead of $13,480

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Astellas Pharma has agreed to sell Xtandi, one of the most widely used prostate cancer drugs on the market, to Medicare drug plans for $7,004 for a 30-day supply starting in January 2027. That’s down from the $13,480 the same supply cost at list price in 2024, a discount of 48 percent. The new number…

Cage-free eggs are advertised at $3.07 a dozen while conventional eggs go for $1.36

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in Groceries & Gas

Grocery shoppers scanning the egg case this week are looking at one of the widest price gaps between egg types tracked in recent months. Federal market researchers who survey supermarket advertising nationwide found conventional caged eggs on sale for $1.36 a dozen this week, while cage-free barn and aviary eggs carrying the UEP-certified label were…

A hospital that fails to post its real prices can be fined more than $2 million in a year, and the government names it

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in Consumer Rights

Hospitals have been required to post their real prices online since 2021, and for years the rule had a reputation for being toothless. It isn’t. Under federal regulation, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services can fine a single noncompliant hospital more than $2 million over a full year of violations, and it publishes the…

The fifteen drugs Medicare negotiated for next year will cost it 44 percent less, a difference of about $12 billion

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Medicare has finished bargaining over the price of 15 widely used prescription drugs, and the government now has a number to show for it. If the newly agreed-upon prices had applied during 2024, Medicare would have spent an estimated $12 billion less on those drugs, a 44 percent cut in net spending. The prices themselves…

Metal tariffs now apply to the full price of an imported product, not just the metal inside it

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