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While Abbvie and Express Scripts announced their deal on Viekira Pak, which was approved in late December to treat hepatitis C, CVS/Caremark today announced that several of it's plans would provide exclusive coverage to Gilead's Sovaldi/Harvoni.

If the biological developed by Novartis to imitate Amgen's Neupogen is approved by the FDA, it'd open floodgates as other biosimilars find their way to the FDA's doorsteps. The cheaper alternatives would prove a tremendous cost-saving to the healthcare industry.

Outcomes for certain cardiac arrest patients were better for those admitted to teaching hospitals during national cardiology meetings compared with patients admitted on non-meeting days, according to a new study in JAMA Internal Medicine.

The 4 private companies that run Medicare's recovery audit program will have their contracts extended through 2015. But it's unclear what types of medical reviews or claims are going to be eligible for auditing.

In many ways, Kentucky, a poor state with a starkly unhealthy populace, has become a symbol of the Affordable Care Act's potential. But as the first year of coverage ends, potential obstacles to the law's success are also coming into sharp relief here.

Thousands of mental health clinicians with Oakland, California-based Kaiser Permanente are planning a statewide, weeklong strike on claims that Kaiser does not adequately staff its psychiatric departments.

Pharmacists find monitoring medication adherence difficult due to time constraints and other barriers, according to research published in the Journal of American Pharmacists Association.

A perspective published in the New England Journal of Medicine affirms that provisions of the Affordable Care Act will allow improved coverage of smoking cessation tools, which could be a big boost in the number of smokers planning to quit.

Rates of cancer deaths have declined 22% over the last 2 decades, which amounts to 1.5 million deaths averted, according to the annual cancer statistics report from the American Cancer Society.

Year of birth has a larger impact on obesity than genes alone, according to an analysis of the relationship between body mass index and an obesity-related gene variant.

NICE has published draft guidance which recommends that nab-paclitaxel given with gemcitabine should not be funded by the NHS for previously untreated metastatic pancreatic cancer, because its limited benefits compared to current treatments do not justify its cost.

Researchers at the University of Missouri School of Medicine have developed a tool to test how well a doctor delivers patient-centered care by assessing whether medical students have learned and are applying the correct behaviors.

The drug Saxenda has been approved as a treatment option for chronic weight management for adults who are overweight or obese in addition to a reduced-calorie diet and exercise.

The size of the average deductible more than doubled in 8 years, from $584 to $1217 for individual coverage. Add to this co-pays, co-insurance and the price of drugs or procedures not covered by plans - and it's all too much for many Americans.

Advocacy groups led by the JDRF gained strong bipartisan support for a bill in the last session of Congress, even though it was introduced late in the session. Those who support gaining Medicare coverage for devices that allow persons with type 1 diabetes to better monitor their blood sugar believe that bodes well for passage in the session that begins next week.

Combining erlotinib with SBRT more than doubled the survival time of stage 4 lung cancer patients.

The US patient monitoring market is projected to grow over $5 billion by 2020 driven by the demand for customized healthcare solutions, increased chronic illness amongst the aging population, and strained healthcare budgets.

A large majority of people who selected health insurance plans through HealthCare.gov during the first month of open enrollment for 2015 will receive financial assistance for their monthly premiums, according to HHS.

Patients have a naïve optimism about medical care. A new study in JAMA found that patients have an unrealistic expectation of the benefits and harms of common medical treatments, tests, and screens.

Only a few states have readily available information on the quality of physician care, according to the second annual State Report Card on Transparency of Physician Quality Information from the Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute.

A report from HHS notes that through December 15, 2014, 52% of enrollees were new consumers, which could indicate that the Obama Administration is on track to meeting its goal of signing up 9 million Americans for health coverage on the exchanges in 2015.

Simply increasing access to care is not enough to improve the health of patients with diabetes mellitus as a new study in JAMA has also associated the difficulty of paying for food and medications with poor diabetes control.

With the Affordable Care Act seemingly off to a good start, attention is likely to turn to an older program for children that will come to an end in 2015 if it is not reauthorized.

Matt Salo, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, is emerging as one of the most important observers in how the expansion of the leading healthcare program for poor Americans is unfolding across the country. In December's issue of The American Journal of Accountable Care, he addresses how the fallout of the 2014 midterms will affect Medicaid in the near term.

With 2014 coming to a close, The American Journal of Managed Care is taking a look back at the most popular articles from this year. These most-read articles highlight the healthcare issues most important to providers, insurers, and policy makers.

After website glitches stole the spotlight during the first open enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act, CMS hired Accenture to fix HealthCare.gov. Now, the consulting firm has been awarded a 5-year, $563 million contract to continue working on the website.

Improved and standardized reporting across healthcare organizations is needed to better understand the impact of health information technology (IT) on adverse events, according to a report from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.

Several states hit backlogs enrolling the flood of new Medicaid recipients under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), but New Jersey's experience appears to be in a category of its own: an effort to upgrade antiquated computer systems and fold in the ACA at the same time failed miserably, leaving an estimated 11,000 residents without coverage as 2014 ends.

The plaintiff, John Doe, alleges that not having access to a community pharmacist will limit his ability to gain counseling on potential drug interactions. United Healthcare settled a similar action earlier in 2014. Consumer groups have also alleged discrimination against HIV patients by insurers over drug access in Florida.

The FDA has provided Emergency Use Authorization, a pre-approval for use in bad outbreaks, for Roche's new Ebola test, the LightMix Ebola Zaire rRT-PCR Test.