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Based on ICER’s evaluation, a significant reduction in the wholesale acquisition cost (WAC) of approved checkpoint inhibitors would be necessary to achieve a pre-determined value-based price benchmark.

Highlights of our peer-reviewed research in the healthcare and mainstream press.

While there have been large increases in the cost of new cancer treatments for patients with metastatic breast, lung, or kidney cancer, or chronic myeloid leukemia, researchers found that there were also large gains in life expectancy.

In the year since New Jersey regulators approved OMNIA, the state's health insurance market has experienced the same upheaval seen elsewhere: the number of options on the exchanges has shrunk from 5 to 2.

During the fall meeting of the National Association of Accountable Care Organizations (NAACOS) in Washington, DC, speakers from the government and from various ACOs across the country shared their insights into the success and opportunities of these delivery models. Here are 5 takeaways from the NAACOS fall conference.

What we're reading, September 29, 2016: as part of the bill to prevent a government shutdown, the Senate has finally approved Zika virus funding; electronic health record breaches skyrocketed from 2014 to 2015; and California passes "right to try" law for terminally ill patients.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic are recommending that premenopausal women with a low risk of ovarian cancer should be spared unnecessary comorbidities associated with bilateral oophorectomy.

The Abbott system allows physicians to gather up to 14 days' worth of glucose data without the patient having to interact with any device, or even calibrate it.

During the plenary session on the first day of the fall meeting of the National Association of Accountable Care Organizations, CMS' Sean Cavanaugh discussed the outcomes of the Medicare ACO programs and members of 2 successful ACOs joined him on stage to provide their input.

A new study has found that after adjusting for changes in screening, there was a decrease in incidence of all grades of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) for women 15- to 19-years old, and CIN grade 2 in women 20- to 24-years old.

Data show that the biggest factor affecting distribution of uninsured rates was whether a state expanded Medicaid. Even with that limitation, uninsured rates have reached historic lows. The trouble is, only about one-fourth of Americans know this, and more have moved on to issues that affect them personally, such as the cost of premiums or high deductibles.

During the most recent web-based seminar of The American Journal of Managed Care’s ACO & Emerging Healthcare Delivery Coalition, experts discussed a digital test that can help primary care physicians assess patients’ cognitive abilities and detect impairment sooner.

The company's announcement notably does not use the term "artificial pancreas," although the technology is a considerably more significant advance from the 530G threshold suspend device of 2013. When the description "artificial pancreas" was attached to that product, the term was met with howls of protest from the type 1 diabetes community.

A study published in the journal Cancer has discovered that a 2012 recommendation for prostate cancer screening did not change physician behavior.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield's annual Patient-Centered Summit covered efforts by the state to expand naloxone access, provide peer support for those rescued from an opioid overdose, and the insurer's prevention practices.

A new study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology has found a significant survival advantage of combining chemotherapy and radiotherapy following surgery in patients with medulloblastoma.

Barring major advances in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), hospitalizations for the disease will increase by more than 150% over the next 15 years in developed countries

Mix-ups in patient identification are a fairly frequent occurrence that can cause real harm to patients. These events are highly preventable with strategies.

What we're reading, September 28, 2016: a new company will help people fight their medical bills; prescription drug monitoring programs may not be helping the opioid crisis; and why banning pay-for-delay deals may not help to lower costs.

According to a new proposal by the Center for American Progress, Medicare and private health insurance companies should have the power to negotiate drug prices with manufacturers, empowered by comparative effectiveness research data.

The effort to reach young adults will allow them to shop for coverage entirely on mobile digital technology. But an economist interviewed earlier this month says it might not be enough.

Both private and public healthcare plans have traditionally used patient cost sharing to keep costs down. However, implementing value-based insurance design may be able to promote efficiency while increasing the use of high-quality care.

Use of stereotactic body radiation therapy improved survival in elderly patients diagnosed with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer by about 20% over a decade.

Advancement in basic science and medical technology has made cancer a curable disease for many patients. Approximately 40% of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, but as of 2014, 1 in 22 Americans is a cancer survivor, which equals 14.5 million cancer survivors in the US, explained Joseph C. Alvarnas, MD, director of value-based analytics for the City of Hope.

Jack Whelan, an e-patient advocate and patient with a rare blood disease, spoke at The American Journal of Managed Care’s 4th Annual Patient-Centered Oncology Care Meeting. In his presentation, Whelan explained that patient centricity and education is important for all parties in the healthcare industry to better take hold of.

In the United States healthcare system, discussions of value are almost always associated with the equation of quality over cost. However, patients don’t necessarily think that way, explained Yousuf Zafar, MD, MHS, associate professor of medicine and public policy at the Duke Cancer Institute.

While President Barack Obama outlined a series of budget plans for oncology care in the fall of 2015, which was designed to allocate an estimated $130 million to sequence 1 million volunteers, $70 million to identify “genome drivers” and $10 million to the FDA to build databases, Michael A. Kolodziej, MD, FACP, national medical director of Oncology Solutions at Aetna, believes there to be different areas of oncology care that need more attention and resources. Kolodziej presented at The American Journal of Managed Care’s 4th Annual Patient-Centered Oncology Meeting.

There are a number of issues concerning big data in the oncology world, the most prominent of which concerns the number of patients participating in clinical trials, Robert J. Green, MD, MSCE, vice president of clinical strategy at Flatiron Health, explained during his presentation at The American Journal of Managed Care’s 4th Annual Patient-Centered Oncology Meeting. He added that only 4% of adult cancer patients participate in a clinical trial.

Family history is at the core of precision medicine, Joy Larsen Haidle, MS, CGC, 2015 president of the National Society of Genetic Counselors, said during her presentation at The American Journal of Managed Care’s 4th Annual Patient-Centered Oncology Care Meeting. During her presentation, Haidle explained that while hereditary cancer was traditionally viewed as occurring between 5% and 10% of the cancer population, recent data suggest that number may be a lot closer to 25% today.

Scott Gottlieb, MD, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; Michael A. Kolodziej, MD, national medical director of oncology strategy at Aetna; Bruce Quinn, MD, PhD, MBA, senior director at FaegreBD Consulting; and Joy Larsen Haidle, MS, CGC, 2015 president of the National Society of Genetic Counselors, discussed the impacts of FDA regulation on diagnostics in oncology during The American Journal of Managed Care’s 4th Annual Patient-Centered Oncology Care Meeting. The panel discussion was moderated by Dennis P. Scanlon, professor of health policy and administrator and director of the Center for Health Care and Policy Research at The Pennsylvania State University.