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What We're Reading: States Eye Canada Drugs; Pneumonia Challenges Hospitals; Teens' Contraception Knowledge
Burdened by high prescription drug costs, states are looking northward to Canada; more hands-on nursing care can help fight hospital-acquired pneumonia; and doctors should talk to teens about contraceptive options.
Burdened By High Prescription Drug Costs, States Look North to Canada
States like Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Oklahoma are pushing legislation that would seek permission from the Trump administration to launch their own plans to import less expensive prescription drugs from Canada. Kaiser Health News reported the states want a formal process that would allow them to contract with wholesalers in Canada, and distribute the medicines to the state’s health care system. Implemenation of any process would require negotiation with HHS.
More Hands-On Nursing Care Can Help Fight Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia
Hospital-acquired pneumonia is more widespread and urgent than most people realize, and in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, authors of a new study about the issue said more hands-on nursing care could help prevent many cases. One method: getting patients to brush their teeth and gargle before surgery and throughout their stay.
Doctors Need to Talk to Teens About Contraceptive Options
Both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have urged their members to have “comprehensive” conversations with adolescent patients about their reproductive health and their contraceptive needs, knowledge and concerns, given what columnist Jane E. Brody called “challenging” statistics about teen birthrates and pregnancies, The New York Times reported. The column discusses what teenagers should know about contraception, ranked in order of effectiveness.
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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