Laura is the vice president of content for The American Journal of Managed Care® (AJMC®) and all its brands, including The American Journal of Accountable Care®, Evidence-Based Oncology™, and The Center for Biosimilars®. She has been working on AJMC® since 2014 and has been with AJMC®’s parent company, MJH Life Sciences®, since 2011.
She has an MA in business and economic reporting from New York University. You can connect with Laura on LinkedIn or Twitter.
Successfully Engaging Opioid-Dependent Patients in Addiction Treatment
April 29th 2015Opioid-dependent patients treated at an emergency department (ED) who were given buprenorphine were more likely to engage in addiction treatment to reduce their opioid use, according to a study published in JAMA.
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Medigap Remains Valuable for Rural Medicare Beneficiaries
April 28th 2015Medigap, the Medicare supplement coverage that helps fee-for-service beneficiaries fill gaps in their benefits, continues to be important for low-income beneficiaries and especially those living in rural areas, according to America's Health Insurance Plans.
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Patient Portals Could Exacerbate Disparities Among Older Patients
April 28th 2015A study of the use of patient portals among older Americans found clear disparities in the registration and use of this technology. The results were published in the Journal of the Americans Medical Informatics Association.
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Engaging Clinician Super Users for Successful EHR Implementation
April 27th 2015Enlisting electronic health record (EHR) super users to provide support to employees is not enough to foster EHR implementation success-super users' behaviors can be an important influence, researchers from Yale University found.
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Savings Associated With Tiered Hospital Networks
April 26th 2015The use of a tiered network was associated with the increased use of hospitals on the preferred and middle tiers for planned hospital admissions compared with the nonpreferred tier, according to a paper in Health Services Research.
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Physicians Report Barriers to Successful End-of-Life Conversations
April 24th 2015Nearly all doctors reported barriers to conducting effective end-of-life conversations with patients, and most felt that it was especially difficult to discuss with patients of a different ethnicity, according to researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine.
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Weekend Hospitalizations Increase Likelihood of Hospital-Acquired Conditions
April 22nd 2015Being admitted to the hospital on the weekend is associated with an increased likelihood of a hospital-acquired condition, which in turn increases cost and length of stay, reported researchers from the University of Southern California.
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The Effect of Non-ED Payment Reforms on Emergency Care
April 21st 2015Adoption of alternative payment models that reduce the number of visits to the emergency department could cause unintended consequences for emergency care through a reduction in revenue, according to researchers at the Brookings Institute.
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High-Risk Patients Benefit Significantly From Early Follow-up Post Hospital Discharge
April 20th 2015While most patients do not benefit from early follow-up after they are discharged from the hospital, researchers from Duke University Medical Center and Community Care of North Carolina found follow-up within 7 days was associated with substantially lower readmission rates among patients with high clinical complexity and high risk of readmission.
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Quality of Care, Patient Safety Improving, but Disparities Remain
April 19th 2015Improvements in quality of care and patient safety in hospitals have saved $12 billion from 2011-2013, according to a new report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. However, while disparities in access to care are diminishing, they still remain.
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The Effect Income-Related Policies Have on Population Health
April 16th 2015Studies have shown that income is tied to most matters of health, including life expectancy, prevalence of diseases, and health behaviors. The Urban Institute and the Center on Society and Health have analyzed emerging evidence and prospects of income-related policies that work to improve population health.
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Technology to Prevent Medication Errors Still Fails Too Often, Study Finds
April 16th 2015While a record number of hospitals are adopting computerized physician order entry systems, which can substantially reduce common medication errors, there is still work to do, according to a new report from The Leapfrog Group.
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Physicians Less Likely to Believe EMRs Improve Health Outcomes
April 15th 2015Although physicians are getting better at using electronic medical records, fewer believe the technology has improved health outcomes over the last 2 years, according to a survey of more than 600 US physicians from Accenture.
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Improving Health, Reducing Costs With an MTM Program
April 10th 2015Although Rhode Island is the smallest state in the United States, it had the fourth highest healthcare spend, which meant the state was spending "way too much" on healthcare, according to Beth Hebert-Silvia, RPh, managing director and assistant vice president of pharmacy at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI).
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Overcoming Challenges and Concerns of Using CER
April 10th 2015Although there is a lot of promise for comparative effectiveness research as a tool to help healthcare providers, policy makers, and patients make better decisions, there are a number of issues to be resolved, according to speakers at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy's 27th Annual Meeting & Expo.
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Key Specialty Pharmaceutical Market Trends
April 9th 2015In a session at AMCP's 27th Annual Meeting & Expo that was so popular that attendees were being directed to an overflow room, Aimee Tharaldson, PharmD, senior clinical consultant in emerging therapeutics at Express Scripts, highlighted specialty pharmaceuticals that are currently in development and expected to come to the market in the next few years.
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Opacity in Pharmaceutical Pricing
April 9th 2015Pharmaceutical pricing is opaque for a reason and increased transparency may not be a benefit, said the speakers during the "Drug Pricing: Manufacturer, Payer, Prescriber, and Patient Perspectives" session at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy's 27th Annual Meeting & Expo in San Diego, April 7-10.
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The Lines Are Blurring in Healthcare
April 9th 2015Trends in healthcare are driven by innovation, which is largely being driven by specialty innovation, Douglas M. Long, MBA, vice president of industry relations at IMS Health, said during the headline session "Marketplace Trends" at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy's 27th Annual Meeting & Expo.
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Applying a Pharmacoeconomic Model to Formulary Drug Decisions
April 9th 2015As more high-cost drugs reach the market, the meaning of value gains more attention, especially in the specialty pharmacy market. One way to assess value is to use a cost-effectiveness analysis to guide formulary decisions.
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