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What We're Reading: Aetna Exits ACA in Iowa; $15B Fund for Health Bill; Cigna Cuts Opioid Use
Aetna Will Leave Iowa’s ACA Exchanges
This week, Aetna announced it will not offer plans on Iowa’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchange in 2018. According to The Washington Post, the company cited financial risk, as well as uncertainty surrounding the future of the marketplace, as reasons for its decision. The announcement follows a decision earlier in the week from Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield to also stop selling on the Iowa marketplace next year. As a result, the majority of the state’s counties will only have 1 insurer.
Cigna Reports Drop in Opioid Use
In the last 12 months, Cigna has cut prescription opioid use among customers by nearly 12%. The company has pledged to cut prescriptions of opioids by 25% by 2019, reported Reuters. Cigna is keeping physicians informed of opioid prescriptions in order to detect potential misuse by individuals and inform physicians of their own prescribing patterns. Another way Cigna has sought to combat the opioid epidemic is by removing a policy that required doctors to seek authorization in order to treat addicts.
A $15B Addition to GOP Health Bill
The Republican healthcare bill may not be completely dead. GOP leaders have been working with the House Freedom Caucus and the White House to try to revive the bill with changes, according to The New York Times. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) has negotiated the addition of a $15 billion fund to create a risk-sharing program to help insurers pay for their sickest customers and lower premiums. The proposal would prevent patients with high-cost diseases from being placed into a separate high-risk insurance pool.
Standard Criteria for Loss of Ambulation Needed in DMD
April 19th 2024A recent study suggests the differences between ambulation definitions for patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) can impact the identification of ambulant vs nonambulant individuals, and standard criteria across settings are needed.
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Navigating Health Literacy, Social Determinants, and Discrimination in National Health Plans
February 13th 2024On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we're talking with the authors of a study published in the February 2024 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care® about their findings on how health plans can screen for health literacy, social determinants of health, and perceived health care discrimination.
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Early Involvement Critical in Treating Immunotherapy-Induced Overlap Syndrome
April 19th 2024A series of case studies reveals the importance of early diagnosis and involvement of special teams of clinicians when dealing with potential cases of overlap syndrome, which encompasses myocarditis, myasthenia gravis, and immune checkpoint inhibitor–related myositis.
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Drs Raymond Thertulien, Joseph Mikhael on Racial Disparities in Multiple Myeloma Care Access
December 28th 2023In the wake of the 2023 American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition, Raymond Thertulien, MD, PhD, of Novant Health, and Joseph Mikhael, MD, MEd, FRCPC, FACP, chief medical officer of the International Myeloma Foundation, discussed health equity research highlights from the meeting and drivers of racial disparities in multiple myeloma outcomes.
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Government agencies have created an online portal for the public to report potential anticompetitive practices in health care; there are changes coming to the “boxed warning” section for chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies (CAR T) to highlight T-cell blood cancer risk; questions about the safety of obesity medications during pregnancy have arisen in women on them who previously struggled with fertility issues.
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