Becker's Hospital Review

50 CMO / CARE DELIVERY Eli Lilly caps insulin at $35 a month By Erica Carbajal E ffective immediately, Eli Lilly is capping out-of-pocket costs on its insulin products at $35 a month. e price cap automatically applies to people with private insurance. Uninsured individuals who sign up for Eli Lilly's insulin value savings program are also eligible. About 30 percent of Americans with diabetes who rely on insulin use an Eli Lilly product. "Lilly is taking these actions to make it easier to access Lilly insulin and help Americans who may have difficulty navigating a complex healthcares system that may keep them from getting affordable insulin," the company said in a news release. Eli Lilly's insulin price cap is in line with the Inflation Reduction Act — signed into law in August — which limited the monthly out-of- pocket cost for insulin for seniors enrolled in Medicare Part D. In addition to the price caps for consumers, Lilly is lowering the list price for its most commonly prescribed insulin products by 70 percent. Experts told NBC News the move was driven by both political pressure and competition from companies aiming to disrupt the pharmacy industry, such as Civica Rx and Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co. "e company is reacting to a tremendous amount of existing and upcoming competition for these drugs," Stacie Dusetizina, PhD a health policy professor at Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, told NBC News. n 'I wish we could see our vet instead': Patient burnout grows By Mackenzie Bean H ealthcare experiences defined by long wait times, rushed visits with overworked clinicians and high bills are disillusioning U.S. patients, TIME reported Feb. 27. Patients have long been dissatisfied with certain elements of their healthcare journeys, but data suggests these frustrations have magnified amid the pandemic. In 2019, 43 percent of Americans reported being unsatisfied with the U.S. healthcare system, an Ipsos survey found. In 2022, just 12 percent of U.S. adults said healthcare was handled "extremely" or "very well" in the U.S., according to a separate poll from the associated Press–NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Jen Russon, a mother of two from Florida, said her family pays $400 a month for insurance in return for what she feels are rushed and underwhelming healthcare visits. "I wish we could see our vet instead, because they really spend a lot of time" with her pets, she told TIME. Physician burnout, which also increased amid the pandemic, further complicates this issue, according to Bengt Arnetz, MD, PhD, a professor at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine who studies primary care. "Providers feel stressed, burned out, less empathetic. A lot of times they don't engage the patient, and the patient wants to be engaged," he told TIME. n Image Credit: Diabetes.co.uk

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