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Patient navigators in 3 health systems were able to reduce excessive emergency department visits by 43%, according to a 1-year pilot study by Accenture and the Highmark Foundation.

One of the early findings from various oncology medical homes throughout the country was that they work, claimed Ted Okon, BS, MBA, executive director of the Coalition Oncology Alliance.

The shift to focus on value in healthcare has changed the definition of what it means to be a physician in the United States, and professional societies, such as the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) are thinking about this issue heavily in order to provide guidance to their members, said Pete P. Yu, MD, FACP, FASCO, president of ASCO.

The drug targets multiple proteins that are overexpressed in head and neck cancer, the study published in Clinical Cancer Research says.

OIG recommends training for inspectors and amending contracts with stand-alone pharmacies to ensure improved quality and safety.

Hospital leaders express the same concerns heard in Florida, Alabama, and elsewhere since the midterms: refusing to expand Medicaid to the working poor leaves thousands without coverage, and they still come to emergency rooms for routine care. The problem is, the Affordable Care Act assumed that expansion would be universal, and funds to care for the uninsured have dried up.

As a blizzard predicted to break snowfall records bears down upon the Northeast, area hospitals and physicians are shifting into disaster-planning mode.

HHS has announced goals and a timeline to move Medicare toward a quality-based payment system and away from the current fee-for-service payments.

Drug and device companies are adapting changing consumer and insurer focus and report being more willing to have their products be judged on both clinical and economic value.

While Sovaldi will be available for patients at $300 a bottle, about one-tenth the price in the United States, later this year, the generic version, still in trials, is expected to be available soon after.

The findings, published in the journal Cancer found that women diagnosed with breast cancer were not very aware of the disease characteristics such as tumor grade or stage. The researchers also found a bias based on the patient's race.

As the personalized medicine initiative takes shape, word comes that CMS will pay for key genetic tests in lung cancer. This policy shift is a sea change after a long period of frustration for test makers in seeking reimbursement.

Wile several big and small pharmaceutical companies have invested research efforts in developing these complex, and expensive, treatment regimens, early results from trials indicate safety issues.

High-priced treatments continue to crush state budgets. With more drugs carrying 6-figure price tags, a problematic situation is playing out across the country.

Although some price variation is to be expected between large cities and rural areas, "extreme" price differences sometimes existed within the same market.

Daniel F. Hayes, MD, FASCO, has been elected president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

The launch of HealthCare.gov will likely always be remember for the numerous glitches and flaws that bogged down enrollment and the question of who is really to blame for the poor rollout remains.

More than one-third of silver plans offered on the federal health insurance Marketplace may be listing inaccurate or incomplete prescription drug cost-sharing information.

While the Health IT Policy Committee's Consumer Work Group praised efforts to update the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan, the group's members say the framework does not go far enough when it comes to consumers.

The Share system has been classified as a novel but low-to-moderate risk device, exempt from the requirement for premarket submissions.

Catalyst Health Network and UnitedHealthcare have launched an accountable care organization to improve care coordination, enhance health services, and reduce the cost of healthcare.

An American Medical Association-led coalition of 35 medical societies has urged the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to reevaluate the current electronic health record certification process.

Transparency throughout the healthcare system could produce safer care, better outcomes, and reduced costs of care, according to a new report from the National Patient Safety Foundation's Lucian Leape Institute.

A one-minute look back at the week of January 19, 2015, in managed care, including Marilyn Tavenner's departure from CMS and oncology drug pricing.

Bayer is collaborating with MD Anderson in Texas to develop a questionnaire that will query a patient's disease-related symptoms, a step to include PROs in early drug development which could help reduce adverse effects in the final product.

Amy Berman, BS, RN, Bruce Feinberg, DO, and Patti Forest, MD, MBA, sit on the first panel discussion at Patient-Centered Oncology Care 2015 and discuss advanced directives and end-of-life care.

A federal lawsuit accuses the Cleveland Clinic Health System of performing more tests and procedures on patients than necessary in order to obtain more Medicare payouts.

As cancer care becomes more powerful and people survivor longer, cancer is becoming a chronic disease that patients need to learn how to live with and remain productive. Although the role of payers in survivorship isn't fully baked yet, there is more focus in the area, according to Ira Klein, MD, MBA, FACP, chief medical officer at Aetna.

The Patient-Centered Oncology Care 2014 meeting started off with a talk by Marian Grant, DNP, RN, CRNP, of the University of Maryland School of Nursing, on the topic of palliative care. Although palliative care is appropriate for patients of all ages and in any stage of a serious illness and can be provided alongside curative or disease-modifying treatments, she says she often gets called in very late to offer palliative care to patients.

In 2 interviews with Physicians' Education Resource, LLC, award-winning journalist Joan Lunden and Patrick I. Borgen, MD, of Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY, discuss breast cancer in advance of the 32nd Annual Miami Breast Cancer Conference.