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What We're Reading: Walmart in Talks With Humana; CDC Director Predicts End to AIDS; Dementia Directives in New York
Walmart is in talks to buy insurer Humana; new CDC Director Robert Redfield told his staff he thinks an end to AIDS is possible wiithin the next 7 years; a New York agency for the dying created directives for those with dementia allowing them to withhold food and water if they wish.
Walmart in Talks to Buy Insurer Humana
Walmart is in preliminary talks to buy insurer Humana, The Wall Street Journal reported. If negotiations are successful, it would be the latest big healthcare deal between a retailer and an insurer. Humana currently has a market value of about $37 billion.
New CDC Director Redfield Says an End to AIDS is Possible
The new CDC director is predicting an end to AIDS within 7 years, according to STAT News. Robert Redfield, MD, also told the agency’s staff the CDC is “a science-based, data-driven organization” in an all-hands meeting this week.
New York Agency for the Dying Creates Directives for Those With Dementia
A New York end-of-life agency has approved a directive that allows people to say in advance that they don’t want food or water if they develop severe dementia, Kaiser Health News reported. In the 7 US jurisdictions that allow medical aid-in-dying, dementia is not a condition covered by the laws. The document from End Of Life Choices New York offers 2 options: 1 for “comfort feeding” and 1 that would halt all assisted eating and drinking, even if a patient seems willing to accept it.
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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