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The percentage of people with high medical costs increased from 2007-2009 to 2011, but the Affordable Care Act's coverage provisions should substantially reduce cost burdens for many people, according to a Commonwealth Fund study.

A study conducted at the humanities and medicine departments at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania, found that there's never an ideal time to talk to cancer patients about end-of-life decisions, and most patients are not too disturbed by these discussions.

For years, Harvard's experts on health economics and policy have advised presidents and Congress on how to provide health benefits to the nation at a reasonable cost. But those remedies will now be applied to the Harvard faculty, and the professors are in an uproar.

With evidence that the current flu vaccine may not be effective on the predominant influenza A strain of the virus, hospital admission rates are the primary determinants of the severity of the epidemic that has claimed 6 young lives in the last week of December alone.

Illinois passed a law in 2011 that called for moving 50% of its Medicaid population into managed care by January 1, 2015. The state came very close to meeting that goal, with the expressed mission of achieving the "triple aim" called for in the Affordable Care Act.

The Obama administration is continuing to compromise with Republican-led states that expand Medicaid.

Scientists at Oregon State University have developed fluorescent nanoparticles that can aid in the removal of malignant tumors and also kill any remaining malignant cancer cells.

Although infection prevention programs require ongoing investments, the money spent is worthwhile considering the costs saved as healthcare-associated infection rates fall, according to a study in the American Journal of Infection Control.

Congress eased school nutrition standards championed by Michelle Obama in the final days of the last session, and some nutrition advocates believe it's just the beginning of a rollback of the 2010 law that put healthier foods on lunchroom plates. What happens if Congress' efforts to water down school lunch standards run counter to the ongoing work of the committee setting the nation's nutrition policy, whose work will be released in the next few weeks?

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.