Welcome to the February edition of BioMatrix Abstract!
BioMatrix Specialty Infusion Pharmacy
BioMatrix is a trusted specialty pharmacy to patients, prescribers, pharmaceutical manufacturers and payers nationwide.
BioMatrix Abstract informs readers of our leading efforts in the specialty pharmacy space while providing updates on relevant legislative efforts, research initiatives, and current events in healthcare.
New Website and New Look?
Our new website has launched! We’ve updated our look, streamlined our content, and made things easier to find.
Mary Munson Runge: A Trailblazer in Pharmacy?
As we celebrate Black History Month, it’s important to pause and remember the achievements by Black Americans and their critical, central role in United States history. Here, we spotlight Mary Munson Runge—a pharmacist and advocate.
Neonatal Alloimmune Thrombocytopenia (NAIT): Signs, Symptoms, and Treatment Options?
Neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (NAIT) occurs when the mother's immune system forms antibodies against fetal platelets leading to thrombocytopenia (a low platelet count). Here we discuss signs, symptoms, prevention, and treatment.
BioMatrix on the Move!
Upcoming Events?
Catch up with BioMatrix at these upcoming events. We can't wait to see you!
BioMatrix Was Proud to Attend and Support These Meetings
Thanks to all who participated!
领英推荐
IVIG and SCIG Specialty Infusion Services
Immunoglobulin (IG) is used to treat multiple conditions. It helps calm the immune system and reduce inflammatory flare ups associated with autoimmune and immune-mediated disorders. It can also be used to increase the likelihood of a successful transplant for patients prior to an organ transplant (desensitization). It’s most commonly given through a drip into a vein (IVIG) or sometimes as an injection into the skin (SCIG).?
As a specialty infusion pharmacy, our clinical teams have extensive training and experience with infusion therapies, rare diseases, and complex medical conditions.?
Our clinical staff coordinates with pharmacists, healthcare providers, and other caregivers to determine the best place for patients to receive their infusion. Whether administering in-home with assistance from one of our home infusion nurses, in one of our ambulatory infusion suites, or in-office our nurses work with patients and providers to make therapy administration as safe and convenient as possible.?
Copay Accumulators
About half of commercially covered lives are in plans that utilize some kind of copay adjustor model. More plans are also using third-party vendors like SaveOnSp or PrudentRx for copay cards. With these vendors, the insurer determines a brand drug with a copay card as a “non-essential health benefit.” The patient on the brand drug is then turned over to the vendor who then controls the copay card, the copayment amount, and the authorization of the drug. In all these plans, copay drug cards go to profiting the PBM and insurer and not toward a patient’s deductible or out-of-pocket costs.
Surprise Billing
Surprise Billing disputes are getting backlogged at the federal level as case loads rise on the heels of the No Suprises Act. The federal government, who sets up the independent dispute resolution (IDR), has been overloaded with over 13x the number of anticipated cases. For the third of cases resolved, providers won 77% of payment determinations. Patients, however, have been the biggest winners with more than ten million surprise bills prevented in the first 6 months of 2023 alone.
Congress
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP Committee) held a hearing asking pharmaceutical manufacturers why US drugs are so much more expensive than those overseas. Executives from Bristol Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, and Merck stated that faster access and other health care spending, like PBMs, explains the difference in cost. Congress claimed the three drug companies make more money selling popular drugs in the US than in the rest of the world combined. The back and forth failed to yield any true outcome, nor a clear winner.
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BioMatrix is a nationwide, independently-owned infusion pharmacy with decades of experience supporting patients on specialty medication.