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What We're Reading: Democrats to Release Drug Pricing Bill; Food Stamp Cuts; Secrecy on OxyContin
House Democrats will unveil a bill to lower drug prices in September; on Tuesday, the Department of Agriculture will unveil regulations to cut food stamp benefits for 3 million people; neither Purdue Pharma nor the FDA will release data about whether reformulated OxyContin, designed to prevent abuse, is actually achieving that goal.
House Democrats to Release Bill to Lower Drug Prices in September
US to Cut Food Stamp Benefits for 3 Million People
Purdue, FDA Silent About Whether Reformulated OxyContin Reduced Abuse
A healthcare adviser to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said that House Democrats will unveil a bill to lower drug prices in September; the bill will include the power for Medicare to negotiate drug prices, according to Wendell Primus. The negotiated prices will apply to private insurers as well, The Hill reported. Other aspects of the bill will include a tax on drug companies if an agreement cannot be reached with Medicare, as well as an arbitration process to help resolve disputes.On Tuesday, the Department of Agriculture will unveil regulations to cut food stamp benefits for 3 million people, ending the leeway of states to automatically enroll residents who receive welfare benefits. The proposed change for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program comes as the administration has agreed to a deal to lift caps on federal spending, Bloomberg reported. House Republicans tried to cut benefits last year, but the Senate rejected the move. The proposed changes would only allow automatic enrollment of people who receive welfare benefits worth at least $50 a month on an ongoing basis for at least 6 months. Health experts have warned that children in food-insecure households are at greater risk for various health problems.Neither Purdue Pharma nor the FDA will release data about whether reformulated OxyContin, designed to prevent abuse, is actually achieving that goal, The Associated Press reported. When the FDA approved reformulated OxyContin about 10 years ago, it told the company the drug would be evaluated on whether the new version decreased cases of addiction, overdose, and death. A pain expert who was leading the advisory panel looking at that question until earlier this year said their requests for information was denied “40 or 50 times.”
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.
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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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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.
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