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CMS actuaries reported Thursday that overall national healthcare spending growth slowed for the second year in a row, due to slower spending growth in every area: hospital care, physician and clinical services, and retail prescription drugs. The slower pace also stemmed from the expanded coverage effects of the Affordable Care Act taking root in 2014 and 2015 and then falling off, as well as the decrease in usage of hepatitis C prescription drugs.

A median 19-month follow-up of the JULIET trial—a single-arm, open-label, multicenter, global, pivotal phase 2 trial of the chimeric antigen receptor-T cell therapy tisagenlecleucel directed against CD19-expressing B cells—has found a 40% complete response and a manageable safety profile in adult patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).

Think tank RAND is suggesting that long-time heroin users who have failed on other treatments might be treated with pharmaceutical-grade heroin; House Democrats want more scrutiny on healthcare mergers as consolidation continues to lead to rising prices; a new study has found that migrants tend to be healthier and live longer than residents of the wealthy countries that they are traveling to.

The authors say while guidelines look at the benefits of statins to prevent cardiovascular disease (CVD), they do not adequately assess the harms. The new model takes this into account.

A recent study compared the time to AIDS and mortality and the CD4 T-cell dynamics between HIV-1 and HIV-2, finding that both groups have a high probability of developing and dying from AIDS without antiretroviral treatment.

A new study has recommended updated cutoffs for synovial effusion and hypertrophy to help screen for patients with symptomatic radiographic knee osteoarthritis.

Researchers at the 60th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting & Exposition presented long-term study results showing that high rates of minimal residual disease–negative complete response were sustained with a median duration of over 4 years among treatment-naïve patients with multiple myeloma.

A kidney transplant patient treated with direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) for a chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection showed reactivation of the hepatitis B virus (HBV), which proved fatal. The authors of the report recommend a call to action for including HBV testing as part of the patient’s work-up in transplant recipients who are on immunosuppressants, especially in the context of abnormal liver tests.

https://www.pharmacytimes.org/on-demand/an-american-journal-of-managed-care-supplement-managing-costs-and-advancements-in-biosimilars

Among patients with pancreatic cancer being treated with modified FOLFIRINOX, those who develop severe neutropenia have significantly longer median overall survival, as well as longer time to treatment failure, compared with those who do not develop severe neutropenia.

New research finds migraine with aura is associated with an increased risk of atrial fibrillation (AF), which may help provide a clearer picture of the relationship between the migraine subtype and cardioembolic stroke, as AF is a common source of cardioembolic stroke.

A new prescription benefit option at CVS Health will guarantee that clients can receive 100% of any rebates, discounts, or other fees that drug makers pay; a new 10-minute blood test can detect cancer cells anywhere in the human body; a new study has found that sending young patients home with opioids after getting their wisdom teeth removed can set a path of opioid use and abuse.

In this series, we have used the recent announcement by CVS Health regarding a strategy to lower drug prices as an example to review basic pharmacoeconomic principles. For Part 3, we are going to discuss various stakeholders and how each might view the results of decisions based off of pharmacoeconomic analyses.

A newly published study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing finds that heavy alcohol consumption poses a risk for suboptimal long-term weight loss among patients with a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.

In 2016, 15.4% of physicians worked in practices that used telemedicine for a wide spectrum of patient interactions, including e-visits, and 11.2% of physicians worked in practices that used telemedicine for interactions between physicians and healthcare professionals.

Citing a 2016 case where Mylan, the maker of the branded epinephrine autoinjector EpiPen, paid the government hundreds of millions of dollars to settle the company’s failure to adequately pay Medicaid rebates, 2 senators introduced a bipartisan bill that attempts to prevent similar issues.

A new Gallup poll finds a split in beliefs in how Americans think about healthcare. The majority of respondents think the federal government should be responsible for ensuring that all Americans have health insurance, but at the same time, a majority is opposed to the notion of a “government-run” healthcare system.

The use of osteoporosis medication for 12 months reduced the risk of fractures and decreased medical costs in elderly female Medicare beneficiaries with osteoporosis, according to the results of a recent study.

The researchers wrote that theirs was the first such study to document the greater antithrombotic protection of hydroxyurea over PHL against arterial thrombosis. They also found that the 2 treatments lent similar protection from venous thrombosis.

As healthcare closes the book on 2018, here are trends and changes the industry can expect to see on the telepsychiatry front in 2019.

The number of cases of a mysterious polio-like illness called acute flaccid myelitis are falling; Apple’s latest watch, the Series 4, has new features designed to detect falls and heart problems, and is aimed at attracting an older demographic; dentists who prescribe opioids to teenagers and young adults after removing their wisdom teeth may be putting their patients at risk of addiction.

In fiscal year 2019, there will be approximately $1.9 billion in value-based incentive payments available to hospitals in the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Program, which is a budget-neutral program.

A commentator said a solution may come from the survey method: giving patients an opportunity to disclose medical information through an impersonal instrument.

At the inaugural convening of the healthcare advocacy group United States of Care, Mandy Cohen, MD, MPH, the North Carolina health secretary, and Adam Boehler, the head of CMS's Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, discussed strategies for lowering costs while improving healthcare quality.

For hospitals and other healthcare professionals, mobile apps represent the future of healthcare communication. If your facility isn’t already using apps or isn’t seriously evaluating them, your organization is behind the adoption curve.

The FDA has issued a safety warning that patients who stopped taking Gilenya experienced worsening of multiple sclerosis, compared with before treatment started or during treatment, in rare cases.

In a multicenter study, only 1 in 5 women at increased risk of breast cancer reported a strong need for tamoxifen preventive therapy, according to a report published Monday.

Once-daily gilteritinib pills have been approved to treat adult patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with a FLT3 mutation. Approximately 25% to 30% of patients with AML have this mutation, which is associated with an aggressive form of the disease and carries a higher risk of relapse.