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Waiting until there's a cancer diagnosis or other crisis is not the time to be taking the family's medical history. Testing companies and genetic counselors encourage families to share information when they are all in one place.

The policy change is aimed at curbing the state's obesity rate as well as comorbidities such as diabetes

This Thanksgiving, as families gather around the table, health and wellness should be a topic of discussion.

What we're reading, November 25, 2015: UnitedHealthcare's decision on healthcare exchange participation, Democratic Presidential candidate's health plan, and conflict of interest between soda company and anti-obesity research group.

The study was released Thanksgiving week. The Wednesday before the holiday has become one of the most dangerous nights of the year, with the number of violations for driving under the influence higher than Thanksgiving or Christmas Day.

What we're reading, November 25, 2015: hospitals can save money in the long run by preventing hospital-acquired infections with private rooms; Arizona's co-op plans to close December 31; and study finds testing prison inmates for hepatitis C is extremely cost-effective.

Despite changes to the United States healthcare system, Americans' overall satisfaction with the total cost they pay for healthcare has been stable over the past 14 years, according to a Gallup survey, which also found little changes in satisfaction with healthcare quality and coverage.

What we're reading, November 26, 2015: CMS blog on step-wise transition to value-based care, payer-drug industry alliance on drug pricing, and a new model to override the proposed ACA tax credits.

Physician interest in concierge and other direct patient contracting practices is driven by frustration with reimbursement and billing hassles and a desire to spend more time with patients, but there is limited evidence on these practices' impact on cost, quality, and access to care.

The Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll periodically gauges public opinion on important health issues. It found 56% of Americans had some connection to the painkiller epidemic and 16% knew someone who had died.

What we're reading, November 24, 2015: expensive hepatitis C drugs are more cost effective when used earlier; clinicians aren't prescribing generics enough; and half of health 45-year-olds will develop prediabetes.

The approval follows 5 months after Bristol-Myers Squibb submitted phase 3 results of the Checkmate-066 trial for FDA review.

Terms of the deal with the second-largest pharmacy benefit manager were not disclosed. Pricing for the PCSK9 inhibitor class has been a source of controversy since the cholesterol-fighting drugs were approved this summer.

Community-based organizations are ideally suited for healthcare prevention efforts and provide a needed linkage to medical care provider systems.

Two months after being granted a Breakthrough Therapy designation by the FDA for metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC), nivolumab was today approved by regulators for treating mRCC patients who have failed a certain type of prior therapy.

Workers give low marks to the US healthcare system based primarily on cost, but rate their own plans favorably.

The study credited better drugs and improvements in foot inspections and self-care with the reduction.

A state-led program, initiated in 2003, has nearly doubled screening colonoscopy rates in New York City and also eliminated racial and ethnic disparities in the process.

John Bel Edwards was elected Governor of Louisiana Saturday after promising to expand Medicaid. Hospitals have been eager to see expansion; in the spring, they supported a fee to pay the state's share once the federal government stops paying 100% of expansion costs.

What we're reading, November 23, 2015: Oregon and California both pass laws that authorize pharmacists to prescribe birth control; the US and Europe are approving more drugs; and Turing discounts Daraprim just 50% and only for hospitals.

Pfizer and Allergan announce $160 billion merger, which is the second-largest in the healthcare industry's history and the largest to use a controversial tax-saving strategy.

CMS has announced proposed changes to the 2017 health insurance marketplaces aimed at providing choice and competition for consumers and improvements in consumer experience.

A recent study published by JAMA Surgery intended to pinpoint risk factors for hospital readmission in patients who underwent an emergency general surgery procedure, in hopes of finding out what decreases readmissions in the long run.

The top stories in managed care were discussions of value-based care at the NAMCP Fall Managed Care Forum, hospitals are suing over Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey's OMNIA plan, and CMS finalizes its bundled payments for joint replacement.

Three years after Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center refused to add Zaltrap to its formulary due to cost, value is part of the national conversation in cancer care. The new question is what will happen when physicians assume risk.

A pharmacist who engages in formulary decisions, a medical director for population management for a private health exchange, and an innovations leader at a pharmacy benefit manager, took to the podium at the Patient-Centered Oncology Care meeting on November 20, 2015, to discuss cost-saving strategies in oncology and whether benefit managers can play a role in reining-in some of these costs.

The findings suggest that addressing heart patients' social needs is the first step toward getting them to exercise more.

The HHS Pharmaceutical Forum brought together a diverse set of stakeholders to share ideas on delivering affordable but high-quality care, improving outcomes, and continuing to lead in innovation. Here are 5 things that came out of the daylong meeting.

What we're reading, November 20, 2015: CMS wants to penalize doctors for ordering routine prostate-cancer screening tests; lawmakers, patients, and advocates call for head of Drug Enforcement Agency to be fired; and specialty drug costs exceed household incomes.

A panel that discussed the prospect of FDA regulation of diagnostic tests in oncology helped open Patient-Centered Oncology Care November 19, 2015, in Baltimore, Maryland.