Our undercover agents conducted 31 tests on health insurance sales representatives to gauge their use of deceptive practices, such as making false statements about coverage. Agents said they had pre-existing conditions, such as diabetes, and sought coverage. In 8 tests, sales representatives engaged in potentially deceptive practices, such as claiming the pre-existing condition was covered when pl...

The Food and Drug Administration can require drug companies to establish risk-reduction strategies for drugs with serious safety concerns to help ensure their benefits outweigh their risks. For example, a company’s strategy may include restricting a drug’s distribution to prescribers with special training. Some strategies like these have been used to keep drugs out of the hands of companies l...

Do memory supplements contain what they claim? We had three products tested. One product, marketed as Ginkgo biloba, did not contain that ingredient. Instead it contained an unknown substitute; as such the safety of the product is unknown. The second product was marketed as a supplement that included Ginkgo biloba. It also contained an unknown substitute, instead of Ginkgo biloba. The third pro...

The amount of money people spend on prescription drugs has nearly doubled since the1990s. Much of this increase is due to expensive brand-name drugs, but the prices of some generics have also gone up. We looked into changes in the drug industry and found that pharmaceutical and biotechnology sales revenue increased from $534 billion to $775 billion between 2006 and 2015. Additionally, 67% of drug...

Generic drug prices declined overall under Medicare Part D—the voluntary outpatient prescription drug program administered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—since 2010. Specifically, generic drug prices fell 59 percent from the first quarter of 2010 through the second quarter of 2015. This decline reflects a changing basket...

Multiple entities offer medical credit cards, but according to market participants with whom GAO spoke, CareCredit LLC issues the majority of medical credit cards. In 2013, the company reported 4.4 million cardholders and 177,000 participating providers in its network, the majority of which were dental offices. Several other financial institutions also issue medical credit cards, usually offering...

Stakeholders—health care industry groups and experts in antitrust law—had different perspectives on the adequacy of three key aspects of antitrust guidance for health care provider collaboration. First, stakeholders’ perspectives differed on the sufficiency of guidance on clinical integration, which involves integrating clinical activities across providers in a collaborative arrange...

In 2006, GAO investigated companies selling direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests and testified that these companies made medically unproven disease predictions. Although new companies have since been touted as being more reputable--Time named one company's test 2008's "invention of the year"--experts remain concerned that the test results mislead consumers. GAO was asked to investigate DTC genet...

Recent studies have shown that use of herbal dietary supplements--chamomile, echinacea, garlic, ginkgo biloba, and ginseng--by the elderly within the United States has increased substantially. Sellers, such as retail stores, Web sites, and distributors, often claim these supplements help improve memory, circulation, and other bodily functions. GAO was asked to determine (1) whether sellers of herb...

The growing cost of brand-name prescription drugs--FDA-approved drug products that typically have patent protection--is a concern for patients, payers, and providers of health care--particularly when price increases are large and occur suddenly. A 2008 congressional hearing by the Joint Economic Committee drew attention to some small market prescription drugs that had an extraordinary price increa...