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What We're Reading: Fight Brewing Over Future of Kentucky Exchange
What we're reading, February 12, 2016: the former Kentucky governor is looking to block the current governor's plans to dismantle Kynect; Senator Orrin Hatch speaks out against Medicare negotiation of drug prices; and the link between Zika and microcephaly is growing stronger.
In Kentucky, the former governor, Steve Beshear, is launching an effort to thwart the efforts of the new Republican governor, Matt Bevin, who is starting the process to dismantle the state’s health insurance exchange, Kynect. Beshear announced that an online campaign will educate voters about what is happening to healthcare in Kentucky, according to ABC News. During Beshear’s time as governor, he issued an executive order to expand Medicaid and establish the state exchange.
While some presidential hopefuls, like Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump, are calling for Medicare to have the ability to negotiate drug prices, Senator Orrin Hatch is firmly against it, noting that Medicare negotiation wouldn’t be “a big saver.” Washington Examiner reported that the senator asked HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell if her agency had worked with the president on an executive order that would allow the government to negotiate prices. Hatch is worried the president would issue such an executive order, which Hatch called a “violation of the law.”
The link between the Zika virus and microcephaly is growing stronger, CDC Director Tom Frieden, MD, testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee. Studies of babies that died within 24 hours found they had microcephaly, according to the Washington Times. Dr Frieden and Anthony Fauci, MD, infectious disease director at the National Institutes of Health, asked lawmakers to approve the president’s request for emergency funding to fight Zika.
Areas of Unmet Need Continue to Burden Patients With gMG
April 2nd 2025Patient-reported outcomes measures in generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG) are more important than ever, for both those treating and being treated for the chronic autoimmune neuromuscular disorder, to have a more nuanced understanding of experiences and difficulties.
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Varied Access: The Pharmacogenetic Testing Coverage Divide
February 18th 2025On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we speak with the author of a study published in the February 2025 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care® to uncover significant differences in coverage decisions for pharmacogenetic tests across major US health insurers.
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Financial, Housing, Food Insecurity Raise Risk of Hospital, ED Visits
April 1st 2025Social determinants of health been long understood to influence health outcomes, and this new analysis explores more deeply the link between social risk exposure and rates of health care resource utilization.
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Managed Care Reflections: A Q&A With Hoangmai H. Pham, MD, MPH
April 1st 2025To mark the 30th anniversary of The American Journal of Managed Care® (AJMC®), each issue in 2025 will include a special feature: reflections from a thought leader on what has changed—and what has not—over the past 3 decades and what’s next for managed care. The April issue features a conversation with Hoangmai H. Pham, MD, MPH, a member of AJMC’s editorial board and the president and CEO of the Institute for Exceptional Care (IEC).
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