AHA Commercial Implores Congress to Maintain Coverage
Televisions in the Washington, DC, area will soon be broadcasting ads from the American Hospital Association (AHA) urging policy makers to protect health insurance coverage for the 20 million Americans who gained it under the Affordable Care Act. According to Inside Health Policy, the ad does not mention the Republicans’ proposed American Health Care Act by name, instead it alludes to the idea that some plans being debated in Congress would revoke coverage for millions.
Conditional Approval Could Limit Price of Novel Drugs
A Health Affairs blog post suggested a potential solution to the exorbitant costs of new drugs: conditional approval, which would allow drugs to be sold at a limited price until long-term efficacy data warrants full approval. It used the example of a new drug for Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy that costs $300,000 per year but has not demonstrated clinical benefit beyond a change in a surrogate endpoint. A conditional approval policy would allow patients to access the medication at a low cost, which would either avoid wasteful spending if the drug is ultimately not effective or prevent needless suffering and death if it is beneficial.
Opioid Use Among Adolescents Continues to Decline
Both the nonmedical and medical use of prescription opioids by US adolescents has decreased since 2013, according to a study in Pediatrics. Teens who reported both medical and nonmedical use were more likely to report they had used opioids for medical reasons first before beginning to take them recreationally. The researchers called for more preventive interventions targeting this age group, such as educating them on proper disposal of the drugs after their medical need has ended.
Examining Low-Value Cancer Care Trends Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
April 25th 2024On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we're talking with the authors of a study published in the April 2024 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care® about their findings on the rates of low-value cancer care services throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Dr Dalia Rotstein: Physicians Must Be Aware MS Affects People of All Backgrounds
April 24th 2024Dalia Rotstein, MD, MPH, emphazises the importance of awareness that multiple sclerosis (MS) impacts patients from various backgrounds as clinicians think through ways to improve access to care and research efforts in MS.
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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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What We’re Reading: Abortion Privacy Rules; Alzheimer Drug Hurdles; Nursing Home Staffing Overhaul
April 23rd 2024New health privacy rules aim to protect patients and providers in an evolving abortion landscape; some physicians express concerns about efficacy, risks, and entrenched beliefs in treating Alzheimer disease; CMS addresses longstanding staffing deficits in nursing homes.
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Award-Winning Poster Presentations From AMCP 2024
April 23rd 2024At the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) 2024 annual meeting, multiple poster presentations concerned with health equity, data collection, glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists, and more were acknowledged for their originality, relevance, clarity, bias, and quality.
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