Mary Caffrey is the Executive Editor for The American Journal of Managed Care® (AJMC®). She joined AJMC® in 2013 and is the primary staff editor for Evidence-Based Oncology, the multistakeholder publication that reaches 22,000+ oncology providers, policy makers and formulary decision makers. She is also part of the team that oversees speaker recruitment and panel preparations for AJMC®'s premier annual oncology meeting, Patient-Centered Oncology Care®. For more than a decade, Mary has covered ASCO, ASH, ACC and other leading scientific meetings for AJMC readers.
Mary has a BA in communications and philosophy from Loyola University New Orleans. You can connect with Mary on LinkedIn.
Trump Offers Blueprint to Drive Down Prescription Drug Prices; Targets Rebates, "Middlemen"
May 12th 2018Out-of-pocket costs for consumers and targeting the complex pharmaceutical rebating system were the high points of a presentation that began in the Rose Garden and ended with HHS Secretary Alex Azar's details in the White House press room.
ADA's Cefalu Calls for Transparency Across Supply Chain to Address Insulin Costs
May 9th 2018In testimony before a Senate committee, the chief scientific and medical officer said no single stakeholder is at fault, but the entire system of insulin delivery must be examined to make things better for consumers.
Calorie Counts at Chain Restaurants Now Required, With Support From FDA
May 7th 2018FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, has embraced the calorie counts at restaurants a year after his agency put them hold on the eve of his arrival. A Nutrition Facts label update is delayed but not scuttled, in contrast with the reversal of school lunch changes from the Obama administration.
Blog Post Suggests Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program Capacity Crunch, but CMS Is Short on Details
May 3rd 2018CMS Administrator Seema Verma called on qualified providers of the National Diabetes Prevention Program to become Medicare suppliers. But in last year's rulemaking process, commenters warned that the program CMS had designed was too bureaucatic and did not pay enough upfront to attract small, community-based providers.
USPSTF Session Brings Lively Comments on Link Between Ratings, Coverage
April 30th 2018Clinicians in the audience attending the annual meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said patients and payers may only see the headlines about the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) ratings and don't pay attention to finer points about recommendations for subgroups.
From Coverage to Culture, Researchers Discuss Barriers to Long-Acting Contraception
April 28th 2018One study revealed that 40% of residents in the South report financial barriers that prevent them from giving patients long-acting reversible contraception, including lack of insurance coverage and the cost of the device, which prevents it from being stocked.
Making the New Postpartum Visit a Gateway to Long-Term Health
April 28th 2018The president's panel at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' 2018 Annual Clinical and Scientific Meeting in Austin, Texas, discussed how to make postpartum care more value-based as women give birth at older ages and need team-based care.
JAMA Comparison: SGLT2 Inhibitors, GLP-1 Agonists Offer Lower Mortality in Type 2 Diabetes
April 23rd 2018Guidance for primary care physicians prescribing type 2 diabetes therapies comes at an opportune time. A major rift over guidelines for glycemic control has opened between the American College of Physicians, a professional association of internists, and diabetes specialists, including endocrinologists and diabetes educators.
Study Suggests Cost-Effectiveness of CGM Will Rise as Technology Improves
April 16th 2018Researchers found that cost-effectiveness calculations shifted dramatically when they assumed people with diabetes used continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) sensors for 10 days instead of 7 days. This is significant because Dexcom just received approval for a next-generation CGM system with a factory-calibrated 10-day sensor.
Dexcom's Sayer Says G6 Will Be "Game Changer," but Will Medicare Budge on Phone Ban?
April 9th 2018President and CEO Kevin Sayer said the company will file for Medicare coverage of the G6, while it continues to work out an issue that prevents beneficiaries from using a feature that lets data be displayed or shared on cell phones.
Study Models ASCO Alternative Payment Model in Advanced Ovarian Cancer Care
March 27th 2018At the Society of Gynecologic Oncology’s 2018 Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer, 1 abstract found Patient-Centered Oncology Payment model would yield savings if hospitalizations were reduced, while another abstract piloted a scoring system for financial toxicity in gynecological cancers.
Boys Don't Get HPV Vaccination Because Doctors Don't Recommend It, Study Finds
March 26th 2018Uptake for the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination has never reached CDC targets. Minority children from lower-income households are more likely to get the vaccination than white children from higher-income households, according to the study author.