FDA May Gain New Regulation Powers
Congress is considering expanding FDA’s regulatory powers to give it oversight over beauty products. According to The Wall Street Journal, the potential to give the FDA the power to regulate these products is a result of litigation, reports of treatments sickening salon workers and customers, and even support from the cosmetics industry itself. There are at least 10 cosmetic makers who back a bipartisan Senate bill that would require the FDA to evaluate at least 5 cosmetic ingredients a year to determine safety.
ACA Health Plan Surcharge Approved
California has approved allowing health plans to combat the uncertainty of the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by enacting a surcharge. Health insurers will have the ability until September 30 to add a 12.4% surcharge to the silver ACA plans, reported the Washington Examiner. The surcharge would be used to offset the possibility that President Donald Trump ends the cost-sharing reduction payments to insurers. Another change in California could have the state pay for some unanticipated losses due to changes in existing federal policies from 2019 to 2021.
Shifting From Value-Based Care Could Cost Taxpayers
CMS recently announced it would end 2 mandatory bundled payment programs and leave these payment reform programs voluntary—a move that could cost taxpayers billions of dollars. Forbes reported that slowing the movement toward value-based care could damage the solvency of Medicare’s Hospital Trust Fund and cause it to run out sooner. For example, the joint replacement payment program was slated to save Medicare $294 million from 2018 to 2020, but making it voluntary means it is now expected to only save $204 million.
Dr Dalia Rotstein: Physicians Must Be Aware MS Affects People of All Backgrounds
April 24th 2024Dalia Rotstein, MD, MPH, emphazises the importance of awareness that multiple sclerosis (MS) impacts patients from various backgrounds as clinicians think through ways to improve access to care and research efforts in MS.
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Examining Low-Value Cancer Care Trends Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
April 25th 2024On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we're talking with the authors of a study published in the April 2024 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care® about their findings on the rates of low-value cancer care services throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The Federal Trade Commission's (FTC's) vote to ban most employers from issuing and enforcing noncompete clauses could have varying impacts on the health care workforce; federal regulators vastly under-enforced antitrust laws in the hospital sector during the last 2 decades, resulting in increased health costs; the FDA recently found genetic evidence of the H5N1 bird flu virus in pasteurized commercially purchased milk.
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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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What We’re Reading: Abortion Privacy Rules; Alzheimer Drug Hurdles; Nursing Home Staffing Overhaul
April 23rd 2024New health privacy rules aim to protect patients and providers in an evolving abortion landscape; some physicians express concerns about efficacy, risks, and entrenched beliefs in treating Alzheimer disease; CMS addresses longstanding staffing deficits in nursing homes.
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Award-Winning Poster Presentations From AMCP 2024
April 23rd 2024At the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) 2024 annual meeting, multiple poster presentations concerned with health equity, data collection, glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists, and more were acknowledged for their originality, relevance, clarity, bias, and quality.
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