A discussion on utilization management strategies for optimizing the treatment for patients with heart failure.
Jaime Murillo, MD: The beauty and challenge at the same time in heart failure is that we have 4, some people count 5, different lines of therapy for heart failure. The reality is that they all work. Where we have an opportunity is in trying to define the groups that benefit most from X therapy.
We have beta-blockers, we have spironolactone and the like, we have all these ACE inhibitors, we have ARBs, we have SGLT2 therapy. Unfortunately, because of the nature of the trials, there is no way for us to tell who benefits from what. That’s the reality. Most people will start therapies with, “What is the affordable medication I can start with?” That person may benefit from a different approach, but we don’t know that yet. In our health plan [at United Health Care], what we have done is that we essentially opened the approach with few exceptions. Then we will very rarely use a step therapy, as we call it, before people have access to medications for heart failure. I suspect that that landscape will evolve as we learn more about which patients benefit the best or better from a specific line of therapy for heart failure.
Discharge Timing and Associations With Outcomes Following Heart Failure Hospitalization
October 9th 2025A retrospective multicenter study found that patients with heart failure discharged by noon had higher short- and long-term mortality and increased early readmission rates compared with afternoon discharges.
Read More
What It Takes to Improve Guideline-Based Heart Failure Care With Ty J. Gluckman, MD
August 5th 2025Explore innovative strategies to enhance heart failure treatment through guideline-directed medical therapy, remote monitoring, and artificial intelligence–driven solutions for better patient outcomes.
Listen
The Importance of Examining and Preventing Atrial Fibrillation
August 29th 2023At this year’s American Society for Preventive Cardiology Congress on CVD Prevention, Emelia J. Benjamin, MD, ScM, delivered the Honorary Fellow Award Lecture, “The Imperative to Focus on the Prevention of Atrial Fibrillation,” as the recipient of this year’s Honorary Fellow of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology award.
Listen
Racial, Ethnic Disparities May Impact Age Differences at First Heart Failure Hospitalization
September 4th 2025Social determinants of health were associated with a younger age of first hospitalization for heart failure in Black and Hispanic patients when compared with Asian and White patients.
Read More