October 20, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS Costs of ‘COVID-19 gap’ in MS expected to top $500M in Canada The overall financial impact of changes in treatment and delayed diagnoses for people with multiple sclerosis (MS) in Canada due to the COVID-19 pandemic likely will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars between 2020 and 2024 in terms of extra healthcare costs and lost productivity, as well…
April 22, 2022 Columns by Ed Tobias The High Cost of Living With MS I always knew that living with multiple sclerosis (MS) was super-expensive, but a new study is a real eye-opener. The study, published in the journal Neurology, puts the annual tab for MS in…
March 5, 2021 News by Marisa Wexler, MS #ACTRIMS2021 – Taking Medication During Pregnancy Reduces Healthcare Costs Editor’s note: The Multiple Sclerosis News Today news team is providing in-depth and unparalleled coverage of the virtual ACTRIMS Forum 2021, Feb. 25–27. Go here to see the latest stories from the conference. Women with multiple sclerosis (MS) who continue taking disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) throughout pregnancy accrue lower non-maternity healthcare…
May 31, 2019 Columns by Ed Tobias Walmart Is Putting Quality of Employee MRIs Before Cost Did you know that not all magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exams are of equal quality? Walmart officials know this, and they are concerned that poor exams given to their employees are costing the company money. Because people with multiple sclerosis are likely to have several MRIs over the…
November 20, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias Can’t Afford Health Insurance for Your Family? Who Do You Cut? We all know how expensive health insurance can be. On the social media sites that I browse, I always see stories of people with MS who find themselves in a bind due to the healthcare system in the U.S. Some can’t work because their MS has robbed them of…
August 3, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias Healthcare Is Expensive, So Why Don’t We Comparison Shop? If you’re going to buy a car, do you limit your shopping to just one car dealer? If you need gas, do you drive past three inexpensive service stations because someone told you to fill up at a fourth, where the price is much higher? I don’t think so.
May 15, 2018 Columns by Ed Tobias Healthcare Costs Can Depend on Where You Live A new survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that healthcare costs in the U.S. are increasing faster than general inflation. As character Private Gomer Pyle used to say on his 1960s TV show, “Surprise, surprise, surprise!” Really, those of us with a medical problem such as MS…
August 17, 2016 Columns by Laura Kolaczkowski CVS Prescription Plan Drops Big Name MS Drugs from 2017 Formulary The CVS Caremark covered insurance plan has dropped Avonex, Plegridy and Extavia, three multiple sclerosis disease-modifying therapies, from their 2017 formulary. You say, OK, but what does that really mean? If your prescription insurance is through CVS Caremark, and you want one of those drugs or one…
August 1, 2016 Columns by Laura Kolaczkowski FICO Enters Healthcare Arena with Treatment Adherence Scores Do you take your drugs as they are prescribed? It turns out a lot of us don’t and that is a concern to the people in charge of our healthcare dollars. The California Association of Health Plans estimates that costs for prescription for chronic diseases such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid…
July 29, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Increasing Disability in MS Matched by Rising Financial, Personal and Work-related Burdens Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients in the U.S. with higher disability scores also have higher rates of health resource utilization, higher healthcare costs, and lower work productivity and health-related quality of live, according a study by researchers at Adelphi Real World and Abbvie. The study, “Quantifying the…
July 7, 2016 News by Katie McCallum H.P. Acthar Gel a Cost-Effective Option for Managing MS Relapses, Study Reports A recent study analyzing the healthcare resource use and cost of H.P. Acthar Gel, an injectable drug used to manage multiple sclerosis (MS) relapse, demonstrated that the therapy is a viable alternative to plasmapheresis (PMP) and intravenous immunoglobin (IVIG). Annual direct healthcare costs encountered by MS patients in the U.S.
November 18, 2015 News by Margarida Azevedo, MSc Multiple Sclerosis Report Highlights High Cost of Care in UK A new report, written jointly by the NHiS Commissioning Excellence and the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Trust, highlights the healthcare costs of emergency hospitalization of MS patients in the United Kingdom and points to more cost-effective and better ways to care for this patient population. The executive summary and full report are…
