Bipartisan Support Expected for PDUFA
Most attention has been focused on the House GOP’s Obamacare repeal bill and the legislation being drafted now in the Senate, but there are other big healthcare bills that need to be voted on. According to Reuters, the bill to reauthorize the Prescription Drug User Fee Act is expected to be approved with bipartisan support. The bill, which has to be renegotiated every 5 years, hammers out the details of how much money the FDA collects from drug makers and medical device companies in order to review new products. Currently, industry pays roughly 60% of the cost of the reviews, while taxpayers fund the rest.
Majority of Americans Exercise Enough
For the first time, more than half of Americans are getting the recommended amount of leisurely physical activity. A decade ago, the share of Americans exercising enough was much lower, hovering around 40%. Adults are recommended to get either 150 minutes of moderate movement or 75 minutes of intense exercise every week. However, despite the increase in exercise, metabolic diseases, which are tied to low levels of physical activity, have not declined.
Cutting Out Wasteful Medical Tests
Although it is well known that needless medical tests create unnecessary costs for the healthcare system, trimming the waste isn’t easy. A new article from Kaiser Health News highlights the struggle of changing behavior to save money and lives. In California, the 3 biggest healthcare purchasers are working together to reduce unnecessary tests, and although progress has been slow, unnecessary lab tests have been reduced by 10% simply through educating doctors and patients about overuse. The ABIM Foundation, which launched the Choosing Wisely campaign, expects that massive changes could take as long as 15 years.
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.
Read More
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
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.
Read More