Laura Joszt, MA

Medigap, the Medicare supplement coverage that helps fee-for-service beneficiaries fill gaps in their benefits, continues to be important for low-income beneficiaries and especially those living in rural areas, according to America's Health Insurance Plans.

A study of the use of patient portals among older Americans found clear disparities in the registration and use of this technology. The results were published in the Journal of the Americans Medical Informatics Association.

Enlisting electronic health record (EHR) super users to provide support to employees is not enough to foster EHR implementation success-super users' behaviors can be an important influence, researchers from Yale University found.

The use of a tiered network was associated with the increased use of hospitals on the preferred and middle tiers for planned hospital admissions compared with the nonpreferred tier, according to a paper in Health Services Research.

Nearly all doctors reported barriers to conducting effective end-of-life conversations with patients, and most felt that it was especially difficult to discuss with patients of a different ethnicity, according to researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine.

Hospital patients felt an increased financial burden in 2014 due to a combination of rising procedure costs and higher deductibles, according to TransUnion Healthcare's Q4 2014 report.

Being admitted to the hospital on the weekend is associated with an increased likelihood of a hospital-acquired condition, which in turn increases cost and length of stay, reported researchers from the University of Southern California.

Adoption of alternative payment models that reduce the number of visits to the emergency department could cause unintended consequences for emergency care through a reduction in revenue, according to researchers at the Brookings Institute.

While statins can prevent disease in older adults, they can also cause potentially serious side effects that could outweigh the benefits, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

While most patients do not benefit from early follow-up after they are discharged from the hospital, researchers from Duke University Medical Center and Community Care of North Carolina found follow-up within 7 days was associated with substantially lower readmission rates among patients with high clinical complexity and high risk of readmission.

Improvements in quality of care and patient safety in hospitals have saved $12 billion from 2011-2013, according to a new report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. However, while disparities in access to care are diminishing, they still remain.

A study of 8 states that chose to expand Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act found budget savings of $1.8 billion as well as revenue gains by the end of 2015, just one-and-a-half years into expansion.

Studies have shown that income is tied to most matters of health, including life expectancy, prevalence of diseases, and health behaviors. The Urban Institute and the Center on Society and Health have analyzed emerging evidence and prospects of income-related policies that work to improve population health.

While a record number of hospitals are adopting computerized physician order entry systems, which can substantially reduce common medication errors, there is still work to do, according to a new report from The Leapfrog Group.

Although physicians are getting better at using electronic medical records, fewer believe the technology has improved health outcomes over the last 2 years, according to a survey of more than 600 US physicians from Accenture.

Patients want to be asked permission to participate in research even if it only involves reviews of anonymized medical records, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

With just hours to go before an automatic 21% cut in Medicare fees was scheduled to take effect, the Senate passed legislation to repeal the much-reviled sustainable growth rate formula.

Current reimbursement rates that fail to cover the cost of filling prescriptions is putting the patient's access to generic prescription drugs at risk, according to a survey of community pharmacists.

Nearly all physicians report experiencing a delay or difficulty delivery medical care because a patient's health record was not accessible, according to a survey prepared by athenahealth.

Cancer patients without insurance can be paying up to 43 times what Medicare pays for the same chemotherapy drugs, according to a new study published in Health Affairs from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

A new coalition of consumers, healthcare providers, and industry launched the Clear Choices Campaign on April 9 to advocate for more transparent, accountable, and consumer-friendly health markets.

Although Rhode Island is the smallest state in the United States, it had the fourth highest healthcare spend, which meant the state was spending "way too much" on healthcare, according to Beth Hebert-Silvia, RPh, managing director and assistant vice president of pharmacy at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI).

Although there is a lot of promise for comparative effectiveness research as a tool to help healthcare providers, policy makers, and patients make better decisions, there are a number of issues to be resolved, according to speakers at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy's 27th Annual Meeting & Expo.

In a session at AMCP's 27th Annual Meeting & Expo that was so popular that attendees were being directed to an overflow room, Aimee Tharaldson, PharmD, senior clinical consultant in emerging therapeutics at Express Scripts, highlighted specialty pharmaceuticals that are currently in development and expected to come to the market in the next few years.

Pharmaceutical pricing is opaque for a reason and increased transparency may not be a benefit, said the speakers during the "Drug Pricing: Manufacturer, Payer, Prescriber, and Patient Perspectives" session at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy's 27th Annual Meeting & Expo in San Diego, April 7-10.

Trends in healthcare are driven by innovation, which is largely being driven by specialty innovation, Douglas M. Long, MBA, vice president of industry relations at IMS Health, said during the headline session "Marketplace Trends" at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy's 27th Annual Meeting & Expo.

As more high-cost drugs reach the market, the meaning of value gains more attention, especially in the specialty pharmacy market. One way to assess value is to use a cost-effectiveness analysis to guide formulary decisions.

The amount of care provided in California emergency departments for non-injuries, like complex, chronic conditions has increased, according to a study led by the University of California, San Francisco.

With 6 million people enrolling in their benefits on a private health insurance, the market has seen annual growth in excess of 100% since 2013, and forecasts don't show the trend slowing, according Accenture.

Instead of the original 0.95% rate cut for the Medicare Advantage (MA) program proposed in February, CMS announced on Monday that the MA pay rate for 2016 would be a 1.25% increase.