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Karen B. DeSalvo, MD, MPH, MSc, announced the appointment of a new chief medical officer at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology in a note to staff.

After calls for changes and more flexibility from physician groups, CMS announced it intends to modify requirements to meet meaningful use in the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Programs.

The drug, jointly developed by Pharmacyclics and Janssen Biotech, has received prior approvals for 3 other indications.

Perceptions of drug costs may affect how much patients benefit from the drug, according to a study treating participants with a placebo. The results were published in the online issue of Neurology.

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) protects most consumers from losing health coverage or their job if they pursue genetic testing. But authors of a new article in The New England Journal of Medicine explore the implications of testing for life, disability and long-term care insurance.

Smokers diagnosed with prostate cancer who were treated with radiation were at a greater risk of their cancer returning, metastasizing, and ultimately causing death. Former smokers, however, did not have the increased risk.

Of the 944,000 people who could renew their coverage for 2015 through Covered California, the state's health insurance exchange, 94% stayed in the same plan that they were in last year.

PACE has launched an evidence-based online tool, Continuous Online Indicators, which will provide information on research progress in 12 tumor types.

Meeting enrollment goals for the Affordable Care Act proved the easy part for the HHS in 2015. The hard part will come March 4, 2015, when the US Supreme Court will hear a case that could eliminate financial subsidies for millions who signed up, putting their health coverage at risk.

A new private-sector alliance of healthcare systems and payers will dedicate to accelerate the US healthcare system's transition to value-based models aligned with improving outcomes and lowering costs.

A new health policy issue brief from the Brookings Institution has outlined specific modifications that would enable to legislation in Congress to support better care and more value in Medicare.

Kyprlois is currently approval for use in multiple myeloma patients who have progressed on 2 prior therapies.

The White House said a Republican lawsuit challenging its implementation of the 2010 healthcare law misunderstands the constitutional separation of powers and should be thrown out.

Screening for deadly illnesses does not necessarily save lives despite assumptions otherwise, according to a study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

Although the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law more than 4 years ago, many aspects of it are fairly new, which makes it difficult to analyze the impact the law has had on the United States healthcare system.

After Steven Miller, CMO at Express Scripts, announced last week that his company would like to influence the oncology market, Pharma seems to have paid heed.

Targeted biopsy using new fusion technology that combines magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with ultrasound is more effective than standard biopsy in detecting high-risk prostate cancer, according to a large-scale study.

Although there have been some accusations of "cookbook medicine" with regards to measurement guidelines, panelists Dennis Scanlon, PhD, Jess DeMartino, PhD, Phyllis Torda, and Laura Long, MD, do see progress to remedy the situation and make guidelines more effective.

Although the healthcare industry values what it tends to measure, what is measured is not necessarily what should have the most value, according to John Fox, MD, senior medical director and associate vice president of medical affairs at Priority Health.

Education of both patients and providers will be necessary to temper expectations of cancer care treatment outcomes, according to panelists Ted Okon, BS, MBA, executive director of the Community Oncology Alliance, Debra Patt, MD, MPH, partner at Texas Oncology, and Stacie Dusetzina, PhD, assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Indiana and HHS have come to an agreement about the state's proposal to expand Medicaid. The program will cover as many as 350,000 individuals.

A new report by the Congressional Budget Office finds that, if left untouched, the Affordable Care Act is poised to become even more so.

An overview of the healthcare systems of Australia, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States.

Patient navigators in 3 health systems were able to reduce excessive emergency department visits by 43%, according to a 1-year pilot study by Accenture and the Highmark Foundation.

One of the early findings from various oncology medical homes throughout the country was that they work, claimed Ted Okon, BS, MBA, executive director of the Coalition Oncology Alliance.

The shift to focus on value in healthcare has changed the definition of what it means to be a physician in the United States, and professional societies, such as the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) are thinking about this issue heavily in order to provide guidance to their members, said Pete P. Yu, MD, FACP, FASCO, president of ASCO.

The drug targets multiple proteins that are overexpressed in head and neck cancer, the study published in Clinical Cancer Research says.

OIG recommends training for inspectors and amending contracts with stand-alone pharmacies to ensure improved quality and safety.

Hospital leaders express the same concerns heard in Florida, Alabama, and elsewhere since the midterms: refusing to expand Medicaid to the working poor leaves thousands without coverage, and they still come to emergency rooms for routine care. The problem is, the Affordable Care Act assumed that expansion would be universal, and funds to care for the uninsured have dried up.

As a blizzard predicted to break snowfall records bears down upon the Northeast, area hospitals and physicians are shifting into disaster-planning mode.