All News

Co-Editors-in-Chief of The American Journal of Managed Care A. Mark Fendrick, MD, and Michael E. Chernew, PhD, and former Editor-in-Chief J. Sanford Schwartz, MD, recently wrote about value in healthcare and the use of preventive services in Health Affairs Blog.

The study, published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine found that patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs) saw slower growth in emergency department (ED) visits and lower payment per beneficiary. However, only 32% of PCMHs agreed to share their data, and those medical homes treated "healthier patients" who may have been less likely to need ED visits, the authors acknowledge.

Hagop Kantarjian, MD, from MD Anderson is at it again. A special publication online, written in collaboration with S. Vincent Kumar, MD, from the Mayo Clinic, highlights the dismal state of the economics behind high oncology drug costs and recommends solutions.

The biggest battle in healthcare these days-besides the ongoing fight over Obamacare-is over the price of expensive life-saving medications.

Momentum is building in Congress for a proposal that would abolish Medicare cuts, top Republicans said Thursday, despite the emerging battle over the $174 billion price tag.

Until recently, it's been unclear whether accountable care organizations can live up to the hype or are just a passing healthcare reform fad.

The new HL7 Data Elements for Emergency Department Systems specification identifies a common set of data elements in an effort to improve interoperability among emergency departments.

Despite claims by the Obama administration that the Affordable Care Act will reduce health insurance companies' spending on overhead, insurers' financial filings show the law had no impact.

If the Supreme Court rules this summer that federal-run Obamacare exchanges can't provide health insurance subsidies, the results could be chaotic for those receiving the financial aid across the country-but especially in the South.

A one-minute look at managed care news during the week of March 9, 2015, including a new ACO model from CMS and the increase in drug spending driven largely by hepatitis C and compounded medications.

According to Dr Amy Cyr from the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, while Oncotype DX is both prognostic and predictive, none of the other tests currently available have shown both capabilities.

The findings of this study, conducted in Finland, may prove significant for the assessment of breast cancer prognosis and treatment planning.

An estimated 86 million Americans have prediabetes and 90% don't know it. The initiative announced yesterday seeks to reach this population and intervene before the disease progresses to type 2 diabetes mellitus, which costs $245 billion a year.

Two out of three people with metastatic disease survive 5 years or more, the report shows. The authors hope the data can help researchers develop better cancer control programs.

The study, published in JAMA Oncology, found that low risk breast and prostate cancer patients received unnecessary imaging overall, with a higher rate observed in the North East region of the country.

The study, published in the journal Cancer found that increasing screening rates to 80% by 2018 would reduce projected colorectal cancer incidence rates by 17% and mortality rates by 19% during short-term follow-up, and by 22% and 33%, respectively, during extended follow-up. Those reductions would amount to a total of 277,000 averted new cancers and 203,000 averted colorectal cancer deaths from 2013 through 2030.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama and a large provider could not come to renewal terms, forcing 28,000 mental health patients to go elsewhere. Critics have said the episode is the latest in state's dismal record in mental health.

A new analysis published by the RAND Corporation suggests strategies that the pharmaceutical industry could offer payers as they try to cover the front-loaded cost of newer breakthrough drugs.

Although HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell touted the success of this past open enrollment period and the affordability of quality health plans, she declined to comment on King v. Burwell during her keynote speech at America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP)'s National Health Policy Conference.

The study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, found that while the complete absence of meat in the diet had the most impact on reducing the risk of colorectal cancer, those who added seafood to the vegetarian diet-pescovegetarians-faired better than the nonvegetarians.

The study, published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, found that patients treated with definitive concurrent chemotherapy and radiation therapy for stage 3 non-small cell lung cancer have longer overall survival when treated by highly experienced facilities, either academic or community cancer centers.

A novel costing strategy has been used to determine the cost of care across the entire care process for benign prostate hyperplasia, according to researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles.

The 23-gene diagnostic panel called myPath Melanoma could be used in addition to microscopy to distinguish the benign form of the disease from malignant disease.

A discussion on the Supreme Court oral arguments for King v. Burwell got very heated as America's Health Insurance Plans kicked off its National Health Policy Conference in Washington, DC, on March 11.

At a time of rapid change and consolidation in healthcare, California's attorney general put conditions on the Daughters of Charity sale that would restrict Prime Healthcare's growth and limit its ability to negotiate managed care contracts.

The awards will be presented at ASCO's annual meeting to be held in Chicago in May this year.

Obamacare's tenuous toehold in Montana appears to be growing no firmer. Despite a hearing crowded with supporters of the Democratic governor's Medicaid expansion bill, Republican legislators have dealt the measure a likely death blow.

The recommendation has not come easy for Roche. Back in October 2014, NICE had rejected Gazyravo based on inconsistencies in the filing, which were then addressed by the drug manufacturer. Subsequently, NICE struck a deal with Roche to provide the drug to NHS at a reduced price.

While the PBM Express Scripts declared plans to bring cancer drug plans down, the drug manufacturers and investors aren't too worried about the high cost of some of the specialty drugs, according to this article in Bloomberg.

CMS announced the Next Generation Accountable Care Organization Model, which takes on greater performance risk but could potentially reap greater rewards.