Interviews

In this interview, Chandler Cortina, MD, MS, FSSO, FACS, Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin, addresses the impact that prioritizing mental health care can have on patients as they navigate through their cancer journey.

Over the past 20 years, Medicare physician pay has plummeted by 26% when adjusted for inflation, while hospital reimbursement has surged by 70%, prompting over 100,000 doctors to abandon independent practice for hospital or corporate employment since 2019.

Camilla Levister, MS, ANP-C, CDCES, a nurse practitioner at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, discusses how closed-loop systems benefit patients managing type 1 diabetes.

Ann LaCasce, MD, MMSc, director of the Dana-Farber/Mass General Brigham Fellowship in Hematology/Oncology and chair of the Lymphoma Research Foundation’s scientific advisory board, discussed the changing lymphoma treatment landscape and highlighted potentially game changing treatments.

Chandler Cortina, MD, MS, FSSO, FACS, is assistant professor of surgery and breast surgical oncologist at Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin. His current research focuses on breast cancer risk not only in general but also among transgender and gender-diverse populations.

Experts explain how diabetes is diagnosed during pregnancy, how treatment differs from that of nonpregnant individuals, the importance of diabetes technology education, and how things change postpartum.

Ann LaCasce, MD, MMSc, director of the Dana-Farber/Mass General Brigham fellowship in hematology/oncology and chair of the Lymphoma Research Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board, discusses T-cell engager therapies in the diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) landscape.

Mark A. Socinski, MD, executive director at AdventHealth Cancer Institute, discusses the importance of lung cancer screening in eligible patients, including the need for primary care providers to ensure screening is being implemented.

Miriam J. Atkins, MD, FACP, president of the Community Oncology Alliance, discusses the impact of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) on health care costs and offers potential ways to remedy certain CMS decisions that negatively affect oncologists and their patients.

A total of 16,430,000 Medicaid enrollees have been disenrolled across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as of February 1, 2024.

Natasha Halasa, MD, MPH, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), discusses the active population-based surveillance that the New Vaccine Surveillance Network conducts.

Ann LaCasce, MD, MMSc, director of the Dana-Farber/Mass General Brigham Fellowship in Hematology/Oncology and chair of the Lymphoma Research Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board, discusses potential shifts in the lymphoma space in the year ahead.

The newly appointed president and CEO of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions discussed timely issues where we may see progress in 2024.

Bevey Miner, executive vice president of health care strategy and policy, Consensus Cloud Solutions, discusses the complex landscape of proposed health care rules, and the potential impact of CMS' Advancing Interoperability and Prior Authorizations Rule.

Natasha Halasa, MD, MPH, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, discusses her role as principal investigator of the Vanderbilt site of the New Vaccine Surveillance Network.

Mike Brown, vice president of managed services at Cardinal Health, discusses Cardinal Health's goals to to leverage technology, while reducing costs to the health care system.

UnitedHealthcare is incorporating real-world evidence into pathways design and policy formulation, leveraging its members' data to evaluate the impact of different regimens on health resource utilization and costs, explains Lucy Langer, MD, MSHS, national medical director of oncology and genomics at UnitedHealthcare.

Sudipto Mukherjee, MD, PhD, MPH, hematology and medical oncology, Cleveland Clinic, suggests that some patients with indolent systemic mastocytosis (ISM) may be progressing at a faster rate than expected, and will need to be monitored and started on appropriate therapies.

UPMC Health Plan member Marjorie Robinson, of Monroeville, Pennsylvania, tells of her experiences with Pittsburgh-based Fabric Health as a single mom of 2 teenagers and why she believes that mental health–related concerns can be significant obstacles to overall good health.

UnitedHealthcare's oncology payment mode initially involved a pay-for-performance program based on pathways adherence, and will be transitioning in 2024 to a broader system with graded quartiles to incentivize greater participation and pathway adherence.

Serena Sloane, a Pittsburgh-based certified nursing assistant, took advantage of a chance meeting at her laundromat with someone from Fabric Health to learn more about her options for bettering her health care benefits

Mike Brown, vice president of managed services at Cardinal Health, discusses how remote pharmacy services are revolutionizing patient care by improving accessibility and medication safety.

Melinda Aldrich, PhD, MHE, associate professor in the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in the division of genetic medicine, discussed her ongoing research aiming to identify the drivers of disparities in lung cancer outcomes in the US.

The Thyme Care virtual navigation program demonstrated a $594 reduction in total costs per member per month for navigated cancer patients compared with a control group, emphasizing the scalability of the independent virtual navigation model across various contracts, with opportunities to adapt to different populations and needs in the evolving landscape of value-based care arrangements.

David Adamson, MD, emphasizes the need for continuous education and building relationships with colleagues to navigate the complexities of reproductive rights and evolving care standards.

Registered dietitian, Molly Kimball, RD, CSSD, of Ochsner Health, navigates cultural identity in diet changes for long-term success, in an interview.

Molly Mendenhall, BSN, RN, director of quality and compliance at Oncology Hematology Care, Inc (OHC), discussed a 1-year quality improvement project implemented by OHC to standardize comprehensive biomarker testing in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Mike Brown, vice president of managed services at Cardinal Health, shares how drug cost control software has improved monitoring efficiency and reduced drug spending.

Aside from semaglutide, alternate weight loss routes include other anti-obesity medications, chronic weight management programs, or obesity medicine specialists, said Ian Neeland, MD.

Molly Kimball, RD, CSSD, of Ochsner Health, advocates for sustainable changes to populations' everyday behaviors to make healthy choices easier and more culturally relevant.