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What We're Reading: NM Medicaid Buy-In; Mental Health Care for Vets; Medical Marijuana in Utah
Democrats push for a Medicaid buy-in option in New Mexico; half of the veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan aren't receiving the mental health care they need; Utah moves forward with 2 bills related to medical marijuana.
Effort in New Mexico Pushes for Medicaid Buy-In
Democrats in New Mexico are pushing to allow almost anyone to buy into Medicaid through a fee to individuals and possibly employers. According to AP, the initiative would redirect federal subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans to a new category of Medicaid. It is unclear at this point what impact the buy-in program will have on health outcomes or costs, but public health officials at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center believe exploring the option is worthwhile.
Half of Recent Veterans Aren’t Getting Mental Health Care
The mental health care delivered throughout the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is inconsistent, and about half of the veterans from the wars after 9/11 are not getting the care they need. A lack of staff in clinics and hospitals and excessive bureaucracy are preventing these veterans from getting care for posttraumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, depression, and other mental health issues, reported Bloomberg. More than 4 million service members have left duty since the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Utah Moves Forward With Medical Marijuana Bills
Two bills related to medical marijuana are moving forward in the Utah legislature. Deseret News reported that one bill supports in-state research of medical marijuana, while the other promotes access to it for terminally ill patients. The Utah Medical Association provided its support to the research bill only, which would allow the state’s Department of Agriculture to oversee the growth of marijuana for research purposes.
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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