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Smoking is not an inexpensive hobby. Smokers not only spend money on cigarettes and tobacco, but also on healthcare to manage smoking-related illnesses. Approximately 36.5 million Americans are avid tobacco users who spend large sums of money on their addiction and the consequences that come with it.

Novartis' calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibitor for prevention of migraine, erenumab, showed positive results in a phase 3b study in episodic migraine patients who have failed multiple prior preventive treatments.

Kentucky may require Medicaid patients who lose coverage to pass a health literacy test; new tax law encourages companies to offer paid family and medical leave with tax credit; biopharma leaders head to Davos to share ideas.

The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) was funded for 6 years, through fiscal year (FY) 2023, under a deal worked out between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-New York.

The CDC reported recently that the percentage of privately insured reproductive-age women who filled a prescription for a medication for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) soared 344% from 2003 (0.9%) to 2015 (4.0%).

A government shutdown would have far-reaching implications for public health, with health services halted and almost half of HHS staff furloughed. In an updated contingency plan, HHS outlined which activities would continue during a shutdown and which would not.

The FDA has approved a supplemental New Drug Application to add new overall survival (OS) data for carfilzomib (Kyprolis). The label will now show that carfilzomib and dexamethasone reduced the risk of death by 21% and increased OS by 7.6 months compared with bortezomib and dexamethasone in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (MM).

A study released Monday found the Affordable Care Act (ACA) helped lower average out-of-pocket spending (OOP) overall, mainly because of reductions in spending among people eligible for the Medicaid expansion and cost-sharing and premium subsidies on the insurance exchanges. However, premium spending rose, mostly, because of large increases for those with higher incomes, said Anna Goldman, MD, MPA, one of the authors of the JAMA Internal Medicine study.

Flu season may have peaked with a hospitalization rate reaching 31.5 per 100,000 people; Wisconsin's Republican governor now seeks to stabilize the state's Affordable Care Act marketplace; the Trump administration revokes protection for Planned Parenthood funding.

Patients dually enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid have higher levels of Medicare spending compared to other beneficiaries, and it can impact hospitals' performance on a Medicare cost measure, according to a study published in Health Affairs.

While emergency departments (EDs) are often blamed as the culprit of allotting excessive amounts of opioids to patients, office-based opioid prescriptions have increased 12% from 1996 to 2012 while ED use of opioids have decreased, according to a study published in Annals of Emergency Medicine.

Placing seniors on observation status appears to be a tactic to avoid adding to a hosptial's readmission rate, but it hurts seniors financially.

Despite years of stability, patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) are at risk of progressing to multiple myeloma or another blood cancer, according to a long-term follow-up study published in New England Journal of Medicine. MGUS usually causes no problems, but it is a precursor to cancer.

Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center recently reported in Lancet Oncology that a pair of targeted therapies given before and after surgery for melanoma produced a 6-fold increase in time to progression of the disease, compared with standard-of-care surgery for patients with stage 3 melanoma.

Researchers were especially concerned about barriers for patients with familial hypercholesterolemia, whose needs would seem clear cut but who nonetheless faced costly hurdles, such as genetic testing.

Researchers assessed associations between the duration of oral contraceptive use and ovarian, endometrial, breast, and colorectal cancer risk and whether these associations were modified by certain modifiable lifestyle factors.

This week in managed care, the top stories included the announcement that Kentucky is the first state approved to require patients work to receive Medicaid benefits; FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, reveals a new program to improve clinical trial transparency; research finds the worst cases of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder could lower life expectancy.

Analysis of randomized controlled trials finds there is not enough proof that wearable biosensors actually improve patient outcomes, such as weight and blood pressure, according to a study by Cedars-Sinai investigators published in npj Digital Medicine.

Five health systems are coming together to form a new nonprofit generic drug company that will addressing rising generic drug costs and drug shortages at hospitals.

Benitec Biopharma, an Australia-based drug developer, has received the FDA’s Orphan Drug designation for BB-301, an investigational drug for the treatment of oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy.

House passes spending bill that includes funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program for 6 years; researchers work on an experimental blood test that could detect 8 cancers; President Donald Trump plans to slash the budget of the Office of National Drug Control Policy by as much as 95%.

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

Although risk targeting may improve screening efficiency in terms of early lung cancer mortality per person screened, the gains in efficiency are modest in terms of life-years, quality-adjusted life-years, and cost-effectiveness, according to a study recently published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

The pairing will give employers and health plans "holistic" solutions for chronic disease management, according to CEOs of the companies.

CMS Administrator Seema Verma said the administration will review the so-called Stark Law, which was enacted to prevent independent physicians from referring Medicare patients to facilities where they have a financial benefit.

New Jersey's largest payer will track a host of measures, including some that will evaluate the quality of end-of-life care.

President Donald Trump may have inched the government closer to a federal shutdown when he tweeted Thursday morning that the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)—the program that funds healthcare for millions of low-income children—should be part of a long-term solution and not part of a short-term spending bill.

HHS proposes allowing healthcare providers to decline performing services based on moral or religious objections; HHS secretary nominee will advance to full Senate vote; a government shutdown could have long-lasting public health effects.