AJMC® in the Press, October 12, 2018

A Kaiser Health News article on Medicare Advantage plans mentioned The American Journal of Managed Care^® (AJMC^®) published study “High-Touch Care Leads to Better Outcomes and Lower Costs in a Senior Population.” The study evaluated the impact of a high-touch primary care model among a Medicare Advantage population in comparison with a standard practice—based model and observed that those receiving high-touch care had lower healthcare costs and fewer hospitalizations.

An article from The Commonwealth Fund focused on a study from AJMC^® that sought to determine the associations between fragmented care and subsequent emergency department visits and hospital admissions. The study, “Fragmented Ambulatory Care and Subsequent Healthcare Utilization Among Medicare Beneficiaries,” concluded that the relationship between fragmented ambulatory care and subsequent utilization varies with the number of chronic conditions a patient has.

An article on Home Care Daily cited the AJMC^® published study “CMS HHC Risk Scores and Home Health Patient Experience Measures,” which found that a negative association exists between CMS Hierarchical Condition Categories risk scores and patient experience measures. According to the researchers, to avoid unintended consequences, patient experience and measures need further risk adjustment under the CMS 5-star patient survey rating system and the Home Health Value-Based Purchasing pilot program.

Another AJMC^® published study, “The Characteristics of Physician Practices Joining the Early ACOs: Looking Back to Look Forward,” was highlighted by Odessa American Online. The researchers of the study observed that physician practices intending to join Medicare accountable care organizations in 2012 had greater capabilities in health information technology, care management processes, and quality improvement methods than those not intending to join. However, they were still far from using all recommended behaviors to manage risk.

OBR Daily’s Monday and Thursday newsfeeds included articles from AJMC^®’s The Center for Biosimilars^®. Monday’s newsfeed mentioned the article “Ahead of ODAC Meeting, FDA Documents Saw CT-P10 is Highly Similar to Rituxan,” which covered the FDA’ Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee’s briefing documents stating that the totality of the evidence suggests that the proposed biosimilar is highly similar to its US-licensed reference, despite minor differences in clinically inactive compounds. Thursday’s newsfeed included the article “New Value Assessment Framework Needed for Biosimilars, White Paper Argues,” which covered a white paper asserting that no current value assessment framework is fully suited to assess the value of biosimilars. The coverage was also included in the National Pharmaceutical Council’s Thursday CER Daily Newsfeed.

Thursday’s CER Daily Newsfeed also mentioned an article from AJMC^®. The article, “Tisagenlecleucel’s High Price Aligns With Its Benefit in Pediatric B-ALL, Study Finds,” reported on study findings that concluded that despite the high price of the chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, which treats pediatric patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the benefits of the treatment support the price.