Basic lifesaving medicines that emergency workers use every day are getting so costly, officials are scrambling to figure out how to pay for them. And as patients struggle with drug costs, EMS workers and emergency room doctors are seeing the impact.
The price paid by Philadelphia Emergency Medical Services for naloxone, which reverses opioid overdoses, has risen 150 percent since 2013. That of calcium chloride, administered to heart attack patients, has soared nearly 290 percent. Lasix, used to treat heart failure and kidney disease, has spiked nearly 820 percent.
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