The FDA plans to crackdown on alternative remedies; Senator Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, says his Obamacare insurer fix will be in the government funding bill; Alabama prepares to drop coverage for 7000 children.
The FDA plans to begin targeting homeopathic medicines that are unproven and pose safety risks. According to AP, the new framework would still leave the majority of products, considered low-risk, on the market. Currently, the FDA does not review safety or effectiveness of homeopathic products and some have recently been the source of major safety problems, such as teething tablets that were tied to seizures and deaths in infants and children. The agency is taking comments for 90 days before it finalizes its plan.
A bipartisan measure that would stabilize Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurer markets is expected to be included in the government funding bill. The bill has to pass by Friday, December 22, to avert a government shutdown, but the inclusion of the ACA fix may set up a showdown with conservatives, reported The Hill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, pledged to Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, that he would support passage of the ACA fix in exchange for her vote on the GOP tax bill, and McConnell also told Senator Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, that there would be action on the bipartisan measure before the end of the year.
With no new funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Alabama has become the first state to announce it is cutting coverage. Kaiser Health News reported Alabama will drop coverage for 7000 kids on January 1, 2018, and will freeze enrollment. If Congress doesn’t act, then the state will close CHIP entirely on February 1, 2018. Other states, including Colorado and Virginia, have begun informing parents that their CHIP programs may also be cut. The director of Alabama’s CHIP program estimates that fewer than 10% of CHIP enrollees will be able to qualify for Medicaid.
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
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.
Read More