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What type of cervical cancer screening should a woman get, if any, and how often? The latest recommendation from the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) said Tuesday that it depends on a woman’s age and other factors.

Using lower-cost generic drugs that are as safe and effective as the brand-name versions could have saved more than $900 million in Medicare in 2016, according to research published in JAMA.

Senator Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, wants to attach his proposal to cut funding for Planned Parenthood to a massive defense, HHS, labor, and education funding bill that is currently being debated on the Senate floor; nearly 1 in 5 jail and prison inmates regularly used heroin or opioids before being incarcerated, making jails a place for intervention, treatment, and rehabilitation; in Maine, residents who applied for health coverage under Medicaid expansion are still waiting to hear from the governor, and in Kentucky, the governor was rebuffed in his lawsuit against 16 residents who sued the state over Mediciaid work requirements.

The emergence and uptake of antiretroviral therapy (ART) has led to significant improvements in viral suppression rates over the past 2 decades.

Payment reform efforts that don't engage patients are missing out on an opportunity for greater improvements, especially in cancer, where patients face substantial cost sharing.

CMS is giving $8.6 million to 30 states and the District of Columbia to help insurance departments stabilize their health insurance markets and implement and plan for consumer protections and market reforms called for under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Benralizumab, an interleukin-5 (IL-5) antagonist used to treat severe asthma, does not weaken antibody response of influenza vaccinations, according to results of a recent study.

A coalition of diverse interest groups—payers, unions, and business groups—wrote Senate leaders Monday to express their opposition to the inclusion of “pay for” legislation regarding end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in an opioid bill passed in June by the House of Representatives.

Authors of a Health Affairs blog post cite an initiative that rates how well cities are doing in making sure their laws allow for affordable housing, which is getting more attention as a factor in population health.

Patients with type 2 diabetes and moderate renal impairment who took oral semaglutide in a phase 3a trial reported a larger reduction in glycated hemoglobin and more weight loss than patients taking placebo.

A Dartmouth College investigation has concluded that H. Gilbert Welch, MD, MPH, a prominent healthcare policy researcher, committed research misconduct in connection with a breast cancer paper published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2016; a Boston University endocrinologist, Michael Holick, MD, who had a crucial role in drafting national vitamin D guidelines, has benefitted from the industry in the amount of hundreds of thousands of dollars; 24 states have passed 37 bills this year to curb rising prescription drug costs as bipartisan efforts are forcing pharmaceutical companies to disclose and justify price increases.

To address the needs of individuals with complex health and social needs, providers first need to know who they are. Integrating data from multiple sectors, such as social services, education, criminal justice, and healthcare, can help providers identify individuals who are facing multisector barriers to wellness.

Despite patients with migraine being younger and having fewer indicators for predicting readmission, they had an increased risk of 30-day hospital readmission due to pain.

Pentraxin-3 is known to promote the transition of monocytes to fibrocytes, though little is known about its role in myelofibrosis.

FAIR Health recently analyzed data from its database of more than 26 billion privately billed healthcare claim records dating back to 2002. The report also identified the top 10 procedure codes for specific treatments and services associated with opioid abuse and dependence diagnoses by utilization and aggregate cost in each US Census region.

The rate of disease progression in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can be associated with a poor prognosis in patients.

A recent study discovered more about the immunological mechanisms correlated with lung inflammation in some severe asthma patients, raising possibilities it may serve as a baseline for future research and drug development.

Announced today, Bristol-Myers Squibb’s nivolumab (Opdivo) has received FDA approval as the first immuno-oncology treatment for patients with metastatic small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) whose cancer has progressed after platinum-based chemotherapy and at least 1 other line of treatment.

Persistent use of osteoporosis medications was associated with reduced risk of fracture and significantly lower total healthcare costs, a recent analysis of Medicare claims data found.

A recent study found that the association between vitamin D (Vit D) status and multiple sclerosis (MS) susceptibility is genotype dependent and suggested that the outcome of Vit D status in MS is determined by gene-by-sex interactions.

Accountable care organizations (ACOs), either directly or indirectly, are affecting physician employment patterns in regions where they have high penetration.

The authors of a recent editorial explained that the higher prevalence of migraine in obese individuals may be due to a common etiological factor, because both conditions are linked to inflammatory processes.

Every single future medical student who will study at the New York University School of Medicine, in perpetuity, will have their tuition costs fully covered; HHS has approved New Jersey’s waiver request to create a reinsurance program that would help lower insurance premiums for everyone in the state; an analysis highlights how marketing documents from the mid-1990s downplayed addiction to opioids.

Coverage of our peer-reviewed research and news reporting in the healthcare and mainstream press.

This week, the top managed care stories included CMS outlining a plan to encourage Medicare accountable care organizations to take on more risk, faster; a study found substantial growth in Medicaid managed care enrollment; an analysis showed nearly 1 in 5 inpatient hospital stays includes a claim from an out-of-network provider.

The FDA cleared the first generic version of EpiPen and EpiPen Jr, an epinephrine auto-injector for severe allergic reactions, 2 years after generic drugmaker Teva Pharmaceuticals was first turned down in its bid to win approval for the device. The Teva device is the first-ever generic to the one marketed by Mylan, which is still in short supply during the busy back-to-school season in pharmacies due to production issues at Pfizer, which makes the device.

Next week, a CMS committee will hold a day-long meeting to discuss a national coverage determination (NCD) for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapies, and in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine, Peter B. Bach, MD, MAPP, reviewed several strategies open to CMS as it continues to try to determine how to pay for CAR T.

A recent study found that the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor talazoparib extended progression-free survival (PFS) and improved quality of life over chemotherapies for patients with metastatic human epidermal growth factor 2-negative breast cancer and mutations in the BRCA 1/2 genes.