Washington Post (Associated Press)
by Linda Johnson

For Bridgett Snelten, changing her health insurance meant enduring wild blood sugar swings, bouts of vomiting and weight gain. The Sandy, Utah mother of two young girls has diabetes and has had to change health insurance plans three years in a row. Twice, new insurers wouldn’t cover Trulicity, a once-a-week injected diabetes medicine she’d been taking that helped control her blood sugar tightly. Instead, they made her return to an inexpensive, twice-a-day injected diabetes drug she and her doctor knew didn’t work for her… Dr. Stephen Kopecky, a cardiologist who focuses on prevention at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said one recent appeal for approval for a type of new cholesterol drug went on so long that his patient had to have a stent implanted in a blood vessel before she finally got approval. He thinks the drug could have prevented the procedure.

Reach: Weekday circulation of The Washington Post is more than 356,000. The Post's website receives more than 32.7 million unique visitors each month.

Additional coverage: Associated Press (original story),  ABC News, New York Times, Star Tribune

Context:  Stephen Kopecky, M.D. is a Mayo Clinic cardiologist and internist. His research interests include cardiovascular clinical trials primarily in coronary artery disease and acute coronary syndromes.

Contact:  Traci Klein

Tags: Associated Press, Dr. Stephen Kopecky, prescription drug prices, Uncategorized, Washington Post