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The implementation of the Affordable Care Act and its resulting market turbulence has not created the operation challenges for payers that was expected, according to a report from athenahealth, Inc.

Although millions of Americans have gained health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, the Commonwealth Fund recently found that 31 million individuals were underinsured in 2014.

A bipartisan effort reintroduced legislation that would establish a demonstration in Medicare Advantage to evaluate the use of value-based insurance design's ability to reduce copayments and coinsurance for some Medicare Advantage beneficiaries, reported the University of Michigan Center for Value-Based Insurance Design.

This week one top healthcare executive said consumers can expect to pay more for healthcare in 2016, the American Urological Association's annual meeting reports on fallout from the US Preventive Services Task Force's controversial prostate cancer screening recommendation, and more.

Encouraging results with a shorter course of hepatitis C treatment were presented at the Digestive Disease Week meeting. Patients receiving an 8-week course of sofosbuvir and daclatasvir, previously naïve to direct-acting antiviral treatment, achieved a sustained response at 12 weeks.

Authors led by Harvard's Frank Hu, MD, write that combating diabetes worldwide requires policy solutions that recognize the societal and environmental forces that work against those who might try to pursue healthier lifestyles. Hu recently spoke at Patient-Centered Diabetes Care 2015, presented by The American Journal of Managed Care and Joslin Diabetes Center.

The 21st Century Cures bill is a bipartisan initiative that is aimed to streamline and hasten the drug and device approval process and promote medical innovation.

While there's been controversy around the drug discount program for some time, the Health Resources and Services Administration plans to release a "mega-guidance" that will address several aspects of the 340B program.

To improve accountability in healthcare, physicians are continually tasked with checklists to ensure quality. But where is that leading to?

The authors discuss the success of the Pioneer ACO model and the Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative, among others. They outline an agenda that includes engaging managed care stakeholders, so that both public and private payers are moving toward value-based payment.

A study published in Nature Medicine highlights how genetic data can be translated in disease prevention and evidence-based clinical management.

Karen Ignagni is stepping down as president and chief executive officer of America's Health Insurance Plans for a position with EmblemHealth in New York.

Although the new and more effective hepatitis C drugs are expensive, they could save the United States and 5 European countries more than $3.2 billion annually, according to estimates reported at Digestive Disease Week 2015.

ASCO says that it's Patient-Centered Oncology Payment model meets the criteria for an Alternative Payment Model as defined by Congress in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, which replaced the Sustainable Growth Rate formula.

Another 1.1 million individuals could potentially be affected by another cyberattack. CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield announced that it had been the target of a sophisticated cyberattack. The hackers gained access to a single database in June 2014, according to the company.

The most sweeping overhaul of Medicaid regulations since 2002 is due soon. So far there are few hints at what CMS may require states to do as they award managed care contracts in an effort to better coordinate care and control costs.

The article, published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine, found that large urban hospitals that serve as a safety net for patients with lower socioeconomic status, are at a disadvantage due to factors outside of their control.

Researchers at Cancer Research UK have challenged the current standard of care in advanced ovarian cancer patients. Results of their study, published in Lancet, found that administering chemotherapy prior to surgery can have huge benefits on health outcomes and the patient's quality of life.

Intelligent Engagement, through the use of virtual health assistants in conjunction with a variety of adherence technologies hold the promise to create an overall strategy for an intelligent adherence plecosystem.

With studies showing that patients overestimate the benefits of cancer screening and are misinformed about the potential harms, the American College of Physicians has issues advice for screening adults with average risk and no symptoms for 5 common cancers: breast, colorectal, ovarian, prostate, and cervical.

A secondary analysis on results of the CAPTION trial pointed to a role for pharmacists in helping tailor the treatment regimen for patients with hypertension, although it did not improve blood pressure control.

A Science study found that recurrent mutations in the promoter of the telomerase gene, TERT, could be responsible for overexpression of telomerase in a majority of cancers, thereby sustaining the replicative potential of cancer cells.

Although the uninsured rate among Americans between the ages of 50 and 64 years was already lower than the national average, the rate fell by nearly a third from December 2013 to December 2014, according to a study published by the AARP Public Policy Institute.

Although the vision of the learning health system is simple in theory, it is highly complicated, said Penny Mohr, senior program officer for improving healthcare systems at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, during the first plenary session at the ISPOR 20th Annual Meeting, held May 18-20 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Findings of a study published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology show that 95% of inpatients at a VA hospital in Minneapolis with an incorrect or indeterminate diagnosis, were given inappropriate antibiotics, as opposed to 38% who were accurately diagnosed, yet administered incorrect medication.

Data presented at the American Urological Association in New Orleans show a 50% drop in PSA testing in the years since the USPSTF issued its controversial D recommendation. Some see a "chilling" effect, but not all see a problem.

Health insurance companies will be looking for consumers to pay more in 2016, according to Kim Holland, director for state affairs for Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, who called demands for lower premiums or monthly fees "unrealistic."

Large data sets like SEER need better quality control checks and researchers and clinicians who use these data sets should also consider using secondary data analyses that answer specific research questions. This is the advice of a senior urologist following the removal of the PSA data.

One of the reasons may be that health plans primarily have access to retrospective information rather than real-time information, unlike providers, and they also have to consider other factors such as a member's health indicators, plan, deductible, and family structure.

Although there has been improvement in the use of health information technology for care coordination, fewer than half of patient-centered medical homes routinely use computerized systems to identify patients seen in emergency departments or hospitals or to send care summary to other providers.