Laura Joszt, MA

New hepatitis C virus treatments may be extraordinarily effective, curing the disease in many cases, but the high cost has posed an enormous economic challenge that speakers outlined during a briefing in Washington, DC.

Access to care remains an issue for many US veterans, but a new initiative between the Department of Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System and MinuteClinic could expand access to care in Northern California.

One year after being hospitalized for heart failure, one-third of patients had not returned to work, according to a study presented at Heart Failure 2016 and the 3rd World Congress on Acute Heart Failure.

Value, cost, and the patient are taking center stage during the ISPOR 21st Annual International Meeting, which is being held May 21-25, 2016, in Washington, DC.

Researchers set out to analyze the clinical outcomes in a real-world clinical setting of patients with T2D who switched to Toujeo from another basal insulin.

Survival rates increase as more quality measures are incorporated into care, but only 13% of eligible patients with Stage IIIA non-small cell lung cancer actually receive all 4 measures.

Over the last year, The American Journal of Managed Care has covered many aspects of the hepatitis C issue: access to treatment, the cost of drugs, exclusivity deals, and more. Here are the most-read articles from the last year.

At the spring live meeting of the ACO & Emerging Healthcare Delivery Coalition in Scottsdale, Arizona, attendees heard presentations and participated in workshops that discussed better integration of care, improved use of technology, and the future of healthcare and the Affordable Care Act.

Two doctors have been found guilty of falsely certifying Medicare patients were terminally ill and qualified for hospice care. However, the vast majority of the patients actually were not dying.

Accountable care organizations can improve outcomes and patient experience while reducing costs through integrated care and better use of technology.

Cost, biosimilars, and technology dominated the conversations when managed care pharmacists, health plan administrators, physicians, and more gathered for the AMCP Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy Annual Meeting in San Francisco, April 19-22, 2016.

The current reactive healthcare system is driving digital health innovations, Yoona Kim, PharmD, PhD, head of clinical modeling and analytics with Proteus Digital Health, said at the AMCP Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy Annual Meeting 2016.

The drug abuse epidemic in the US has placed attention on opioids and panelists during a session at the AMCP Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy Annual Meeting 2016 discussed the current state of treatment for opioid addiction and future changes that may be on the way.

As healthcare moves to value-based arrangements and delivery models like accountable care organizations (ACOs), the benefit of incorporating a pharmacist can be overlooked. Tina Joseph, PharmD, BCACP, and Reena Jones, PharmD, CPh, both from Nova Southeastern University, outlined how pharmacists can be integrated into ACOs in order to improve care and patient satisfaction, while reducing cost.

AMCP Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy Annual Meeting 2016 kicked off by delving into the near-term specialty pharmaceutical pipeline with Aimee Tharaldson, PharmD, senior clinical consultant of emerging therapies at Express Scripts.

With patients increasingly demanding more of anyone involved in their healthcare, technology is playing an important role, explained panelists at a session of Specialty Pharmacy Connect, a pre-meeting program held ahead of the AMCP Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy Annual Meeting 2016.

The specialty pharmacy industry is unique in many ways, but the price growth for these drugs is no longer sustainable, Steve Miller, MD, senior vice president and chief medical officer of Express Scripts, said during a pre-meeting session of AMCP Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy Annual Meeting 2016.

UnitedHealth Group started the year in 34 insurance exchanges, but that number will be a lot less come 2017. CEO Stephen Hemsley announced that the company will only participate in a "handful" of Affordable Care Act exchanges next year.

In preparation for the Spring Live Meeting of the ACO & Emerging Healthcare Delivery Coalition, 2 speakers who will be at the meeting will participate in 2 30-minute tweetchats.

Sachin Jain, MD, MBA, has been named as successor to lead CareMore Health System when President Leeba Lessin retires on April 15. Dr Jain is an editorial board member of The American Journal of Managed Care and current chief medical officer of CareMore.

This week is the 4th annual Patient-Centered Diabetes Care (PCDC), co-hosted by The American Journal of Managed Care and Joslin Diabetes Center. Here we highlight the top 5 things to look forward to at this year’s meeting.

The National Pharmaceutical Council has released a set of guiding principles on specific elements that should be included in value assessment frameworks.

Panelists highlighted the flexibility allowed in a state-based marketplace, the benefits of setting one up, and paint a rosy future at America's Health Insurance Plans' Health Insurance Exchange Forum.

Health plans that manage complex populations covered by Medicaid often have to get creative in order to provide care for their consumers, explained panelists at America’s Health Insurance Plans’ National Health Policy Conference.

At the end of February, Ted Okon, MBA, executive director of the Community Oncology Alliance (COA), answered questions on Twitter about the latest trends in cancer care and discussed COA’s concerns with the president’s moonshot initiative and the 340B drug pricing program.

Anthony D. Slonim, MD, DrPH, president and chief executive officer for Renown Health and chair of The American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC)’s ACO and Emerging Healthcare Delivery Coalition, spoke to AJMC about what it means to be a physician leader, the industry’s move to population health, the ACO Coalition, and more.

The Department of Veterans Affairs will now be able to treat all veterans who have hepatitis C instead of restricting treatment to only the sickest.

The Affordable Care Act and rising healthcare spending were the main topics of conversation at America’s Health Insurance Plans Health Insurance Exchanges Forum and National Health Policy Conference, which were held March 8-10 in Washington, DC.

Major health information technology (IT) developers and the government are coming together to improve the flow of health information.

Pay-for-performance (P4P) programs have the potential to improve overall quality of care and the prevalence of these programs has increased in the last 15 years. Here are 5 things to know about P4P and how it can impact healthcare in the move to value-based care.