AJMC® in the Press, July 21, 2017

In a column for Massachusetts news outlet Melrose Free Press, State Senator Jason Lewis outlined the promises of telemedicine and his goal to pass legislation that would expand access to telehealth services. He cited a 2015 study published in The American Journal of Managed Care^® (AJMC^®), “Opportunity Costs of Ambulatory Medical Care in the United States,” which found that although medical visits take up an average 2 hours of a patient’s time, only 20 minutes are actually spent face-to-face with a physician. Lewis argued that telemedicine visits can eliminate the time spent traveling to clinics and ideally provide more convenient and accessible care.

A press release from insurer Anthem described its survey published in Benefits Quarterly, which found that 90% of large employers considered the cost of new specialty drugs a challenge. To explain this burden, it referenced a Payer Perspective article titled “The Growing Cost of Specialty Pharmacy: Is it Sustainable?” and published by AJMC^® in 2013. This article discussed how the array of specialty drugs on the market had “grown substantially” from 10 in 1990 to nearly 300 in 2012.

There are 3 significant challenges providers face in implementing payments, according to an article on RevCycleIntelligence.com, including the unexpected spending that can arise as a result of complications or nonadherence. It illustrated this point with a quote from a 2016 AJMC^® interview, “Dr Joshua Cohen Considers the Cons of Bundled Payments.” “There are situations where using a bundle may be inappropriate because the factors that are influencing differences in cost among patients are things that the provider doesn’t actually control,” Cohen said.