Laura Joszt, MA

Typically, cancer pain management is carved out of policies that try to restrict opioid prescribing in an effort to combat the opioid epidemic, but with more and more patients surviving their cancer, there is some uncertainty regarding who is affected by these policies, explained Bob Twillman, PhD, executive director for the Academy of Integrative Pain Management.

Papers from The Lancet's Taskforce of Non-Communicable Diseases analyzed the potential health and economic impact of implementing taxes on soda, alcohol, and tobacco to combat the rising rates of the chronic diseases worldwide.

The third annual population health survey from Numerof & Associates found that healthcare organizations have not made as much progress to transition to risk-based agreements as they predicted they would 2 years ago.

Once a decade, legislators try to fix healthcare in the United States. Panelists at PULSE: The Atlantic Summit on Health Care, discuss challenges to fixing healthcare and what solutions they see.

Neeraj Sood, PhD, discusses his research into the financial burdens associated with healthcare utilization for patients in consumer-directed health plans.

Surgeon General Jerome M. Adams, MD, issues a call for more people to carry naloxone to counteract opioid overdoses amid the ongoing national public health emergency; however, it is unclear if increased access to naloxone will combat the opioid epidemic or exacerbate overdoses.

Researchers have been trying to find a way to screen populations at high risk of developing a precursor condition to multiple myeloma in order to intervene early and reduce disease prevalence and mortality.

National Public Health Week kicked off on Monday with an event that focused on the importance of building strong relationships within communities in order to address health inequities, as well as the declining life expectancy in the United States.

In general, respondents using 2 TRICARE health plans who participated in surveys from 2012 to 2015 reported improved satisfaction and access to care compared with respondents to surveys from 2008 to 2011.

Every week, The American Journal of Managed Care® recaps the top managed care news of the week, and you can now listen to it on our podcast, Managed Care Cast.

With most accountable care organizations (ACOs) continuing to participate in the upside-only track, the Medicare Shared Savings Program has not netted the savings that the Congressional Budget Office estimated in 2010. But some findings indicate the program will see greater savings as more ACOs transition to the downside-risk tracks and gain more years of experience.

As the country searches a new way to address cost of care, value-based insurance design (VBID), is gaining traction as one way of encouraging the use of high-value services and discouraging the use of low-value services.

There are racial and socioeconomic disparities evident in whether or not patients with kidney failure complete the transplant process, but the use of a navigator can help increase access for these patients in the long term, according to a study.

In a commentary for New England Journal of Medicine, Karen E. Joynt Maddox, MD, MPH, of Washington University School of Medicine, outlines key principles for designing alternative payment models (APMs) to avoid harming vulnerable populations and penalizing the providers who care for them.

Despite price tags well over $350,000 for treatment, tisagenlecleucel, approved for children with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and axicabtagene ciloleucel, approved for adults with certain B-cell subtypes of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, are considered cost effective, according to a report from the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review.

On March 14, advocates for community cancer centers took to Capitol Hill to speak with legislators and advocate for the issues important to them and their patients.

Every week, The American Journal of Managed Care® recaps the top managed care news of the week, and you can now listen to it on our podcast, Managed Care Cast.

Americans still believe prescription drug prices are a problem that need to be addressed, but a minority have confidence in the president and Congress to pass legislation addressing these costs, according to the latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll.

Researchers have identified malignant cells that, if present, can predict whether a patient with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) will relapse after treatment.

New CDC Director Robert Redfield, MD, replaces the acting director, who led the agency through the severe flu season after Brenda Fitzgerald, MD, resigned at the end of January.

During a panel discussion presented by NPR and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, experts highlighted the discrimination that the LGBTQ community faces, the health consequences of that discrimination, and how the healthcare community can improve care for this population.

As the US healthcare system searches for a way to address the poor health and high healthcare costs of American, one concept has risen to the top and received a lot of attention: social determinants of health. In this podcast, we focus on the issue of housing, and how communities are working to get people into housing so their health can improve.

Panelists discussed low-value care, unnecessary services, and what can be done to address overuse in healthcare during a panel at the University of Michigan Center for Value-Based Insurance Design’s (V-BID) annual V-BID Summit on March 14.

Panelists discussed low-value care, unnecessary services, and what can be done to address overuse in healthcare during a panel at the University of Michigan Center for Value-Based Insurance Design’s (V-BID) annual V-BID Summit on March 14.

Patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who were treated at a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center had a 53% lower risk of early mortality, according to a study published in Cancer.

Panelists Kavita Patel, MD, Brookings Institute; Michael E. Chernew, PhD, Harvard Medical School; and Katy Spangler, Spangler Strategies discussed implementing the value-based insurance design concept in health policy and payment models, challenges with quality measurements, the role of employers in value-based care, and more at the VBID Summit, held March 14 by the University of Michigan Center for Value-Based Insurance Design.

Rural counties in the United States have experienced a decline in the availability of hospital-based obstetric services, dropping from 55% of counties having these services in 2004 to 46% in 2014. This loss can “exacerbate maternal health challenges” in rural areas, according to a study in JAMA.

As hospitals are increasingly held accountable for what happens outside the hospital walls, they need access to better claims data. In a recent study published in the November issue of The American Journal of Managed Care®, researchers with the Michigan Value Collaborative found that it is possible to derive episode-level utilization from claims data and it provides a level of postdischarge care precision that is superior to medical records that hospitals have access to.

Idaho tested the Trump administration's willingness to provide flexibility to states on the health insurance options they offer. CMS has ruled that Idaho cannot sell health plans that do not meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Elected officials and others who affect policy know that cost-sharing and out-of-pocket costs are issues in healthcare, but they don’t truly understand the issues, said panelists during a policy discussion on ways to improve access and reduce financial hardship during the Cost-Sharing Roundtable.