Side effects may include gouging: Tricare, the government-run health care system for military personnel, has limited coverage of compound pharmacies like the one that billed more than $90,000 for a single dispensation of a medicinal cream of dubious value that was never used by the patient, reports columnist Tom Philpott. This has prompted pushback from congress members who — you guessed it — get campaign cash from the compound pharmacy industry.
It’s enough to make us taxpayers want to bonk ‘em upside the head with one of those fabled $200 hammers.
Devil’s in the details: A devil’s advocate in the Haggen executive suite might have saved the Bellingham-based grocer from going through with its disastrous purchase of 146 former Albertsons stores, assuming the head honcho would have listened to him or her, writes columnist James McCusker.
Fair enough, but there was an advocate for the devil in the White House during the run-up to another misbegotten adventure, the Iraq war. And in that case the head honcho listened carefully to Vice President Cheney.
— Mark Carlson, Herald staff
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