Jackie Syrop

Researchers at Cornell University have developed a new tool to study genetic switches active in human glioblastoma tumors that drive the growth of the cancer.

A study published in the journal mBio has found a correlation between regions where mycobacteria are most prevalent in showerhead biofilm and regions where nontuberous mycobacterial (NTM) lung infections are the most prevalent, providing more evidence about the important role played by showerheads in transmission of NTM lung infections in the United States and Europe.

US hospitals must compete with retail clinics, standalone surgical centers, and walk-up medical facilities for customers, so their prices must be more transparent, accessible, and defensible.

Community health centers are serving millions more people than they did before the passage of the Affordable Care Act, and the number of uninsured people they serve has declined only slightly, according to a new study.

Patient-centered medical homes may improve the performance of process measures of care for patients with type 2 diabetes, including glycated hemoglobin tests, cholesterol tests, foot examination, dilated eye examination, flu vaccination, and adherence to oral hypoglycemic agents during 1 year of follow-up.

Low rates of vaccination among US adults result in preventable diseases and costs to individuals and society in terms of deaths, disabilities, and economic losses from hospitalizations, lost income, and physician visits.

Within the past 3 years, hospital employment and hospital ownership of physician practices has increased in both urban and rural areas, but growth in the number of rural practices owned by hospitals has significantly outpaced that in the urban setting.

A total of 27 million Americans under the age of 65 remain uninsured, and 43% of them are eligible for financial assistance through the Affordable Care Act either by enrolling in Medicaid or through subsidies for purchasing coverage.

A new report looks at how Medicaid in states that expanded the program are pursuing alternative payment models in order to better respond to the complex health and social needs of beneficiaries.

Instead of the 30-day hospital readmission indicator used by CMS to rate hospital quality and levy penalties for excessive unplanned readmissions, shorter intervals of 7 days or fewer are more accurate measures, according to a new study.

Increase in Medicare spending on hospice care from 2007 to 2015 was mainly driven by increases in the number of patients receiving services as per-patient costs remained flat, a new study found.

The quality of outpatient care for adults has not improved during the past decade, and in some important areas has worsened, according to a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine by David M. Levine, MD, of Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, and colleagues.

The number of accountable care organizations (ACOs) has grown rapidly over the last 4 years, with more than 800 ACOs now covering an estimated 28 million Americans. A study found that commercial ACOs were significantly larger and more integrated with hospitals and had lower benchmark expenditures and high quality scores compared with noncommercial ACOs.

Despite awareness of a rapidly increasing size and proportion of older persons in the United States, the nation is not investing sufficiently in keeping people healthy late in life, and significant deficiencies are predicted in our capacity to deliver the medical, public health, and support services needed for the future frail and ill older population.

Freestanding children’s hospitals had the largest financial losses for pediatric inpatients covered by Medicaid, and may be unable to offset reductions in federal Disproportionate Share Hospital payments because of the expansion of health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

Implementation of the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate in 2012 was associated with more consistent use of generic oral contraceptives, according to a new study.

High doses of the antidepressants citalopram (Celexa) and escitalopram (Cipralex, Lexapro) do not appear to carry greater risk of sudden cardiac death than comparable doses of other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, according to a new study.

Almost one-fourth of low-income adults in 3 states (Arkansas, Kentucky, and Texas) have experienced changes in health insurance coverage, known as “churning,” since the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

Precision medicine is an emerging approach to disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person.

About half of Americans have low health literacy and struggle to find and use health information, which is associated with negative outcomes, including overall poorer health.

More transparency and validation is needed for consumer-based benchmarking methods, such as US News & World Report's Best Hospitals rankings, according to a new study.

A pilot analysis published online in JAMA Cardiology has concluded that Twitter offers promise as a data source for studying public communication about cardiovascular disease.

A large majorities of Americans favor a wide range of policy changes to curb prescription drug costs, including those that give government a greater role in negotiating or limiting drug prices, according to the latest Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll.

Although hospitals in Medicare’s Value-Based Purchasing program already receive patient experience points based on achievement, improvement, and consistency, placing more emphasis on improvement points could benefit hospitals serving minority patients

Cost sharing for hospitalizations among nonelderly adults increased 37% between 2009 and 2013, more than the rate of medical inflation, according to a review of national hospital claims from 3 major commercial insurance plans.

Nationally, nongroup marketplace premiums are 10% lower than the average employer-sponsored insurance premiums, according to an analysis by the Urban Institute.

Persistent low income in young adulthood and middle age may raise the risk for worse cognitive function by age 50, according to a study of more than 3300 adults who were followed for more than 2 decades. In addition, the study suggested that poverty and perceived hardship may be important contributors to premature aging among disadvantaged populations.

States’ decisions not to expand Medicaid appears to be affecting the financial stability of rural hospitals in the United States more than in hospitals in urban areas, according to a study in Health Affairs.

Two Viewpoint articles JAMA highlight continuing healthcare deficiencies and inequalities in the United States and present a call to action for bold new strategies to direct resources toward improvements in support of population health.

After 2 years of extraordinary gains in Medicaid coverage due to expansion under the Affordable Care Act, coverage in the program has steadied. Private managed care covers nearly three-fourths of enrolled lives.