Lifesaving stroke drug more expensive for rural hospitals

Daniel Allar | September 18, 2017 | Cardiovascular Business | Economics

Because of the orphan drug exclusion written into the Affordable Care Act (ACA), rural hospitals can’t get the same discounts on some pharmaceuticals available to larger hospitals.

That includes the clot-busting stroke drug Activase, which costs $8,010 for a single dose at Stone County Medical Center in Mountain View, Arkansas. Just 36 miles away, a regional hospital gets an 80 percent discount on the same drug, according to a Kaiser Health News report.

“If we don’t keep this drug [in stock], people will die,” Maddy Langston, hospital pharmacist at Stone County Medical Center, told KHN.

Read the full story at the following link:

Without Price Breaks, Rural Hospitals Struggle To Stock Costly, Lifesaving Drugs

Daniel Allar

Daniel joined TriMed’s Chicago editorial team in 2017 as a Cardiovascular Business writer. He previously worked as a writer for daily newspapers in North Dakota and Indiana.

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Lifesaving stroke drug more expensive for rural hospitals

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