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.
Eliminating Federal Marketplace Subsidies Will Increase Costs Up to 47%
January 10th 2015Studies from RAND and the Urban Institute estimate that eliminating subsidies for the federally facilitated Marketplaces would increase premiums between 35% and 47% and cause at least 8.2 million people to drop coverage.
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The Potential Fallout if SCOTUS Invalidates ACA Subsidies for Federal Exchange
January 8th 2015If the Supreme Court invalidates Affordable Care Act subsidies for consumers on the federal exchange, states without their own Marketplaces will be unlikely to stave off "immediate destabilization" of their insurance market, according to experts.
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Larger Share of People Had High Medical Cost Burdens Prior to ACA
January 6th 2015The percentage of people with high medical costs increased from 2007-2009 to 2011, but the Affordable Care Act's coverage provisions should substantially reduce cost burdens for many people, according to a Commonwealth Fund study.
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Ongoing Costs of Infection Prevention Programs Pay Off
January 5th 2015Although infection prevention programs require ongoing investments, the money spent is worthwhile considering the costs saved as healthcare-associated infection rates fall, according to a study in the American Journal of Infection Control.
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Cardiac Outcomes Better When the Doctor Is Away
January 5th 2015Outcomes for certain cardiac arrest patients were better for those admitted to teaching hospitals during national cardiology meetings compared with patients admitted on non-meeting days, according to a new study in JAMA Internal Medicine.
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Assessing Patient-Centered Care Abilities of Physicians
January 2nd 2015Researchers at the University of Missouri School of Medicine have developed a tool to test how well a doctor delivers patient-centered care by assessing whether medical students have learned and are applying the correct behaviors.
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87% of HealthCare.gov Consumers Receiving Financial Assistance for Premiums
January 1st 2015A large majority of people who selected health insurance plans through HealthCare.gov during the first month of open enrollment for 2015 will receive financial assistance for their monthly premiums, according to HHS.
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Patients Overly Optimistic About the Benefits of Treatments, Tests, Screening
January 1st 2015Patients have a naïve optimism about medical care. A new study in JAMA found that patients have an unrealistic expectation of the benefits and harms of common medical treatments, tests, and screens.
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Two-Thirds of States Have Little Physician Quality Information Available
December 31st 2014Only a few states have readily available information on the quality of physician care, according to the second annual State Report Card on Transparency of Physician Quality Information from the Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute.
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Material Need Insecurities Associated With Diabetes Control, Healthcare Utilization
December 31st 2014Simply increasing access to care is not enough to improve the health of patients with diabetes mellitus as a new study in JAMA has also associated the difficulty of paying for food and medications with poor diabetes control.
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The Year in Review: Most-Read Stories of 2014
December 30th 2014With 2014 coming to a close, The American Journal of Managed Care is taking a look back at the most popular articles from this year. These most-read articles highlight the healthcare issues most important to providers, insurers, and policy makers.
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Accenture Wins Renewed Contract to Continue Work on HealthCare.gov
December 30th 2014After website glitches stole the spotlight during the first open enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act, CMS hired Accenture to fix HealthCare.gov. Now, the consulting firm has been awarded a 5-year, $563 million contract to continue working on the website.
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Health IT-Related Adverse Event Reporting Needs Improvement
December 30th 2014Improved and standardized reporting across healthcare organizations is needed to better understand the impact of health information technology (IT) on adverse events, according to a report from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.
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Remaining Gaps Between Patient and Provider Outlook on Healthcare
December 25th 2014Consumers, administrators, primary care physicians and specialists all agree: they do not think that the healthcare system is on the right track, according to a study from Booz Allen Hamilton and Ipsos Public Affairs.
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Marketplace Premiums, Deductibles Flat Year Over Year
December 25th 2014Marketplace health insurance premiums across the nation did not increase from 2014 to 2015. However, while the overall costs were flat, some states did see substantial average premium increases, which were offset by declines in other states.
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Report Highlights Gaps in Nation's Ability to Respond to Disease Outbreaks
December 23rd 2014The Ebola outbreak exposed some serious gaps in the nation's ability to manage severe infectious disease threats with half of the country scoring low on key indicators related to preventing, detecting, diagnosing, and responding to outbreaks.
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