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To: Anthony Wong who wrote (193)	6/3/1998 4:37:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 1722

Sizable Health Care Cost Rise Seen JUNE 03, 03:31 EDT By JOHN HENDREN AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) - Many employers will get a little something extra in their health plans in 1999: double-digit cost increases. Health care rates increased only 3 percent to 5 percent a year from 1994 to 1996, but employers are expected to face substantial jumps in health care costs in 1999. ''I think the honeymoon's over,'' said Henry Moyer, a health care consultant with Hirschfeld Stern Moyer & Ross in New York. Traditional plans that let the patient choose the doctor will raise costs the most, 12 percent to 15 percent, according to health care consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide. Health maintenance organizations will raise prices 5 percent to 7 percent. Prescription drug plans in which pharmacies charge insurers directly will cost 15 percent to 22 percent more. Costly health care mergers, ''lifestyle'' drugs like Viagra and an aging population are expected to lead to double-digit increases in health care costs next year. Many health insurance companies lost money last year, and they are going to be less willing to hold the line on rates for 1999, analysts say. Analysts say employers will simply pass on the added costs to employees. For many workers, that probably means health plans that offer fewer choices. Or it could mean higher copayments, premiums and deductibles. ''This is the final betrayal of the HMO promise,'' said Jamie Court of the Santa Monica, Calif., group Consumers for Quality Care. ''HMOs basically can't be trusted to manage your care or manage your bills.'' Watson Wyatt Worldwide issued its estimate this week based on an informal survey of 445 executives who buy health care coverage in companies with more than 500 employees in large metropolitan areas. Only 49 percent of insurance plans made money last year, according to researcher InterStudy Publications. ''The insurance companies and HMOs have underestimated the rate of increase in the cost of providing managed care,'' said John Salek, a vice president and health care analyst at REL Consultancy Group. ''I think a lot of these insurers just lowballed the price to get marketshare.'' At the same time, insurers such as Aetna U.S. Healthcare and United Healthcare are coping with expensive mergers. Consumers are pressuring companies to cover new ''lifestyle'' drugs such as the $10-a-pill impotence tablet Viagra and the newly approved weight-loss drug Meridia. Pharmaceutical companies are developing higher-priced drugs. And the baby boom generation is aging, developing more ailments. Insurers say they have little choice but to raise rates. Kaiser Permanente, the nation's largest HMO, has already told employers it will seek increases of up to 12 percent. Kaiser is making up for small increases in recent years, spokeswoman Beverly Hayon said. With the introduction of Viagra, ''it's clear that demand for that pill alone could exceed what we spend on all the antibiotics put together, which would be well over $50 million a year,'' Ms. Hayon said. ''I don't think lifestyle drugs have been as much a factor in the past.''

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (193)	6/3/1998 4:39:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 1722

Lawyer: Man Wronged in Viagra Case JUNE 02, 17:54 EDT By VERENA DOBNIK Associated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP) - OK, so he took Viagra. But a man accused of philandering after using the impotence drug is a sickly widower whose thrice-married companion just wants his money, his lawyer said Tuesday. ''Have you ever heard of an inanimate object breaking up your marriage? You might as well name a chair,'' said Raoul Felder, the lawyer for Francis Bernardo, 70. Roberta Burke, 61, has filed a $2 million lawsuit claiming that Viagra broke up her longtime relationship with Bernardo, a retired construction executive. Sex researchers have said the allegations demonstrate the dangers for some relationships when men take Viagra and suddenly have an increased interest in sex. Ms. Burke said in court Tuesday that before Viagra, ''I was looking forward to our old age, holding hands and walking on the beach.'' She said her man was impotent until he popped the tiny blue pill on May 1. They had sex for the first time in four years, said her lawyer, Dominic Barbara. Two days later, Ms. Burke says, Bernardo walked out, leaving a note boasting of his prowess. ''When he got sick, she didn't say, 'I'm leaving.' She stayed with him for all those years,'' Barbara said. ''But when Viagra came into the marriage, he's out the door in two days.'' Felder said it wasn't a fair portrayal of Bernardo. ''He's a very sweet man who's a victim here,'' said Felder, a divorce lawyer who has represented Mike Tyson's ex-wife, Robin Givens and Christie Brinkley's ex-husband, Richard Taubman. ''He's a retired gentleman who's had open heart surgery, a widower. He was married only once.'' Ms. Burke was married three other times, Felder said. ''And now, she's taking the only shot she has, for what I have in my wallet - money.'' Barbara said Bernardo has a new girlfriend in New Jersey. Felder conceded: ''He may have another relationship.'' The lawsuit, filed May 15, is both a palimony and a divorce action. Barbara said the couple are considered married under common law in South Carolina, where the two met in 1988. Felder predicted that New York law would not consider them married. In that case, Ms. Burke would seek palimony. The judge adjourned the case until June 16.

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (193)	6/3/1998 4:45:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1722

(Schering-Plough) FDA OKs Potent Hepatitis C Drug JUNE 03, 14:00 EDT By LAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The Food and Drug Administration approved a combination of two powerful antiviral drugs today to treat liver-destroying hepatitis C, a therapy that promises to be almost 10 times better than standard treatment. Rebetron therapy is not a cure, the FDA warned - and it comes with some serious side effects. But the approval means new hope for patients who have failed the only other hepatitis C treatment: 45 percent of them had dramatically suppressed levels of the liver virus after Rebetron treatment vs. just 5 percent of patients who merely tried standard therapy again. Rebetron is a combination of interferon A injections, today's standard treatment, and a new oral version of the antiviral drug ribavirin. Therapy takes six months. But the FDA said patients must be closely watched for side effects. Because of those reactions, the FDA decided that Rebetron should be used only by patients who relapse after standard interferon treatment. Both women and men must use birth control while taking Rebetron and for six months afterwards, until the potent medicine fully clears their bodies, the FDA said. In pregnant women, Rebetron can cause serious birth defects and even fetal death, the agency warned. But the FDA also warned male Rebetron patients to practice birth control as well, in case the drug affects sperm. Other risks include severe anemia in certain patients and occasionally psychiatric symptoms such as depression that led to rare suicides, the FDA said. Most patients also experience flulike symptoms that respond to over-the-counter treatment. Manufacturer Schering-Plough Corp. said it would begin shipping Rebetron to pharmacies Monday. A price was not immediately announced. About 4 million Americans have hepatitis C, which kills about 10,000 annually and is the leading reason for liver transplants. The vast majority of patients caught the virus from contaminated intravenous drug needles. But thousands were infected by blood transfusions prior to 1992, when scientists developed the first effective way to protect the blood supply. Many don't know they're infected because they experience few if any symptoms for years, and about 15 percent of patients somehow recover on their own. But others develop serious, even fatal, liver disease. Few respond to standard treatment with interferon A, a synthetic version of an immune system protein that naturally fights viruses - and of those, many later relapse. So Schering studied the combination therapy, and found it significantly more potent: Six months after treatment ended, 34 percent of patients treated with interferon alone had some improvement in liver inflammation, but 50 percent of the Rebetron patients' livers had improved.