Enrollment in Affordable Care Act plans is unlikely to increase in 2019; the outgoing Republican governor of Idaho has announced his support for expanding Medicaid; a new state audit has found that California spent $4 billion on people who were ineligible for Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program.
Oregon has approved new policies to continue the transformation of its Medicaid program with a focus on behavioral health, value, and social determinants of health in the state's coordinated care organizations.
Among women with HIV, there is an increased risk of neutropenia during chemoradiotherapy treatment for cervical cancer and they are less likely to complete chemotherapy with cisplatin.
A new report on the prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) shows that there is wide variability across and within states, with West Virginia carrying the highest burden of morbidity and mortality.
A study of more than 120,000 patients found that increasing physical performance is inversely associated with long-term mortality with no observed upper limit of benefit.
Building on positive 48-week data, Janssen released 96-week data demonstrating high rates of virogolic suppression and tolerability among antiretroviral therapy-naïve adults with HIV-1.
As with other kinds of surgery, patients undergoing operations for breast cancer can experience persistent postsurgical pain, which can negatively affect quality of life. Researchers in Tokyo conducted a study to see if they could determine the predictive value and accuracy of an acute pain trajectory, measured by pain intensity at 1 day after the surgery and pain prevalence at 6 months later.
A recent study from Taiwan found that having cataracts was independently associated with increased risks of osteoporosis and fracture, and there also might be an association between cataract surgery and lower risks of osteoporosis and fracture.
The National Institutes of Health is suspending human testing of an experimental, taxpayer-funded, stem cell trial for heart failure in light of emerging questions about the scientific foundation for the treatment; Republicans are working to shift the national healthcare conversation by telling seniors their Medicare coverage may be in danger; the drive to tighten immigration rules is stirring concerns in the medical profession about how it will affect the future supply of doctors in the United States.
In the last decade, testing for and treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) had undergone substantial changes with new testing that can personalize therapy and new agents that provide more clinical benefit.
There are 2 policy forces at work that will likely have the most impact on sign-ups for health insurance available on the individual marketplaces under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), according to a Health Affairs blog post.
Lalan Wilfong, MD, moderated a conversation between Robert E. Baird, MD, CEO of Dayton Physicians Network, and Sarah Cevallos, chief revenue cycle officer for Florida Cancer Specialists and Research Institute, about current and future strategies for Oncology Care Model (OCM) participation, as well as key lessons from the OCM and how they can be applied in other reform models.
A new study suggests that patients undergoing thyroid and parathyroid surgery need little opioid treatment postoperatively if they receive preoperative patient education.
Guidelines indicate that high-risk patients with polycythemia vera (PV) should be treated with phlebotomy and cytoreductive therapy—such as hydroxyurea or interferon-alfa—to reduce the risk of thrombosis, the major cause of death among patients with PV. To assess the effectiveness of these treatment modalities among older US adults with PV, the authors of a newly published paper evaluated a large cohort of patients with PV in the real-world setting.
A small biotech company is moving toward FDA approval with a pill it believes can lower bad cholesterol at a discount to other medicines; most of the nation’s hospitals have so far avoided offering any form of addiction medicine to patients in the emergency department, but in Maryland, that is starting to change; since 2010, nearly 90 rural hospitals have shut their doors, and there are consequences for residents and different reasons why this is happening.
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.
Researchers reviewed the most updated concepts of the pulmonary vascular changes in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and concluded that certain subgroups of COPD patients with pulmonary vascular phenotypes may profit from targeted pulmonary arterial hypertension therapy.
Researchers looked to evaluate predictors of mortality in patients with COPD after 9 years.
A study published in JAMA Opthalmology has confirmed that PD-1 inhibitors, and nivolumab in particular, are effective in the treatment of metastatic conjunctival melanoma.
The field of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) has witnessed a slow and steady progress over the past few years. Here are a few recent developments with utilizing and measuring PROs.
Acupuncture represents a nonopioid alternative for treatment pain, but many institutions, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, are resistant to using the treatment.
Patients with insomnia had an increased risk of migraine and nonmigraine headache compared to those without insomnia.
Following more than 1000 people living with HIV who were recently incarcerated, researchers observed that retention in care diminished significantly over time, but it was associated with HIV care during incarceration, health insurance, case management services, and early linkage to care post release.
Electronic cigarettes can cause detrimental effects to human health and should be reconsidered as a smoking cessation tool, based on results from a recent study.
In patients with progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), BK virus-specific T-cell infusions have been shown to clear JC virus in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and relieve clinical symptoms, according to results of a study by Muftuoglu et al.
Coverage of our peer-reviewed research and news reporting in the healthcare and mainstream press.
This week, the top managed care news included the Trump administration giving governors the power to overhaul section 1332 waivers under the Affordable Care Act (ACA); CMS disclosed a breach in the portal that agents and brokers use to assist consumers signing up for health coverage under the ACA; about one-third of all US healthcare payments in 2017 were tied to alternative payment models.
A report from RAND Corporation and the American Medical Association (AMA) describes how alternative payment models (APMs) are affecting multiple aspects of physician practice and offers guidance for efforts to improve APMs and help practices succeed in them.
Researchers aimed to compare the clinical effectiveness of oral anti-osteoporosis drugs based on the observed risk of fracture while receiving treatment through primary care in the United Kingdom and Spain.
Fewer than 4 out of 10 adults received influenza vaccinations last winter, the lowest rate in 7 seasons; methamphetamine use is rising across the United States, but it is overshadowed by opioids and fatal overdoses; tobacco giant Altria will stop selling e-cigarette “pods” and will pull almost all its flavored products from the market in an attempt to help curb teen vaping.