What we're reading, March 3, 2016: additional funding for the opioid abuse bill was shot down in the Senate; Donald Trump releases his plan to replace Obamacare; and Christine Cassel, MD, discusses designing a new medical school.
Additional funding to combat heroin and prescription drug abuse was shot down in the Senate. Democrats lost their bid to add $600 million to a bill created to stop the growing substance abuse epidemic, but the party said it won’t block the legislation as a result of the funding battle, reported The Washington Post. The extra money would have gone to new opioid abuse programs being created by the bill and while 5 Republicans joined the Democrats to vote for the additional funds, they did not have enough votes overall.
Presidential candidate Donald Trump has released his own plan for replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Republican front-runner has included several ideas that align with conservative proposals, but the plan has few details about how his proposals would work, according to POLITICO. Trump’s plan would keep the ACA provision that insurers cannot deny coverage to individuals with pre-existing medical conditions, but he would do away with the individual mandate.
In an interview with Hospitals & Health Networks, Christine Cassel, MD, who has stepped down from her leadership position with the National Quality Forum to build the new Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine, discusses how one designs a medical school from scratch. One of the things she talked about was taking a more personalized approach with smaller classes to combat burnout and depression and focus on student wellness.
Navigating Health Literacy, Social Determinants, and Discrimination in National Health Plans
February 13th 2024On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we're talking with the authors of a study published in the February 2024 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care® about their findings on how health plans can screen for health literacy, social determinants of health, and perceived health care discrimination.
Listen
The Supreme Court seems likely to reject a challenge to the abortion pill mifepristone; the FDA is inspecting far fewer pharmaceutical companies conducting clinical research; AstraZeneca has sued to block an Arkansas law that it said would unlawfully expand the 340B program to include for profit-pharmacy chains.
Read More
Drs Raymond Thertulien, Joseph Mikhael on Racial Disparities in Multiple Myeloma Care Access
December 28th 2023In the wake of the 2023 American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition, Raymond Thertulien, MD, PhD, of Novant Health, and Joseph Mikhael, MD, MEd, FRCPC, FACP, chief medical officer of the International Myeloma Foundation, discussed health equity research highlights from the meeting and drivers of racial disparities in multiple myeloma outcomes.
Listen