Mes: enero 2021

ALLENTOWN, Pa., Jan. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — The Lehigh County Controller’s Office reviewed Lehigh County’s prescription drug plan administered through Highmark which lost savings of almost $1.4 million, while battling a lack of transparency and openness about drug costs. The report sheds light on the middlemen of the insurance world, Pharmacy Benefit Managers or PBMs and their power.

PBM’s directly negotiate with pharmacies to determine how much they will reimburse them for the cost of their drugs and receive rebates from pharmaceutical companies to improve the likelihood that consumers will utilize a preferred drug.

These rebates should in theory be passed back to the insurer, in this case, Lehigh County.  However, this process does not always occur and savings can depend in large part on the negotiation of the contract.

Lehigh County elected to choose a fixed discount structure, meaning that it received a flat rate savings for each employee on its healthcare plan. Lehigh County is self-insured. It could have elected to take full rebate value which results from savings passed from the pharmaceutical company to the Pharmacy Benefit Manager, but chose not to do this. In 2019, Lehigh County found that the actual rebate value exceeded the fixed discount by $700,000.

«This audit exposes what many of us have known, that our healthcare system is wasteful, lacks transparency and is subject to the greed of Pharmacy Benefit Managers that are more interested in profit,» said Controller Mark Pinsley.

The Controller’s Office also identified $654,749 in potential drug cost savings through evaluating competitor pricing. The Controller’s Office recommends that the county contractually obligate Highmark to utilize the lowest cost local drug price and mandate reference to the National Average Drug Acquisition Cost (NADAC) used by Medicare and Medicaid.

Lehigh County would have saved $1.6 million had it taken the rebates between 2017 and 2019. 

Furthermore, the Controller’s Office took issue with Express Scripts online drug delivery service which competes with locally owned pharmacies that often offer competitive pricing. Express Scripts is based out of Cincinnati, Ohio. The Controller’s Office spoke about the practice of billion-dollar corporations shifting local tax dollars way away from small businesses within the county and state.

«Throughout the audit process my office found numerous instances in which better negotiating on the part of the county may have resulted in more savings, stronger support of local small businesses and important contractual provisions requiring transparency with the Controller’s Office on the true cost of prescription drugs,» said Pinsley.

PBM’s remain one of the most profitable corporate entities in the world. CVS Health and Express Scripts have over $278 billion in revenue annually. Disney’s total revenue in 2016 was $55 billion, according to the Pennsylvania Pharmacist’s Association.

The Controller’s Office full audit report with its recommendations, and responses from both McGriff and Lehigh County’s Department of Administration are included with the press release.

For the full audit results please follow the link: https://www.lehighcounty.org/Portals/0/PDF/controller/General_Reports/Highmark%20Audit%20Final%20Issue%20Public%20Release.pdf?ver=Bi-kgiHO6hwG0v9G811WZw%3d%3d

Contact: Joshua Siegel
Phone: 610-782-3082
Email: 290304@email4pr.com

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lehigh-county-controller-takes-on-highmark-health-insurance-301218070.html

SOURCE Lehigh County Controller’s Office

BOSTON, Jan. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Koura, a global leader in the development, manufacture, and supply of fluoroproducts, has today launched the first of its next generation low GWP refrigerants, Klea® 473A, following proposed classification as an A1 refrigerant by the ASHRAE SSPC34 committee.

Koura Klea® 473A is designed to achieve high performance with a significantly lower global warming potential (GWP) than existing refrigerants in ultra-low temperature cooling applications such as high value cold chains, vaccine storage, climate test chambers, transportation and other medical uses.

Today, manufacturers and users of ultra-low temperature refrigeration systems are forced to choose between acceptable cooling performance and the environmental impact of these systems.  Existing non-flammable refrigerants used in ultra-low temperature systems typically have a high Global Warming Potential (GWP).  Koura KLEA® 473A breaks this trade off with capacity and energy efficiency better than R23 and a GWP of 1,830, which is an 85% reduction compared to either R23 (GWP 14,800) or R-508 (13,396 GWP)

Klea® 473A is a game changing solution to the ever- increasing demand for ultra-low temperature refrigerants across various industries. Koura is currently in discussions with relevant stakeholders in a range of applications including deep sea shipping and bio-medical storage. This includes potential application in vaccine storage to support the fight against Covid-19. 

Koura is investing in significant innovations in its Koura Klea® range of refrigerant products and the launch of Klea® 473A is the start of the commercialisation of sustainable, energy efficient and low GWP refrigerant solutions with more products to come.

Dave Smith, Downstream Business Director at Koura said, «The launch of Klea® 473A is an exciting milestone in our next generation refrigerant programme which aims to develop a new portfolio of sustainable, energy efficient, low GWP refrigerant solutions for a variety of heating, cooling and refrigeration applications.»

