With little fanfare, a private Medicare delivery system owned by insurer Anthem Inc. moved thousands of elderly patients with diabetes from costly new insulin drugs such as Sanofi’s Lantus to older and cheaper insulin products. The health system saved millions. But many of the patients ended up better off financially, too. While blood sugar increased slightly on average, there was no rise in emergency-room visits or hospitalizations from dangerously low or high blood sugar. That’s the conclusion of a new study from Harvard Medical School researchers that could change how diabetics are treated and change the fortunes of drugmakers. (Robert Langreth, Bloomberg News)