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What We're Reading: Replacing Price; CHIP Deadline Passes; STDs in America
The Search Is on to Replace Tom Price
On Friday, HHS Secretary Tom Price, MD, stepped down amid controversy over his use of private charter flights for government business, and now a replacement needs to be found. According to POLITICO, already a dozen names are being discussed, from a former senator to famous talk show doctor Mehmet Oz, MD. However, rumored to be considered is Seema Verma, the current administrator for CMS, who is close to Vice President Mike Pence; Florida Governor Rick Scott, who is a former hospital executive; Scott Gottlieb, MD, who is the current FDA Commissioner; and David Shulkin, the VA secretary and a holdover from the Obama administration.
CHIP Not Reauthorized by Deadline
Congress has missed its chance to reauthorize funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which is set to expire. The Senate had released a bipartisan plan to reauthorize the program earlier in September, but hadn’t voted on it. According to The Hill, 3 states and the District of Columbia are set to run out of money by December. The majority of states will run out of money by March 2018.
CDC Releases Report on STDs
There are an estimated 110 million sexually transmitted disease (STD) cases at any given time in the United States, according to a new report from the CDC. The most common STD is chlamydia, which had a 4.7% increase in the number of cases from 2015 to 2016. The number of gonorrhea infections increased 22.2% among men and 13.8% among women during that same time frame. And the rate of syphilis is at the highest it has been since 1993.
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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