Part of the Orbia community of companies, working together to tackle some of the world’s most complex challenges, Koura is a leading provider of products and solutions across multiple industries including petrochemical, construction, automotive and pharmaceutical. Koura’s Klea® refrigerant gases are trusted by the world’s biggest organisations across commercial refrigeration, automotive and stationary air conditioning applications.  

For more information on Koura, please visit: www.kouraglobal.com

Notes for editors:

Koura Klea® 473A key attributes

–  Low GWP of 1,830 – 85% reduction compared to R23 (R23 GWP: 14,800, R508 GWP: 13,396)
–  Exceeds F-Gas regulations
–  Non-flammable
–  Effective to at least -75°C
–  Improved cooling capacity and energy efficiency compared to R23

Applications:

–  High value cold chain
–  Medical
–  Pharmaceutical
–  Test chambers

Koura formerly known as Mexichem Fluor

Koura is a global leader in the development, manufacture and supply of fluoroproducts that play a fundamental role in enhancing everyday lives. Part of the Orbia community of companies, working together to tackle some of the world’s most complex challenges, Koura is a leading provider of innovative products and solutions across multiple sectors including petrochemical, construction, transportation and telecom. Koura’s products are used in a vast range of applications including the construction of towns and cities, keeping homes cool, food fresh and even in the treatment of respiratory conditions, providing the medical propellant used in 75% of the world’s Metered Dose Inhalers (MDIs). Headquartered in Boston, Koura has commercial activities across the world, with operations in Runcorn, UK, Mexico, St Gabriel, USA, Toronto, Mumbai, Mihara & Tokyo, Japan.

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/koura-launches-klea-473a-301218111.html

SOURCE Koura

NEW YORK, Jan. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — FFI Solutions, a research and analytics-driven advisory firm committed to climate-aligned investing, announced that its Energy Transition Long-Short US (ETLS-US) model portfolio closed 2020 as one of the notable performing indexes on the SMArtX Advisory platform. For the year ending 12/31/2020, ETLS-US was the #2 performing SRI/ESG index model on SMArtX out of 32 models, and the #1 long/short index model out of 30 offerings. In addition, ETLS-US was fifth overall performing model out of all 715 models and indexes widely available on the SMArtX platform. The ETLS-US index model on SMArtX posted annual returns of 83.01% for the year ending 12/31/2020 compared to a return of 18.4% S&P 500 for the same time period1.

ETLS-US is a thematic rules-based investment strategy launched as a model portfolio on SMArtX in February 2019. Designed to capture returns associated with the technological, economic, and demographic trends that favor clean energy over fossil fuels, the model portfolio is long clean energy, advanced-transportation, and grid-related companies. Short positions are selected from The Carbon Underground 200TM (CU200), FFI Solutions’ exclusionary list of the top global publicly-owned coal, oil, and gas companies ranked by the potential carbon emissions embedded in their reserves.

«The move toward climate-aligned investment strategies is accelerating, as investors now demand clean energy and other ESG-focused opportunities,» explains Michael Palmieri, CEO of FFI Solutions. «In the fourth quarter of 2020, we saw a 460% increase in RIA assets using the ETLS-US model, inclusive of returns. For RIAs seeking an innovative strategy that tracks the energy transition, our unique ETLS-US model addresses clients’ needs for responsible investments and performance.»

About FFI Solutions
FFI Solutions (http://www.ffisolutions.com) is a research and analytics-driven advisory firm that empowers investors and asset managers to transition to more sustainable investments. Rooted in climate change impact since 2013, it is the creator of The Carbon Underground 200TM, an exclusionary screen used by some of the world’s leading asset managers and investment firms as the tool for the transition of more than $7 billion in fossil free portfolios and newly created sustainable products. Its affiliate, FFI Advisors, (http://www.ffiadvisors.com), is a performance- and mission-driven investment manager focused on developing climate-aligned strategies.

About SMArtX Advisory Solutions
SMArtX Advisory Solutions is the next generation managed accounts technology provider and manages SMArtX, a turnkey asset management platform and the only platform to seamlessly offer traditional, alternative, and passive direct index strategies in a unified managed account structure. The firm also licenses its proprietary managed accounts technology to replace help firms replace legacy technology and power several investment platforms for RIAs, broker-dealers, and asset managers. Learn more about SMArtX Advisory Solutions at http://www.smartxadvisory.com.

1 Rankings and performance provided by SMArtX Advisory Solutions. Index and model portfolio fact sheets available to RIAs on the SMArtX platform.

Media Contact

Lucy Di Rosa, FFI Solutions, +1 (646) 568-5900 Ext: 703, lucydirosa@ffisolutions.com

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SOURCE FFI Solutions