ACA Provides Public Access to Key Health Industry Information

[N'Zinga Shani]

Under Obamacare (ACA), the Public Now Has Access to Important Medical Industry Data.   

How much is the health industry paying your doctor?  Why is this important?

What prescriptions do you get? Do some doctors have a financial interest in what is prescribed for you? This article will help you to understand why some with deep pockets so oppose the ACA.  Yes, the ACA might be getting between you and your doctor, but not in the manner being propagandize in some commercials. Civic Engagement – Powerful!

Click to read this:  http://projects.ctmirror.org/doc_payments/

This is really important information for us the consumers of health care.  Do you know that there are groups that try to prevent generic versions of drug from being sold so that manufacturers of the more costly version can make millions of dollars in profits?  Whose needs are being served when doctors insist that patients purchase the more expensive version of a drug when the identical generic version is available at one-third the cost? Are some doctors being paid to represent pharmaceuticals when they see patients?

Of course, not all generics are identical in total composition to the original, but what are the important differences and do those differences affect the outcomes of treatment? To answer those and other relevant questions we refer you to experts in the topic:

What are generic drugs?

A generic drug is a chemically equivalent, lower-cost version of a brand-name drug, costing 30-80% less! A brand-name drug and its generic version must have the same active ingredient, dosage, safety, strength, usage directions, quality, performance and intended use.

Are generic drugs as safe as brand-name drugs?

Yes. Generic and brand-name drugs must meet the exact same standards for effectiveness, safety and quality. 

Generic vs Brand Drugs - HealthSmart http://www.healthsmart.com/WellnessResourceCenter/GenericVsBrandDru...

The article below contains important information for health care consumers. It behooves us, the consumers, to be health smart in how we consume and what we consume.

Here is another resource regarding Generics versus Brand Name: Worst Pill - Best Pill

Myths and Facts About Generic Drugs

Unless you want to waste a large amount of money—often hundreds of dollars a year—by using brand-name instead of generic drugs, you should ask for the generic version, especially if you are starting on a drug for the first time. (See table below.) One of the few bits of comparative information about prescription drugs readily accessible to consumers is the retail price of brand-name versus generic drugs. You can get this information easily by asking your pharmacist. The table below was prepared by simply phoning a local pharmacy. http://www.worstpills.org/public/page.cfm?  

Public gets first look at health industry payments to doctors: Ana Radelat | Oct. 22, 2014

Washington – Pharmaceutical companies and medical-device manufacturers paid more than $6 million to about 5,400 Connecticut doctors for various services during the last five months of 2013, a Connecticut Mirror examination of a newly released federal database shows.

The information was collected under a provision of the Affordable Care Act that is designed to help consumers understand the financial relationships between the health care industry and the nation’s physicians. Though only a five-month snapshot, the new data provides the public with the ability to  search actual payments to their own doctors for the first time.

Called "Open Payments," the recent release -- by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), a Department of Health and Human Services agency -- details $3.5 billion in payments to doctors nationwide for consulting fees, travel reimbursements, and other items between Aug. 1 and Dec. 31 of 2013. The federal government plans more complete, annual disclosures in the future.

Dr. Shantanu Agrawal, deputy administrator and director of the Center for Program Integrity at CMS, said, “Open Payments does not identify which financial relationships are beneficial and which could cause conflicts of interest. It simply makes the data available to the public.”

http://ctmirror.org/public-gets-first-look-at-health-industry-payme...

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