Insurance

As has been the case in other states, Virginia seeks a solution to rising costs for medically fragile patients. Lawmakers have been unwilling to expand Medicaid and likely will not until a cost-containment plan is found.

Advocacy groups say it's long past time for Medicare to cover continuous glucose monitoring, which is standard of care and funded by most commercial payers.

What we're reading, October 29, 2015: Pfizer and Allergan in talks to merge; the House passes a budget deal with implications for Medicare beneficiaries; and autism in children is being overdiagnosed.

What we're reading, October 28, 2015: Ben Carson plans to replace the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, and Medicare; a homeless shelter utilizes telemedicine to alleviate emergency department visits; and researchers uncover gender gap in post-heart attack treatment.

Payer—provider teams presented updates on their cost-saving pilot projects and looked to the future of these models in oncology care.

Twenty-four states have received grants to improve the behavioral health of their citizens by providing community-based mental and substance use disorder treatment.

This study evaluates different strategies to identify high fall risk among community-dwelling elders using a combination of easily obtainable administrative data and patient screening questions.

This week in managed care, documents show Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of NJ rolled out OMNIA prior to receiving regulatory approval, 2 Harvard professors argue the merit of the annual physical, and experts weigh in on the successes and flaws of Medicare Part D.

Published in JAMA Oncology, the study found a significant difference in quality and access to care for black patients diagnosed with localized prostate cancer.

Wound care specialists, who treat burn victims and diabetics with foot ulcers, say the move to end coverage if a dressing is made of more than 50% honey by weight is arbitrary and makes no sense from a medical standpoint. A final LCD is pending.

A decade after the introduction of the Medicare Part D program and the program has seen great success-but that may be coming to an end. Panelists debated just that and discussed rising drug costs during a session at America's Health Insurance Plans' National Conference on Medicare.

While there are reports of high patient satisfaction and well-managed costs in the Medicare program, the next 50 years will be full of new challenges, said Andrew Slavitt, acting CMS administrator, during the opening session at America's Health Insurance Plans' National Conference on Medicare.

An update on recent progress in oncology managed care.

Even though the US spent far more on healthcare in 2013 than other comparable high-income countries, it has the lowest life expectancy and some of the worst health outcomes, according to a study by The Commonwealth Fund.

A new report found that while geographic gaps narrowed, they will likely persist because state policies to not expand Medicaid will mean the poor will continue to turn 65 with health issues having gone unaddressed.