- Center on Health Equity & Access
- Clinical
- Health Care Cost
- Health Care Delivery
- Insurance
- Policy
- Technology
- Value-Based Care
What We're Reading: Cadillac Tax Repeal; Overdose Death Rates Drop; Federal Marijuana Regulation
The House voted to repeal the Cadillac tax, which, after being delayed twice, was expected to go into effect in 2022; provisional data releaased by the CDC indicate that drug overdose rates have dropped for the first time in 3 decades; the Center for Science in the Public Interest filed comments with the FDA urging it to take a more active role in regulating marijuana.
House Votes to Repeal Cadillac Tax
The House on Wednesday voted to repeal the High-Cost Plan Tax, also known as the Cadillac tax, which would target high-cost health plans offered by employers to try and limit unnecessary healthcare utilization and control healthcare spending. With opposition from both sides of the aisle, the tax was voted down 419-6, reported The Hill. After being delayed twice, the tax was slated to go into effect in 2022. According to the Congressional Budget Office, repealing the tax will cost the government $196.9 billion over 10 years. It’s unclear whether the Senate will also vote on the measure.
Drug Overdose Rates Drop
For the first time since 1990, drug overdose death rates have dropped, according to the latest provisional data released by the CDC. Between the 12-month period ending December 2017 and the 12-month period ending 2018, there was a 5.1% decline in overdose death rates. There were nearly 68,000 overdose death rates in the 12-month period ending December 2018, compared with approximately 72,000 in the 12-month period ending December 2017. Last month, provisional data offered cautious optimism that rates were expected to drop for the first time in 3 decades. Since the 1990s, drug overdoses have killed approximately 870,000 people.
Calls for Marijuana Regulation
The Center for Science in the Public Interest this week filed comments with the FDA calling on the agency to take a more active role in regulating consumer use of marijuana, arguing that current state legalization approaches combined with a lack of clarity around the federal role will fail to protect consumers. “Decriminalization and legalization of cannabis is occurring at the state level, producing a legal patchwork with inadequate policies and funding to protect consumers,” the center wrote, adding that it is crucial that the FDA asserts its authority to ensure that products are safe, accurately labeled, and free of contaminants, and that consumers are aware of relevant risks.
Urticaria Diagnosis Challenged by Overlapping Pruritic Skin Conditions
April 23rd 2025Urticaria is complicated to diagnose by its symptomatic overlap with other skin conditions and the frequent misclassification in literature of distinct pathologies like vasculitic urticaria and bullous pemphigus.
Read More
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.
Listen
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.
Listen
ACOs’ Focus on Rooting Out Fraud Aligns With CMS Vision Under Oz
April 23rd 2025Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are increasingly playing the role of data sleuths as they identify and report trends of anomalous billing in hopes of salvaging their shared savings. This mission dovetails with that of CMS, which under the new administration plans to prioritize rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse.
Read More
