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What We're Reading: Ryan's Legacy on Healthcare; FDA Investigates University; NIH Probes Alcohol Research
House Speaker Paul Ryan is leaving Congress at the end of the year without success on spending cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security; the FDA is conducting a criminal investigation into research by a Southern Illinois University professor who injected people with his unauthorized herpes vaccine; the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is "aggressively" looking into reports that it solicited funding from the alcohol industry for a study on the benefits of moderate drinking.
Ryan Leaving Congress Without Success on Spending Cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security
With House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, leaving Congress at the end of the year, the Republican party will lose its most influential champion for spending curbs to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, The Wall Street Journal notes. Ryan saw his party fail to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act even though Republicans gained control of the House, Senate, and White House for the first time in a decade in 2016. Social Security and healthcare programs are popular with voters and few lawmakers are interested in tackling the issue.
FDA Conducting Criminal Probe into University, Firm Over Unauthorized Vaccines
The FDA is conducting a criminal investigation into research by a Southern Illinois University (SIU) professor who injected people with his unauthorized herpes vaccine, Kaiser Health News has learned. SIU professor William Halford injected participants with his experimental herpes vaccine without routine safety oversight, typically performed by the FDA or an institutional review board. Halford died in June. The probe is looking into whether anyone from SIU or Halford’s former company, Rational Vaccines, violated FDA regulations.
NIH Investigating Alcohol Research Funding Requests
The NIH is "aggressively" looking into reports that it solicited funding from the alcohol industry for a study on the benefits of moderate drinking, The Hill reported.
The New York Times has reported that NIH officials solicited donations from alcoholic beverage manufacturers to fund a $100 million study on the health effects of moderate alcohol consumption. NIH Director Francis Collins told lawmakers on Capitol Hill he has convened a “working group” and will turn anything that seems “inappropriate” over to authorities.
Neurologists Share Tips for Securing Patient Access to Gene Therapies
March 19th 2025Tenacious efforts at every level, from the individual clinician to the hospital to the state to Congress, will be needed to make sure patients can access life-saving gene therapies for neuromuscular diseases.
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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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The Impact of Cost Sharing on High-Value Care
March 14th 2025Michael Chernew, PhD, professor of health care policy and director of the Healthcare Markets and Regulation Lab, Harvard Medical School, shares how cost-sharing policies shape access to critical health care services and influence value-based insurance design.
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