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Amazon Shelves Plan To Sell Prescription Drugs (cnbc.com)
Major Blud writes: CNBC is reporting that Amazon Business, which considered selling pharmaceutical products last year, has put its plans to do so on hiatus. "The change in plan comes partly because Amazon has not been able to convince big hospitals to change their traditional purchasing process, which typically involves a number of middlemen and loyal relationships," reports CNBC. Amazon was able to gain licensing in 47 out of the 50 U.S. states, but has struggled to land contracts with large hospital networks. "The setback illustrates the challenges of getting into the medical supply and pharmaceutical space, even for a company as big as Amazon," reports CNBC. "Several health-care and pharmaceutical distribution companies saw their stock take a nosedive following recent reports of Amazon potentially getting into the space, but it will likely take some time before those concerns turn into real threats."
With the kind of markup they use, the price they pay is really a rounding error.
Hospital is a middle man - they get markup on what they sell. They have no incentive to lower that cost. Your health insurance and you in the end pay for it!
Hospitals (for civilian non-veterans) in the USA have no incentive to be efficient. They can put whatever number they like on the invoice and they'll likely get paid.
You people in the USA could get cheaper medical care with cheaper drugs if you would get your hospitals and doctors to find the cheapest supplier - but you seem to think that's some sort of evil socialism and you reject it. You have at least one illness: severe delusion. Maybe you have other illnesses too.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled"
If the putative swamp-draiing team in Washington had put John Stossel in charge of the FDA and turned Amazon loose with the ability to buy medications in bulk on the world market and fill US prescriptions for less, Trump's second term would be assured. But apparently, nothing this rompingly popular is even under consideration by the 'populists'.
If anything, the pond scum is getting deeper.
"The study analyzed antibiotic use in doctors’ offices and emergency departments throughout the United States. CDC researchers found that most of these unnecessary antibiotics are prescribed for respiratory conditions caused by viruses – including common colds, viral sore throats, bronchitis, and sinus and ear infections – which do not respond to antibiotics"
https://www.cdc.gov/media/rele...
Addendum
The study also :states that 30% of prescriptions for antibiotics are unnecessary.
More competition in this space would be good. It's disheartening that such a big player as Amazon can't break in.
Amazon is pretty good at consumer delivery, but they're B2B service for repeated mass deliveries doesn't really exist yet. Nor is it in their area of competency. Those supply chains are already pretty well optimized, the ordering will be done via boring forms (for legal reasons), and there's no upselling/tracking of people's desires, and things are moved by the box, not the item. Also, big hospital chains already get bulk discounts.
My guess is they really just weren't able to compete on price and service, not that "there are longstanding relationships that made hospitals decide to lose money.:
Your ad here. Ask me how!
From your link: In 1986, Congress granted GPOs in healthcare "Safe Harbor" from federal anti-kickback statutes"
I suspect that means they are dug in like ticks regardless of their efficiency
Nullius in verba
And I'm sure all the offers frm "Amazon Marketplace" sellers will be full potency, guaranteed equivalent generics, and contain absolutely no sawdust, melamine or industrial waste.
Part of this may be due to antibiotics being used as a diagnostic tool and also because patient expectations may lead to antibiotic prescribing.
Anecdotally, my wife recently had an onset of acute bronchitis, which is, in most cases, a viral infection. Her doctor prescribed antibiotics "just in case" it was bacterial.
Beware of the Leopard.
I'm doubtful that antibiotics shouldn't ever be prescribed for viral cold or sore throat. The reason why is because in many cases viral infections (especially the more painful variety) cause enough inflammation and coughing that the tissue becomes more susceptible to infection from existing bacteria in the air, so a bacterial illness then follows afterwards. I've had doctors prescribe them to me anyways, even after I brought up the issue of them not working with viral colds, and this was the explanation.
If bad viral infections like that are caught early enough, then prednisone along with maximum strength psuedophedrine can be prescribed to avoid creating the bacterial vector thus negating the need for antibiotics (a situation I've also had happen.) While the first is cheap, unfortunately psuedophedrine is no longer cheap ever since it was pulled from shelves, so people are less likely to use it. And truth be told, the ban on that only worked for a few years until meth-heads found another source.
The change in plan comes partly because Amazon has not been able to convince big hospitals to change their traditional purchasing process, which typically involves a number of middlemen and loyal relationships
How I read that is that there are a whole slew of weasels between my check to the doctor or hospital and the medication provider. I'd have to say that America already has a form of "socialized medicine". It's just not cost sharing between end-users; it's end-users supporting middleman. CORRECTION: Make that "middleman that give kickbacks and handjobs to the hospital purchasing agents but offer no value to the end user".
So here's my suggestion: Every bill has to include an itemized list of where the money goes on it's way from me to the actual service provider. By "provider" I mean the doctor or nurse who took my temp or hooked up my IV or stuck a finger up my toxic backside to check my prostate. The "hands-on" person. Basically I want a list of the weasels.
