Mary Caffrey

Frustration with high prescription drug prices remains an issue that cuts across party lines. Majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and independents want the government to protect access to high-cost treatments for those with chronic conditions.

The connection between soda consumption and rising rates of diabetes and obesity has been well established. The World Health Organization has called for soda taxes and marketing limits, especially for advertising aimed at children.

The healthcare news outlet STAT went to court to unseal records that show officials with West Virginia's state employee health plan were derailed in their early efforts to slow access to OxyContin.

The findings highlight the need for collaborative care, which has support in the proposed 2017 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.

Challenges outlined by healthcare experts back in 2010 are coming to pass, as young adults do not see the current penalties for going without coverage as enough incentive to become insured.

Ralph McDade, PhD, Myriad RBM's president, explained earlier this year how the precision medicine approach, pioneered in oncology, was finding its way into the cardiovascular arena, and that it could ultimately lead to develop of a risk panel that would make the ELIXA trial simpler and less costly.

A year after its high-profile arrival in New Jersey, Horizon's OMNIA plan will give most enrollees premium increases of 5% to 6%-far less than the 25% average increase announced in a report from HHS.

Lawmakers have been working on the problem of what to do about out-of-network bills that result from emergency room care for more than a year.

While the link between stress and medication adherence is well known, this study attempted to measure how much stress affected adherence.

Panelists in the Healthcare 2020 series discuss the challenges with the exchanges that will be waiting for the next president, the future of Medicaid expansion, and how the complexity of so many models is burdening ACOs.

Current work seeks to perfect the algorithm that would someday let the insulin pump automatically make the multitude of delivery decisions that would have been made by a healthy pancreas. Advances are happening alongside a shifting landscape in payer coverage, with advocates worried that they might lack choice amid so much innovation.

The study of teenagers found that the risk of early death from diabetes increased at BMI levels below the cutoff for what is considered "normal" in adults.

The assessment comes after HHS has put months of effort into attracting young, uninsured adults, including those who have previously paid a penalty for not being insured and those who are likely eligible for financial assistance.

The findings in Diabetologia separate the effects of activity from diet and other behaviors across 23 studies covering more than 1 million people.

Seventy Americans and 9 international members were elected to the National Academy of Medicine this week.

The findings of a poll of emergency department physicians were presented at American College of Emergency Physicians' annual Scientific Assembly, which is meeting in Las Vegas.

The initiative comes as consumers move away from soda toward healthier beverages. Pepsi, in particular, has seen declining sales, and voters in several US cities will decide on soda taxes on November 8, 2016.

Rates of liver cancer have steadily climbed alongside rising rates of obesity and diabetes, leading researchers to investigate links among the conditions.

Gaining too much weight during pregnancy can bring serious health consequences.

The pay-for-performance deal comes as Januvia faces increased competition from newer drug classes, especially SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1 receptor agonists.

A study from Tufts University School of Medicine found that at age 10, obesity rates among children on the autism spectrum are not that much higher than children outside the spectrum, but rates diverge sharply as children get older.

The study found that in diabetic mice, a common sweetener appears to travel straight to the liver, where it causes fat to accumulate.

Coupons seem like a good deal for consumers, but they mask the true costs of drugs and force up premiums for everyone.

The findings are consistent with earlier work that show how soda companies spend heavily to promote their brands and thwart efforts to regulate or tax their products to address diabetes or obesity.

A letter from CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt that was made public said that Mylan had been warned repeatedly that it was not using the right classification for the EpiPen, at taxpayers' expense.

States that have not expanded Medicaid are finding that rural hospitals struggle because they must still treat uninsured patients who show up for care, but they get less help from the federal government than in the past.

It is well known that the current A1C test could be more accurate. A group of researchers at Harvard believes they have found a way to personalize the test.

The study finds a molecular pathway to explain patterns long observed by those who work with patients being treated for both alcohol abuse and depression.

The former president said that Obama's signature law works well for those who are enrolled in Medicaid or who qualify for subsidies, but others have seen premium increases with lower benefits. The White House noted that Hillary Clinton supports improvements to the law.

Despite a name derived from the Greek terms for "self-eating," autophagy is not harmful; rather, it is essential for insulin secretion.