January 28th 2025
According to the CDC, frequent consumption of sugary drinks is linked to adverse health outcomes that include obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, nonalcoholic liver disease, and gout.
Biden-Harris Administration Expands Mental Health Coverage Protections Nationwide
September 10th 2024Ali Khawar, Employee Benefits Security Administration, US Department of Labor, believes the final rule will be a benefit to employers and health plans that are trying to do the right thing and offer robust mental health benefits or substance use benefits.
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Optum Care's Dr Ken Cohen Advocates for Comorbidity-Based GLP-1 Tiering for Patients With Diabetes
September 10th 2024Ken Cohen, MD, of Optum Care, advocates for glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) tiering for patients with diabetes based on comorbidities, like body mass index (BMI) and cardiovascular disease (CVD).
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UPMC's Dr Manisha Jhamb Urges Better Kidney Disease Awareness, Integrated Care
September 4th 2024Manisha Jhamb, MD, MPH, of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), is excited about CMS's negotiated drug prices under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) for patients with kidney disease; conversely, she highlights the challenge of low kidney disease awareness.
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CMS Negotiated Drug Prices: Cardiologist's View on Affordability, Future Innovation
September 3rd 2024Ty J. Gluckman, MD, FACC, FAHA, of Providence St. Joseph Health, reacted positively to CMS' drug price cuts under the Inflation Reduction Act, but he also expressed concerns about the potential future impact on drug innovation.
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Beyond Average Spending: Distributional and Seasonal Commercial Insurance Trends, 2012-2021
September 3rd 2024Analysis of 2012-2021 commercial claims demonstrates that spending growth was concentrated among the highest spenders and there was increasing subsidy across enrollees through cost-sharing design.
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Cost in Cardiovascular Care: ESC 2024
September 2nd 2024A heart failure program with a multidisciplinary team provides statistically significant improvements, and 2 countries determine the current prices of semaglutide are not cost-effective for secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease in patients with obesity, according to abstracts at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2024.
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Tackling Obesity for Heart Health: A Global Weight Crisis
September 1st 2024The obesity epidemic is a global crisis, with experts from around the world emphasizing the importance of short-term strategies, long-term solutions, and multidisciplinary collaboration as they advocate for the heart health of their patients.
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Aetna Announces Simplified Access to Fertility Services
August 27th 2024Aetna has become the first major US insurer to expand access to fertility services by covering intrauterine insemination as a medical benefit for all eligible plans, marking a significant move toward greater equity in family-building options for people of all backgrounds.
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Medicare Semaglutide Coverage: Millions May Gain Access That Could Cost $145 Billion
August 26th 2024Medicare has not clearly defined what constitutes "established cardiovascular disease," leading to variability in potential patient eligibility; therefore, researchers aimed to estimate the number of Medicare beneficiaries who would become newly eligible for semaglutide under different definitions.
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Health Equity & Access Weekly Roundup: August 24, 2024
August 24th 2024Learn more about the negotiated Medicare drug prices and what the FDA's rejection of therapeutic MDMA means for mental health care through expert reactions. Other highlights include pharmacy-based HIV care, gaps in care for gastrointestinal stromal tumors, and the obesity epidemic.
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Brooke Kempf: LAIs Provide More Than Just Adherence to Schizophrenia Treatment
August 22nd 2024The growing utilization of long-acting injectable (LAI) medications for treating patients with schizophrenia indicates a positive trend in mental health practice, according to Brooke Kempf, PMHNP, Indiana University Indianapolis.
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Dr Martin Kolb: Addressing IPF Mortality and Costs Through Timely Intervention
August 16th 2024Early intervention for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is crucial due to the high mortality rate, with emerging therapies like nerandomilast showing potential to reduce health care costs by preventing disease progression.
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