While we're on the subject of prostate diddling and wet dreams, I'd also like the same itemized list for my tax dollars. That's obviously impossible because the government doesn't know where the moneys going.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
Anecdotally, my wife recently had an onset of acute bronchitis, which is, in most cases, a viral infection.
This isn't the whole story. Yes, it is quite rare for a bacterial infection to cause bronchitis, but being the "-itis" it is, inflammation often leads to fissures in the bronchi, which bacteria can colonize, regardless of cause (including i.e. dust, cigarette smoke, prolonged coughing from other infection.) If the doc saw a hint of blood, yellow color, or green color in the phlegm (or if your wife told him of it, or sometimes they can tell by looking at your throat,) that means she already had bacterial infection. Even if it passes that test and the phlegm is white, there's still a risk of secondary infection, especially if it has been a while since the first symptoms appeared. If the doc doesn't have the instrumentation to test for harmful bacteria with a throat swab, then antibiotics "just in case" is a reasonable thing to do, especially if there are any comorbidities.
If caught early enough, and harmful bacterial spores are ruled out, then a combination of NSAID or prednisone combined with mucinex will work fine for preventing a bacterial infection, so no antibiotic would be needed. (pred+mucinex cures all of my symptoms, including severe pain, within a day, only leaving behind an occasional cough for lungs to clean up.)
How did you get hold of my medical records? ;-)
I just have BlueCross but everyone keeps saying that hospitals can just bill whatever they want and the insurance will pay it, but I've never seen that happen. I've had a few procedures and office visits this year and every time the insurance pays a lower rate then what the hospital tried to bill them. I'll see hospital billed rate, negotiated rate, and what the insurance paid. Even for visits before I met my deductible. In what the article is referring to, the hospitals are just stuck with companies like Cardinal and the like because those companies are monoliths that sell the hospital EVERYTHING. That is where the control is. They threaten the hospital to raise prices on everything else if the hospital tries to stop buying drugs through them.
If the doc saw a hint of blood, yellow color, or green color in the phlegm (or if your wife told him of it, or sometimes they can tell by looking at your throat,) that means she already had bacterial infection.
Bollocks. That particular pearl has been deprecated for decades. It just means that there is an inflammatory response going on. And viruses are good at getting that pathway going.
Now, there still are lots of practitioners who at least profess to believe that, but they are sadly behind the times.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Your health insurance and you in the end pay for it!
The story mentions Amazon trying to sell drugs in 47 of the U.S. states. Not Europe. :-D
What is this strange thing called "health insurance" you're speaking about ?~~
Hospital is a middle man - they get markup on what they sell. They have no incentive to lower that cost.
On the other hand, the pharma companies and middle men upstream along the chain have an ultra-strong incentive to dramatically cut their prices and even sell at a loss some of their prescription drugs when making deals with big hospitals :
- Hospital will be interested in making business with the middle man that gives them the biggest volume sales.
- Middle men and pharma companies are interested in being *the hospital's official drug* that young MD trainee get used to prescribe while doing they hospital interships, because they'll develop a habit/brand loyalty and keep prescribing that drug later in their carrier from their doctor's practice office.
- Middle men and pharma companies are interested in being *the hospital's official drug* that most patient get prescribed at the hospital, because chances are higher they'll ask for the same drug when getting a prescrirbtion from their family doctor.
So middle men and pharmacompany would be losing some money when making deals with hospital, but making it back with all the people which keeps using the exact same drug out of the hospital.
(NOTE: Never investigated the thing in depth. I just noticed less usual and more expensive brands for prescription drugs in hospital settings)
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
If you bought from Marketplace instead of from Amazon, you're a fucking idiot who can't be stopped from doing stupid things.
For me, Costco is cheapest, but requires 20 minute drive each way, parking hassle, 10 minute lineups, 2-24 hour wait for prescription fill. Due to the high wait time, usually means two trips. One time when I was in a lot of pain and hurt to stand and Costco had a fill time of next day, the missus said something like "it's best to fill prescriptions a few days in advance so you're not waiting like this". If they weren't the cheapest, I would have had strong words several times I had to wait longer than ETA they provided. Next cheapest option. Real Canadian Superstore is closer, easier parking, less lineups, and 20-45 fill time. About 8-10% more expensive. Then you have someone like Safeway, no lineups and fill time is 5 minutes. But you paid like 25% more than Costco. At $300-$500 every 3 months, that adds up. I'll take the Costco like price delivered to my door for $200, Alex. If Amazon bought the company that prepackaged the daily pills into blister packs for seniors, Amazon would bring another full time cash printer into operation just printing money. Some things you need within hours of seeing a doctor. Other things, like Metformin or other long standing prescriptions, Amazon would be awesome. I imagine the laws that requires pharmacists to speak with the user is likely a showstopper for Amazon delivered drugs.
I get my antibiotics from the Fish store. Same stuff with no prescription needed. I got sick of having to spend $200 just to get a prescription for my sinus infection.