Following Scuttled Mergers, Insurers Consider Next Steps
Both the Anthem-Cigna and Aetna-Humana megamergers have been blocked, so what is next for insurers? According to Bloomberg, the companies may consider other deals with the cash they have allocated. Plus, companies may try new deals with the hope that the Trump administration’s antitrust officials may be more open to large takeovers. Humana may still remain a sought after target for deals.
GOP Split on ACA Repeal Timeline
Some of the more conservative members of the Republican Party are calling for a faster repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). They believe that President Donald Trump’s speculation that the repeal could happen next year, and even assertions from House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, that repeal would happen by the end of this year, are too slow, reported Kaiser Health News. This subset of the party is pushing to repeal the ACA now even without a replacement ready—something insurers and other stakeholders, as well as some party leaders now, are opposed to.
Should You Finish Antibiotics?
The instruction from doctors that patients finish prescribed antibiotics even when they feel better may go away. STAT reported that such a directive might actually be exacerbating antibiotic resistance. Patients who take antibiotics when they are no longer sick may drive bacteria in the body to develop a resistance so the antibiotics don’t work the next time there is an infection. The World Health Organization will debate the argument in March.
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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Higher Weight-Adjusted Waist Index Tied to Greater Mortality Risk in Patients With Osteoarthritis
April 23rd 2025Researchers consider the weight-adjusted waist index a more precise predictor of mortality risk in patients with osteoarthritis than traditional obesity measures, like body mass index.
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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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