As time goes on, my patients are increasingly complaining about the loss of medication coverage or no longer affordable medication copays. Well, they are right and here is the proof. The following text was posted today by the American Medical Association with a link to Bloomberg News. Unfortunately, the public was never informed that the Affordable Care Act would prompt the insurance companies to change contract coverage to deny your medication that had effectively treated you for years. Health care has clearly morphed from effective treatment to contracted treatment. And this is the difference between being a patient (treatment under ethical guidelines) and being a consumer (treatment under legal parameters). Choose to be a patient first and consumer second, not the other way around.

Analysis: Benefit managers excluding more medications next year to cap costs.

In a 1,900 word analysis, Bloomberg News (11/26, Langreth) examines the trend for healthcare benefit managers such as Express Scripts to increase the number of drugs they exclude from coverage in order to keep a lid on prices. Express Script will be excluding 66 branded therapies from its main formulary next year, an increase from 48 this year, including the rheumatoid arthritis drug Simponi (golimumab). Meanwhile, CVS Health is excluding 95 drugs from its 2015 formulary.

To those of you who read this information, thank you for your interest and I hope it is insightful.

David W. Goodman, M.D.