Laura is the vice president of content for The American Journal of Managed Care® (AJMC®) and all its brands, including The American Journal of Accountable Care®, Evidence-Based Oncology™, and The Center for Biosimilars®. She has been working on AJMC® since 2014 and has been with AJMC®’s parent company, MJH Life Sciences®, since 2011.
She has an MA in business and economic reporting from New York University. You can connect with Laura on LinkedIn or Twitter.
Healthcare Spending Slows, but Prescription Drugs Remain Top Driver of Growth
August 28th 2015In the second quarter of 2015 the healthcare spending growth rate was 5.9%, a decline from 6.6% in the first quarter of the year, but the health spending growth rate is still 2 percentage points higher than rates experienced between 2009 and 2013.
Insurance Exchanges Need to Better Support Patient Decision Making
August 23rd 2015An analysis of data available on HealthCare.gov and 12 state-based exchanges while consumers shopped for plans found that sites should take more steps to better support consumers in making informed health plan decisions.
Exchange Enrollees More Cost Conscious but Less Satisfied With Plans
August 21st 2015Enrollees on the public health insurance exchanges have shown themselves to be savvy, informed consumers, according to the results from the 2015 Survey of US Health Care Consumers report from the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.
Percent of Californians Enrolled in Medi-Cal Now Exceeds Uninsured Rate
August 19th 2015As California reduced the number of adults ages 19 to 64 years without health insurance by 15.5% from 2013 to 2014, Medi-Cal enrollment among the same age group rose from 12.9% to 19.2% during the same time period, according to new data from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
Rural Older Adults With Generalized Anxiety Disorder Benefit From Telephone Therapy
August 6th 2015Older adults in rural areas face a number of barriers to getting treatment for mental health issues, such as generalized anxiety disorder, but the use of telephone-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy can yield significant results.
Providers View Quality Metrics Negatively, Still Unsure of the Impact of ACOs
August 5th 2015Half of primary care providers have generally negative views when it comes to the increased reliance on quality metrics to assess their performance, according to a new study from The Commonwealth Fund and Kaiser Family Foundation.
Augmented Intervention Needed to Prevent Increase of Drug-Resistant Infections
August 5th 2015Without nationwide improvements in infection control and antibiotic prescribing, drug-resistant infections and C. difficile are expected to increase, but coordinated efforts could prevent 619,000 infections over 5 years.
Medication Synchronization Program Yields Clinical, Financial Benefits
August 4th 2015Using an appointment-based medication synchronization program can improve adherence rates among patients taking chronic medications, according to a new study published in the Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy.
More Than Half of Hospitals Penalized for Medicare Readmissions
August 4th 2015In the fourth year of the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, which makes hospitals pay closer attention to their patients after discharge, half of the nation's hospitals will be penalized by Medicare because of their readmissions.
Hospitals May Be Unfairly Penalized for Unpreventable Venous Thromboembolism
August 3rd 2015A study attempting to characterize the true preventability of venous thromboembolism determined that financial penalties based on the total number of patients who suffer blood clots in the lung or leg may be unfairly imposed.