Laura Joszt, MA

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.

With a vote of 89-4, the Senate confirmed Robert Califf, MD, for the position of FDA commissioner.

CMS proposes increasing payments to Medicare Advantage plans by an average of 1.35% in 2017 in contrast to proposed cuts in recent years.

A collaboration led by CMS and America’s Health Insurance Plans released 7 core sets of quality measures created to reduce complexity, decrease cost burden, and ensure high-quality care.

Justice Antonin Scalia has died at the age of 79. The absence of the conservative justice from the Supreme Court bench has set off a political firestorm and could have repercussions for upcoming healthcare cases.

Every year, health policy wonks get into the loving spirit of Valentine’s Day with poetry, puns, and more on Twitter using the popular hashtag #HealthPolicyValentines. We round up some of the best.

A. Mark Fendrick, MD, co-editor-in-chief of The American Journal of Managed Care and director of the University of Michigan Center for Value-Based Insurance Design, testified before a Michigan senate subcommittee on the benefit of clinical nuance.

Yet another alliance has been formed to help transform healthcare. This time 20 major employers, who represent 4 million employees and family members, have come together to improve how healthcare benefits are purchased.

The latest piece in HHS’ roadmap to move the healthcare industry to value-based payments is the Accountable Health Communities model. Here are 5 things to know about how this model addresses social determinants of health.

The annual Clinical Cancer Advances report from the American Society of Clinical Oncology highlights the accomplishments made in the last year in the fight against cancer.