Diabetes

This week, the top managed care news included a proposal to allow Medicare to pay the same prices for certain drugs as what other countries pay; President Donald Trump signed a law to fight the opioid crisis; an FDA advisory panel voted narrowly to retain a 10-year-old guidance for safety trials for diabetes drugs.

Here are 5 interesting findings from the October 2018 issue of AJMC®.

Cardiovascular outcomes trials have changed type 2 diabetes drug development and added to the knowledge base, but some think these giant studies make therapies too costly and discourage innovation.

Amgen has announced that the price of its proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitor, evolocumab (Repatha), will be reduced by 60%, from an annual price of $14,100 down to $5850.

The October 2018 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care® (AJMC®) includes studies on diabetes outcomes, the effect of feedback reports on physician behavior, accountable care organization performance, and more. Here are 5 findings from the research published in the issue.

Casting messages widely throughout an electronic health record instead of using more focused direct messaging in diabetes care leads to more hospital visits and higher medical costs, according to a study published in the current issue of The American Journal of Managed Care®.

The analysis of data from EMPA-REG OUTCOME arrives as the FDA weighs the future of these large trials.

Incorporating an autopend functionality into clinical decision support improved glycated hemoglobin laboratory test completion by between 21.1% and 33.9% for reminder messages read within 57 days.

Patient preference should be considered because medications don't work if adherence is poor, the experts noted.

The actual costs of implementing the evidence-based Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) were compared with the latest reimbursement rates provided by CMS.

More frequent electronic health record (EHR) message forwarding in primary care teams is associated with worse outcomes and higher medical costs for patients with diabetes.

For 2017, New Jersey's largest insurer made particularly good progress in certain diabetes measures and in cancer screenings.

Employers may not look forward to purchasing healthcare, but they are in the position to transform the market. More employers are getting more involved in healthcare by championing alternative payment models and other services to their employees.

POSTERS AT THE 2018 American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) Annual Conference covered updates on new therapies and technology, strategies to help patients overcome fear of using insulin, and innovations in diabetes self-management education and support. Following are a few snapshots of the research presented at AADE.

A letter from our Editor-in-Chief, Robert Gabbay, MD, PhD, FACP.

Every week, The American Journal of Managed Care® recaps the top managed care news of the week, and you can now listen to it on our podcast, Managed Care Cast.

Livongo’s technology is built around the idea that a person living with diabetes must make multiple decisions every day, and the cumulative effect of all those decisions drives outcomes.

A profile of a program that calls for residents in a rural area to become full partners in managing their type 2 diabetes, and in the process bring changes to their community.

Employers who have been disappointed in the past with wellness programs want to see evidence of patient engagement and how this translates into savings.

A former president of the American Association of Diabetes Educators addresses the need to remodel diabetes self-management education and support, to create a reimbursement system that better meets the needs of today's providers and patients.

This article is based on a keynote presentation at the 2018 annual conference of the American Association of Diabetes Educators.

There are a growing number of diabetes therapies, which has led to the need to individualize choices based on patient profile, said Robert A. Gabbay, MD, PhD, FACP, senior vice president and chief medical officer of Joslin Diabetes Center.

This week, the top managed care news included comments to several proposals from CMS; Medicare advocates say voters will be motivated by healthcare cost concerns during the midterm elections; research showed diabetes drug dapagliflozin, an SGLT2 inhibitor, reduces risks of major cardiovascular events.

Full results from the cardiovascular outcomes trial for dapagliflozin (Farxiga) will be presented at the American Heart Association annual meeting in November.

In the United States, a woman age 30 to 70 years of age has a 1 in 8 chance of dying from a noncommunicable disease (NCDs), putting the nation on par with low and middle-income countries, and setting it apart with Iceland among high-income countries, according to a report published Thursday in The Lancet.