The November 2018 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care® (AJMC®) has a special focus on substance use disorder, but its studies also touch on disparities in patient portal adoption and the cost impacts of dementia. Here are 5 findings from the research published in the issue.
This week, the top managed care news included research that showed c​​​​ancer surpassed cardiovascular disease to be the leading cause of death in high-income counties; HHS Secretary Alex Azar announced a new mandatory payment model is coming to oncology; a policy change could make mental health treatment more available.
The FDA today announced new actions aimed at reversing the increasing trend of youth nicotine use and combating youth access to e-cigarettes. Though the agency stopped short of an expected ban on flavored e-cigarettes, it will move to outlaw menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, 2 products that disproportionately harm African Americans.
An Oklahoma verdict against Aetna highlights insurer reluctance to pay for proton beam therapy.
A report assessing healthcare utilization and cost patterns in 6 regions across the United States highlighted stark differences in average healthcare costs, with Maryland falling 20% below the average and Colorado landing 19% above average.
US health officials said Thursday the number of high school students who reported being current e-cigarette users skyrocketed 78% between 2017 and 2018 to 3.05 million, as the FDA moved to create tougher regulations on e-cigarettes, although the agency did not propose the type of ban that some public health advocates hoped for.
Workers younger than 65 with employer-sponsored health insurance dramatically shifted to nurse practitioners and physician assistants between 2012 and 2016 as visits to primary care physicians decreased, according to a new report from the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI).
When used in combination with rituximab, Hu5F9-G4 (5F9), a humanized monoclonal anti-CD47 antibody, promotes durable objective and complete response rates in lymphoma while also having minimal adverse events (AE), according to a phase 1b study published in New England Journal of Medicine.
The guidelines unveiled at the American Heart Association annual meeting discuss when patients at the highest risk could be treated with a PCSK9 inhibitor.
Michigan receives approval to implement outcomes-based drug contracts in Medicaid; in the first 10 days since open enrollment began, 1.2 million people have signed up for Affordable Care Act health plans, which falls short of the 1.5 million people who signed up in the first 9 days last year; new research has found that in states with lax gunshot laws, children are twice as likely to die from gunshot wounds compared with states with stricter laws.
America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) released what it said are 12 proposals to help increase affordability for people who buy insurance on the individual market who do not qualify for subsidies. Meanwhile, CMS said 1.2 million people signed up for health insurance during the first 10 days of open enrollment for the individual marketplaces.
One-third of neutropenic patients developed invasive infection following intensive chemotherapy, which was significantly associated with an increase in mortality up to 100 days after the start of neutropenia.
A large pooled analysis of 758,592 premenopausal women, conducted by the Premenopausal Breast Cancer Collaborative Group, identified an inverse association between body mass index (BMI) and the risk of breast cancer.
As physicians have an essential role in the fight against HIV—leading patients through the care continuum—understanding HIV-related stigma among physicians can inform development of interventions to reduce this stigma and promote positive clinical outcomes.
CMS' announcement of a new mandatory oncology bundled payment model wasn't a surprise. It reinforces CMS' continued commitment to creating innovative ways of transforming care.
A new study by Children’s National Health System researchers suggests that the majority of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) may not achieve blood concentrations of antibiotics sufficiently high enough to effectively fight bacteria causing pulmonary exacerbations.
A widely used probiotic, Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG), stimulated bone formation in mice, according to a recent study.
HHS Secretary Alex Azar declares a public health emergency in California over ongoing wildfires; a new formulary from Express Scripts will encourage drug makers to move away from paying rebates and instead keep list prices low; part of Oscar Health’s expansion efforts has brought the insurer to Florida, but the company has said its efforts are being “stymied” by Florida Blue.
It is already well established that patients with COPD have exacerbations during winter as well as during heat waves in the summer months, and researchers in Germany sought to see which patient groups might be potentially more vulnerable to the effects of climate change in order to see who might need targeted care.
While obesity is a risk factor for cancer and can promote cancer growth and recurrence, research published this week has found that, paradoxically, obesity can make checkpoint inhibitors more effective in treating cancer.
Research presented at The Liver Meeting, held by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, found high rates of adherence, treatment completion, and sustained virologic response among patients infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) who inject drugs. These findings led authors to recommend inclusion of this subset of patients in HCV treatment programs.
Facing the threat of impending US regulatory action, Juul Labs said Tuesday it would voluntarily stop selling certain flavors of its flavored e-cigarettes in retail stores on a temporary basis, but would continue to sell them online, and plans to improve its age-verification system.
As a result of increased prevention and improved medical treatment of cardiovascular disease (CVD), and despite increasing rates of obesity and diabetes, cancer has gradually surpassed CVD as the leading cause of death in high-income counties. However, CVD is more likely to be the leading cause of death in low-income counties.
Treatment with the investigational drug crizanlizumab (SEG101) reduced pain in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) who were experiencing vaso-occlusive crisis according to posthoc results of the phase II SUSTAIN study published online in The American Journal of Hematology. The study found that more than twice as many patients with SCD treated with crizanlizumab did not experience a VOC compared with those treated with placebo.
Patients with blood cancers are burdened with higher costs than patients with other cancers, and spending in blood cancers does not return to precancer levels, according to a new study from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
In a speech to the National Association of Medicaid Directors, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said CMS is giving states more flexibility to enact inpatient mental health treatment for Medicaid beneficiaries, reversing a rule known as the "IMD exclusion.”
The report finds that another 1.7 million Americans have diabetes than would have been the case if rates had not increased.
A law overhauling how the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) allows patients to seek outside care is falling behind in implementation; new government guidelines about physical activity say adults need a minimum of 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity physical activity, or at least 22 minutes a day; more judges around the country are mandating outpatient psychiatric interventions, including therapy and medication, instead of hospitalizations.
Patients with transfusion-dependent thalassemia (TDT) and osteoporosis who were treated with denosumab had greater increases in bone mineral density in the femoral neck and lumbar spine, as well as lower pain scores and bone resorption biomarkers, compared with placebo, according to the results of a phase 2b trial.
If the trial is successful, venglustat could be the first treatment to target the mechanism of action in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (PKD), which affects 120,000 people in the United States.