What we're reading, December 15, 2015: call centers overwhelmed by last-minute rush for health insurance enrollment; AstraZeneca exploring deal with Acerta Pharma; and despite near universal health insurance coverage in Massachusetts, patients have access issues.
Affordable Care Act call centers were overwhelmed by the large numbers of consumers trying to enroll in healthcare coverage that would be effective January 1, 2016, before the deadline at midnight on Tuesday, according to USA Today. There were so many calls that some people were asked to leave their names and contact information. If they called back after the deadline, they would still be able to have their coverage start on January 1, according to CMS.
AstraZeneca is looking to get in on the deal frenzy happening in healthcare. The United Kingdom drugmaker is considering a deal with Acerta Pharma, which would give AstraZeneca acalabrutinib, reported Bloomberg Business. The experimental drug is a rival of Imbruvica, and shows promise against an incurable form of leukemia, as well as auto-immune diseases. The 2 companies are still in talks, but the deal could cost more than $5 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Finally, a study has found that while Massachusetts has near universal health insurance coverage, access to care remains a struggle, according to MassLive.com. More than one-fifth of residents have trouble getting a timely appointment. More than one-third of respondents said they had visited the emergency department in the last year, and of those, 38% said it was for something that could have been treated by a non-emergency doctor. Close to 60% said they went to the emergency department because they couldn’t get an appointment with a doctor in a timely manner.
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
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
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
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.
Read More