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What We're Reading: Three States That Could Expand Medicaid Depending on the Election
What we're reading, November 3, 2016: gubernatorial races could expand Medicaid in 3 more states; genetic testing wastes billions of dollars; most popular Facebook posts on the Zika virus contained inaccurate information or conspiracy theories.
There are still 19 states that have not expanded Medicaid, but 3 more could switch sides after this election. According to The Hill, gubernatorial races in Missouri, North Carolina, and Utah are all leaning toward candidates that support expanding the program. Missouri and North Carolina have Democratic candidates challenging the sitting Republican governors, but in Utah, the incumbent governor is a Republican who supports a small-scale plan to expand Medicaid.
Genetic testing is often touted as a way to revolutionize medicine, but it can waste a lot of money. A study found that a test for inherited thrombophilia cost taxpayers half a billion dollars without providing any medical benefit to patients, reported STAT. Many patients want to get tests even if they don’t offer a clinical benefit that will result in a chance in treatment. One motivating factor for doctors offering these tests is the fear of litigation.
Research has found that while most posts on Facebook about the Zika virus contained accurate information, they were not very popular. Instead, the more popular posts about the virus either had inaccurate information or conspiracy theories, according to Reuters. The research was conducted May and June 2016, when there was a lot of media coverage of Zika.
New Research Challenges Assumptions About Hospital-Physician Integration, Medicare Patient Mix
April 22nd 2025On this episode of Managed Care Cast, Brady Post, PhD, lead author of a study published in the April 2025 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care®, challenges the claim that hospital-employed physicians serve a more complex patient mix.
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Personalized Care Key as Tirzepatide Use Expands Rapidly
April 15th 2025Using commercial insurance claims data and the US launch of tirzepatide as their dividing point, John Ostrominski, MD, Harvard Medical School, and his team studied trends in the use of both glucose-lowering and weight-lowering medications, comparing outcomes between adults with and without type 2 diabetes.
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Integrated CKD Care Model Cuts ED Visits by 30%, Boosts Specialized Treatment
April 21st 2025An analysis of an interdisciplinary care model for managing chronic kidney disease (CKD) shows hospital admissions dropped by 26% and emergency department (ED) visits decreased by 30% after clinic initiation.
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