‘Shady’: One woman feels misled after federal student loan consolidationHomeless encampments inch closer to neighborhoods
PORT CHARLOTTE ‘Shady’: One woman feels misled after federal student loan consolidation It takes some people decades to pay off their student loans. One woman’s last payment was in sight until she took a gamble she said she was told to take.
FORT MYERS Homeless encampments inch closer to neighborhoods Law enforcement has swept multiple encampments, cleaning the trails of mess and muck left behind, and some of these encampments are right in our backyards.
BIG CYPRESS PRESERVE What changes if Big Cypress National Preserve becomes a Wilderness Area? America’s first nationally designated preserve is in Southwest Florida’s backyard, and it is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Method to treat IBD being used for other health issues Trying to get treatments for the brain when fighting neurological diseases like epilepsy and ALS is a challenge.
FORT MYERS NTSB report reveals new details in helicopter crash after Hurricane Ian The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released its final report on a helicopter crash that occurred in Iona, Florida, shortly after Hurricane Ian.
NAPLES Memorial celebrates the life of John Passidomo Hundreds of friends and family gathered for a memorial at Baker Park in Naples.
‘Latinos in Action’ empowers all students to succeed WINK News talked with teachers who are a part of the program, helping kids reach their full potential.
Immokalee ‘The eyes always draw me in’; Immokalee portrait artist turns dark times into color One of Southwest Florida best portrait artist, Martha Maria Cantu, almost gave up art. Now she’s on the forefront of the city of Immokalee, to make her community filled with color.
GOLDEN GATE Collier commissioners approve agreement for golf complex in Golden Gate Collier commissioners unanimously approved a long term lease and operating agreement to reopen the Golden Gate golf course Tuesday.
PUNTA GORDA Motorcyclists ride in SWFL to help veterans battle suicide A group of veterans from the American Legion are grabbing their helmets and boots for a motorcycle ride to bring awareness to the staggering rates of suicide among veterans.
SARASOTA Alleged sexual abuse victims of Port Charlotte priest comes forward Father Riley worked at three churches in Charlotte County and another in Naples. On Friday, new allegations emerged from a news conference in Sarasota.
PORT CHARLOTTE Port Charlotte priest accused of sexual abuse appears in court A priest accused of sexually abusing four altar boys in Iowa nearly 40 years ago returned to Charlotte County court.
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema prepares for opening at Mercato The newest movie theater in Southwest Florida opens April 29, and it does so with an array of entertainment offerings that go beyond the usual options across the region.
Let’s Waffle opens in Cape Coral Let’s Waffle is one of two businesses the Feix family launched locally, with the FMS Florida Boat Tours and Limousine Service owned and operated by Feix’s husband, Alexander.
Planned Punta Gorda hotel, pub, brewery faces construction delay Kevin Doyle, owner of Celtic Ray Public House Irish pub in downtown Punta Gorda, and his partner, S4 Global Investments, were found in violation of the city’s exposed soils code.
PORT CHARLOTTE ‘Shady’: One woman feels misled after federal student loan consolidation It takes some people decades to pay off their student loans. One woman’s last payment was in sight until she took a gamble she said she was told to take.
FORT MYERS Homeless encampments inch closer to neighborhoods Law enforcement has swept multiple encampments, cleaning the trails of mess and muck left behind, and some of these encampments are right in our backyards.
BIG CYPRESS PRESERVE What changes if Big Cypress National Preserve becomes a Wilderness Area? America’s first nationally designated preserve is in Southwest Florida’s backyard, and it is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Method to treat IBD being used for other health issues Trying to get treatments for the brain when fighting neurological diseases like epilepsy and ALS is a challenge.
FORT MYERS NTSB report reveals new details in helicopter crash after Hurricane Ian The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released its final report on a helicopter crash that occurred in Iona, Florida, shortly after Hurricane Ian.
NAPLES Memorial celebrates the life of John Passidomo Hundreds of friends and family gathered for a memorial at Baker Park in Naples.
‘Latinos in Action’ empowers all students to succeed WINK News talked with teachers who are a part of the program, helping kids reach their full potential.
Immokalee ‘The eyes always draw me in’; Immokalee portrait artist turns dark times into color One of Southwest Florida best portrait artist, Martha Maria Cantu, almost gave up art. Now she’s on the forefront of the city of Immokalee, to make her community filled with color.
GOLDEN GATE Collier commissioners approve agreement for golf complex in Golden Gate Collier commissioners unanimously approved a long term lease and operating agreement to reopen the Golden Gate golf course Tuesday.
PUNTA GORDA Motorcyclists ride in SWFL to help veterans battle suicide A group of veterans from the American Legion are grabbing their helmets and boots for a motorcycle ride to bring awareness to the staggering rates of suicide among veterans.
SARASOTA Alleged sexual abuse victims of Port Charlotte priest comes forward Father Riley worked at three churches in Charlotte County and another in Naples. On Friday, new allegations emerged from a news conference in Sarasota.
PORT CHARLOTTE Port Charlotte priest accused of sexual abuse appears in court A priest accused of sexually abusing four altar boys in Iowa nearly 40 years ago returned to Charlotte County court.
