Another Try at ACA Repeal Coming
With a deadline of September 30, some Senate Republicans are trying to revive a repeal of the Affordable Care Act using reconciliation rules. According to Reuters, Senator Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, and Senator Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, will introduce a bill to replace the Affordable Care Act on Monday. The bill apparently has the backing of President Donald Trump and will give more healthcare powers to states. Senator John McCain, R-Arizona, who voted against the last Senate bill, indicated that he was open to this new one, although he hasn’t seen details about the bill yet. The bill would still need to be reconciled with legislation the House already passed.
Senate Expands NIH Funding
The president may have proposed a 22% funding cut for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), but a Senate subcommittee approved an increase in funding. The spending panel approved a $2 billion raise, bringing funding to $36.1 billion for fiscal year 2018, according to Science magazine. A House panel only approved a $1.1 billion increase. The Senate’s draft bill includes new spending on Alzheimer’s disease research and additional funding for a brain-mapping initiative and a precision medicine study. Both the Senate and the House bills block the White House’s proposal to cut NIH payments that cover the overhead costs of research at universities.
Overseas Clinical Trials Raise Concerns
A recent herpes vaccine trial that flew American patients to St. Kitts for experimental injections has garnered negative attention because it hadn’t received permission from a safety panel or the FDA. These types of trials are not unusual, reported STAT, which found that 90% of new drugs approved in 2017 were tested in part outside of the United States and Canada. However, trials overseas run risks: cultural differences and lapses in ethical and scientific standards can cast doubt on the data used to support decision making.
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.
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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.
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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.
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Poor Well-Being Scores Linked to Early Treatment Stoppage in Multiple Myeloma
March 27th 2024Investigators used the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General General Physical Wellbeing Scale to collect data on patient-reported treatment-related adverse effects, to provide clinicians guidance on predicting risk of early treatment discontinuation among ECOG-ACRIN E1A11 trial participants.
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