Cancer Survivorship Care: 3 New Guidelines
April 16th 2014Cancer survivors often encounter a variety of health issues, the most common of which include fatigue, peripheral neuropathy, and depression. To address those specific issues, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has developed 3 new sets of guidelines on cancer survivorship care.
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The Burden of Soaring Prices of Specialty Drugs
April 16th 2014Even as the cost of prescription drugs has plummeted for many Americans, a small slice of the population is being asked to shoulder more and more of the cost of expensive treatments for diseases like cancer and hepatitis C, according to a report to be released on Tuesday by a major drug research firm.
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Phase 3 PREVAIL Study Delivers Promising Results in Prostate Cancer Patients
April 15th 2014The results of the Phase 3 Prevail Study on enzalutamide showed significant benefit to prostate cancer patients including delaying the progression of metastatic disease, reducing the risk of death and delaying the start of cytotoxic chemotherapy.
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CBO Updates Estimates of the ACA's Budgetary Effects
April 15th 2014The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reports that implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will cost $5 billion less in 2014 than the agency previously estimated. The report further details that an additional 12 million non-elderly Americans will receive coverage this year due to the health law's implementation.
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New ASCO Guidelines for the Care of Cancer Survivors
April 15th 2014The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) today issued three evidence-based clinical practice guidelines on the prevention and management of symptoms that affect many cancer survivors-neuropathy, fatigue and depression, and anxiety. The guidelines are the first three in a planned series of guidelines on survivorship care. The recommendations reinforce the need to care for the both physical and psychological needs of cancer survivors.
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ESTRO: ADT Plus Radiotherapy Improve Prostate Cancer Outcomes
April 14th 2014Professor Vincenzo Valentini, president of ESTRO and a radiation oncologist at the Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli, Rome, Italy, commented in a statement: The results from this trial are important and practice-changing. It is clear that an additional six months of hormonal treatment in addition to radiotherapy improves the outcome for men with localised prostate cancer. This option should now be considered for all these men with prostate cancer that is at risk of growing and spreading.
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Diabetes A Significant Barrier to Breast Cancer Screening
April 14th 2014Women with diabetes are 14 percent less likely to be screened for breast cancer compared to women without diabetes, according to a study. "Managing the demands of a chronic condition such as diabetes is challenging for many women, leaving other preventative actions, like screening for cancer, to fall by the wayside," said a physician and author. "Our study found having diabetes posed a significant barrier to breast cancer screening even after considering a woman's socioeconomic status, a known contributor to disparities in care among women."
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With New Health Law, Insurers Target Diabetics
April 14th 2014As hundreds of thousands of diabetics get health coverage under the federal law, insurance companies are aggressively targeting this glut of new patients, who are expensive to treat and often lax in taking medications and following their diet.
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Lessons for Managed Care of Diabetes: Some Help Is Good, but Too Much Contact Confuses Patients
April 12th 2014The American Journal of Managed Care brought together than 125 diabetes advocates, providers, and educators, along with health plan leaders and pharmaceutical executives, to Princeton, N.J. Attendees gained insights into giving persons with diabetes with the right level of support to manage their disease.
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Medicaid Enrollment Increased By 3 Million From October To February
April 11th 2014The number of low-income people enrolled in Medicaid rose by 3 million to 62.3 million from October through February as more Americans joined the state-federal insurance program through state and federal online insurance marketplaces.
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Meet the Woman Who is About to Become the Biggest Name in Healthcare
April 11th 2014Sylvia Mathews Burwell is about to become the biggest name in health care after news broke Thursday night that she will be the nominee to replace the resigning Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
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AJMC Peer Exchange: Nationwide, Patient-Centered Strategy Needed to Battle Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes
April 10th 2014Fighting the nation's related epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus will take a nationwide strategy that increasingly tailors treatment to individual patient needs, and new approaches are need to get patients to take medications and make lifestyle changes to be healthier. That was the consensus of an expert panel convened Thursday by The American Journal of Managed Care to open its two-day conference, Patient-Centered Diabetes Care: Putting Theory into Practice, which is taking place at the Princeton Marriott at Forrestal. The conference continues today, opening with a keynote address by Robert A. Gabbay, MD, chief medical officer at the Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School.
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Early Drug Claims Suggest Exchange Plan Enrollees Are Sicker Than Average
April 9th 2014Offering a first glimpse of the health care needs of Americans who bought coverage through federal and state marketplaces, an analysis of the first two months of claims data shows the new enrollees are more likely to use expensive specialty drugs to treat conditions like HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C than those with job-based insurance.
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CMS Reveals Medicare Physician Pay Data
April 9th 2014Routine office visits accounted for the single largest share of Medicare physician billings in 2012 even though they amounted to just one one-seventh of the $77 billion paid by the government for physician services through the nation's senior citizens healthcare program.
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Medicare Data Release Still Contested, but Not Resisted
April 8th 2014The American Medical Association (AMA) said it would not block the release of 880,000 physician billing records from the Medicare claims database. The government's decision to release the information is a response to the pressure they received from employers, insurers, and consumer groups for increased transparency and access to physician payment information.
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Medical Assn Won't Stop Medicare Doc Data Release
April 8th 2014The nation's largest doctors' group said Monday it won't try to block Medicare's release of billing records for 880,000 physicians, although it continues to oppose the government's recent decision to open up the massive data trove.
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