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Revolutionary new treatments for hepatitis C have hit the market in just the last few months. But they are so expensive that health insurers are balking at the price. What do the drugs' exorbitant costs mean for patients, and who's paying for such treatments?
Across the country, Indians live urban lives, interwoven into different social fabrics as a result of earlier (arguably unsuccessful) federal programs that sought to familiarize Natives with the larger society. In other cases, Indians live in rural areas and are remarkably isolated.
Hepatitis C infects an estimated 5 million Americans, although most of them don’t know it. But deaths from hepatitis C are on the rise in baby boomers. And throughout New England, new infections are creeping up among a younger generation.
In just a few weeks, another pharmaceutical company will likely win FDA approval for a new drug to cure hepatitis C. It’s big news for those living with the chronic disease, many of whom have been waiting decades for a cure.
An effort to reduce the number of patients who are "super-utilizers" in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley requires providers to enter into what one expert calls the "messy space" — a relationship that's closer and more personal than the traditional doctor-patient relationship.
Ambulances benefits from frequent users. Place a call for patient transport and a bill is generated. But what if the ambulance service was paid to keep patients out of the hospital? A new model pioneered in Fort Worth, Texas has caught the interest of other communities.
Health care super-users are often chronically ill, alone and with limited incomes. They typically need the medical skills of a trained health-care professional, but also the listening, counseling and support offered by social workers and clergy.
How do you stop an epidemic? Keep the people who are sick from infecting more people. Isolate them if you have to, treat them, and cure them. But what if you don’t know who’s sick? What if the person who’s still infectious doesn’t know it either, and won’t notice any symptoms for decades?
Can "super-utilizers" be helped? A partnership of health care workers, case managers, social workers, parish nurses, clergy and community members in Allentown, Penn. thinks so. The group is building a program to help those with manageable chronic illnesses stay out of the hospital.