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema prepares for opening at Mercato The newest movie theater in Southwest Florida opens April 29, and it does so with an array of entertainment offerings that go beyond the usual options across the region.
Let’s Waffle opens in Cape Coral Let’s Waffle is one of two businesses the Feix family launched locally, with the FMS Florida Boat Tours and Limousine Service owned and operated by Feix’s husband, Alexander.
Planned Punta Gorda hotel, pub, brewery faces construction delay Kevin Doyle, owner of Celtic Ray Public House Irish pub in downtown Punta Gorda, and his partner, S4 Global Investments, were found in violation of the city’s exposed soils code.
MGN TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – As the furor over soaring U.S. prescription drug prices escalates and outrageous price hikes by several smaller drugmakers give the entire industry a black eye, the biggest U.S.-based drugmaker is expanding financial assistance to patients. Pfizer Inc. said Thursday that it’s doubling the allowable income level for people to receive dozens of its medicines without a copayment because more patients are in need. Patients’ insurance plans generally must pay the bulk of the drug’s cost. Some critics say this isn’t the best way to keep drugs affordable for everyone. “It’s not addressing the price of the drug,” said Clare Krusing, a spokesperson for the trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans. “This is the wrong approach when you consider the cost impact that patients have on the back end,” because insurance plans eventually raise patients’ monthly premiums to compensate, said Krusing. She added that widely used drugmaker coupon programs, which either cover patient copayments for a specific brand-name drug or limit the copayments to a small amount, usually are temporary, lasting a year or so. Insurers and other critics say such programs increase overall health spending, particularly ones that nudge patients to stay on brand-name drugs when cheaper generic versions are available. New medicines for cancer, hepatitis C and rare diseases carry list prices of $100,000 or more for a year or a course of treatment, though insurers often get big discounts. Meanwhile, insurance plans increasingly require patients to pay a large percentage of the price for the costliest drugs, rather than a fixed monthly amount. The move comes amid fierce criticism by patients and politicians, as well as a growing number of government investigations, of six-figure prices for new medications and huge price hikes on old ones with little or no competition – up to 5,000 percent, for a drug for a life-threatening parasitic infection now sold by Turing Pharmaceuticals. Turing, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. and a handful of other companies have been accused of price gouging. Meanwhile, a continuing wave of mergers of both brand-name and generic drug manufacturers threatens to further limit competition, the primary control on prices in the U.S. Pharmaceuticals analyst Erik Gordon, a professor at University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, said drugmakers face “a wave of hearings and public beatings” over exorbitant drug prices. “If you’re Pfizer, you want to look like you’ve made a voluntary, charitable move before you get beat up” in a congressional hearing, Gordon said. Most drugmakers offer financial assistance to patients, particularly when pricey new drugs are first launched and the companies are trying to get patients to start taking them, so they can recoup their $1 billion-plus in development costs. The industry’s 20-year-old Partnership for Prescription Assistance connects patients to about 475 assistance programs, nearly 20 of them run by drugmakers. Pfizer Chief Executive Ian Read told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview that the New York company isn’t boosting assistance due to the heightened scrutiny of prices, but because more and more patients can’t afford needed medicines. Read, the immediate past board chairman of industry trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said Pfizer is “responding to challenges patients are having.” He cited insurance plans that now shift more costs onto patients through higher medication copayments and deductibles that must be met before coverage kicks in, plus some Affordable Care Act exchange plans and insurance formularies that exclude pricier prescription drugs. “There are people who are falling through the cracks through no fault of their own,” Read said. “As a stopgap, we’re willing to do this.” Under the Pfizer RxPathways program, the company will cover patient copayments for 44 medicines for both uninsured and underinsured patients earning up to four times the federal poverty level, up from twice that level. The new limits are $47,080 annually for a single person and $97,000 for a family of four. The program covers many popular Pfizer brands: pain relievers Celebrex and Lyrica, smoking cessation aids Chantix and Nicotrol, the Prevnar 13 pneumococcal vaccine and erectile dysfunction pill Viagra. Nearly 20 additional Pfizer medicines, including numerous expensive cancer drugs, already were free to patients making up to four times the poverty level. Last year, the RxPathways program helped about 350,000 patients. Pfizer expects to help a few hundred thousand more than that next year. Between 2010 and 2014, the program helped nearly 2.5 million people get more than 30 million Pfizer prescriptions worth more than $7 billion at list prices. There’s no sign other drugmakers are expanding their assistance programs, and Gilead Sciences Inc., maker of new hepatitis C medicines with list prices of around $90,000 for a course of treatment, recently decreased the number of patients it is helping, forcing more costs onto insurers. Merck & Co., the second-biggest U.S. drugmaker by revenue, since 2010 has offered assistance to patients with incomes up to five times the federal poverty level for some of its most-expensive medicines and four times that level for the rest. Asked why Pfizer doesn’t just reduce list prices for its drugs in the U.S., where medicines generally cost a few times more than in other wealthy countries, Read said high prices are needed to fund innovative research on future drugs. That’s long been the industry’s mantra. “Our prices, we think, are appropriate,” Read said. “We can’t lower the prices enough for (many patients) to afford it.” ___ Online: www.PfizerRxPathways.com