(first diary) Orphan drugs left out of Affordable Health Care

slouchsock

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Wednesday December 08, 2010 · 1:40 PM PST

2010/12/08 · 13:40

UPDATED
I'll add some more information further down about who I am and try to get more links.

Below is the letter I wrote to the editor of NYtimes, in regard to this article

Children’s Hospitals Lose Some Drug Discounts
by Robert Pear

http://www.nytimes.com/...

"Under the new law, hundreds of rural hospitals became eligible for discounts for the first time, but the discounts are not available on orphan drugs, which account for a surprisingly large share of their outpatient pharmacy costs. At the same time, children’s hospitals lost access to discounts on the drugs."

". . . in revising the drug discount program as part of the new health care law, [Congress] blocked these hospitals from continuing to receive price cuts on orphan drugs intended for treatment of diseases affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the United States.

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