Diabetes

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.

This week, the top managed care stories included a new rule from CMS to address drug costs for seniors; a campaign to get payers to fund the artificial pancreas is working; and a new survey identifies how Americans prefer to treat pain.

Diabetes prevention is about a change in lifestyle that will lead to internalized benefits that reduce risk, explained Paul Chew, MD, chief medical officer of Omada Health.

In this longitudinal comparative effectiveness study of different chronic disease self-management support approaches within 1 system, both pharmacist- and nurse-led patient-centered medical home approaches improved diabetes care.

The Beyond A1C movement seeks regulatory and clinical are frameworks that recognize the day-to-day measures that matter to patients, such as how often they experience hypoglycemia.

The Coverage2Control campaign has worked to convince payers of the value of life-saving technology and the need to control out-of-pocket costs.

The first major update since 2003 was announced this week during the 2017 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions.

The findings, presented at the 2017 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, suggest that a "precision medicine" approach to tailoring adherence strategies to individual patients may be needed, according to the study's lead author.

Researchers presenting at the American Heart Association look at specific populations within 2 large diabetes drug trials, CANVAS and EMPA-REG OUTCOME.

A study published in JAMA analyzed 155 health conditions, 36 age and sex groups, and 6 types of care to determine the impact of population growth, population aging, disease prevalence or incidence, service utilizations, and service price and intensity on healthcare spending increases in the United States from 1996 to 2013.

The Gallup-Sharecare Wellbeing Index released its estimate of the cost of diabetes for employers on World Diabetes Day.

The EMPA-REG trial has been a big step forward for clinicians being able to put patients with type 2 diabetes onto treatment that also reduces cardiovascular disease risk, which is the primary cause of death in these patients, explained Eliot A. Brinton, MD, FAHA, FNLA, president of the Utah Lipid Center.

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.

This week, the top managed care stories included a vote in Maine to expand Medicaid and other election day 2017 results; CMS issued final rules for the DIabetes Prevention Program; and a report from the American Society of Clinical Oncology highlighted the link between alcohol consumption and cancer.

Mind-body practices have increased in popularity,but the challenge of variation between teachers and classes has been a barrier to payer reimbursement.

Rising rates of diabetes and obesity have been cited in the fact that pancreatic cancer is expected to be the second-leading cause of cancer death by 2020.

CDC released a report showing a more than 17% increase in drug overdose deaths last year; Gail K. Boudreaux will step in as new Anthem CEO; and the first glucose-monitoring system that doesn’t require a blood sample will hopefully be introduced by the end of 2018.

CMS officials addressed a key concern that groups offering the Diabetes Prevention Program would bear too much financial risk, but they were unmoved on requests to let beneficiaries try the program more than once in a lifetime.

With 30% to 40% of people in the workforce at risk for prediabetes, it is important for employers to embrace diabetes prevention in the workplace, said Paul Chew, MD, chief medical officer of Omada Health.

While current, prior, and change in the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire score were all significnatly associated with lower risk of mortality and heart failure hospitalization in isolation, when the current score was included with either prior or change score, only the current score was significantly associated with lower risk for all-cause mortality.

Findings from the ACTION study were presented during Obesity Week.

At a session during the National Association of Managed Care Physicians Fall Managed Care Forum 2017, speakers discussed how new approaches to encouraging medication adherence can help improve outcomes in patients with chronic diseases.

Authors from a working group of the American Diabetes Association and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes made recommendations that could lead to broader use of technology. CGM systems are poised to make advances that could make them more useful to the larger group of patients with type 2 diabetes.

While Congress debates the fate of the Affordable Care Act, healthcare transformation continues, as seen in an update released this week at Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.