• Center on Health Equity and Access
  • Clinical
  • Health Care Cost
  • Health Care Delivery
  • Insurance
  • Policy
  • Technology
  • Value-Based Care

Dr Thomas Graf Discusses the Effect of Novel Therapies on Private Coverage

Video

Thomas Graf, MD, chief medical officer and vice president, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, discusses the impact of new therapies on private insurance coverage for cancer patients.

Thomas Graf, MD, chief medical officer and vice president, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, discusses the impact of new therapies on private insurance coverage for cancer patients.

Transcript

Will novel therapies have an effect on private coverage?

It’s going to drive cost in a way that’s not been seen. I mean, we’ve seen some explosion in pharmacy costs now exceeding often the physician costs for health insurers. That’s gonna leap another factor here, is that the drug costs continue to escalate as new therapies continue to be produced for more and more patients. The potential number of patients that are eligible for some of the drugs that are available is quite small. The newer drugs will have much wider approachable patient panels. So, the ability to impact total cost for insurers, for employers, for the federal government is dramatic. So, I think some employers will thereby not be able to offer coverage because it will become so expensive to their employees which will drive them to different markets. Clearly, there’s a reduction in the insurance mandate. So, I suspect a lot of patients will go from having private coverage to not having private coverage and then we’re going to have a real issue because access to those drugs will be very restricted in that group.

Related Videos
Shawn Kwatra, MD, dermatologist, John Hopkins University
Dr Laura Ferris Discusses Safety, Efficacy of JNJ-2113 in Patients with Plaque Psoriasis
dr krystyn van vliet
Martin Dahl, PhD, senior vice president, AnaptysBio
Jeff Stark, MD, vice president, head of medical immunology, UCB.
Jonathan Silverberg, MD, PhD, MPH, FAAD, professor of dermatology, director of clinical research and patch testing, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences
Monica Li, MD, University of British Columbia
Robert Sidbury, MD, MPH, FAAD, professor of pediatrics, division head of dermatology, Seattle Children's Hospital, University of Washington School of Medicine
Raj Chovatiya, MD, PhD, associate professor at the Rosalind Franklin University Chicago Medical School, founder and director of the Center for Medical Dermatology and Immunology Research
Related Content
© 2024 MJH Life Sciences
AJMC®
All rights reserved.