Walmart is in talks to buy insurer Humana; new CDC Director Robert Redfield told his staff he thinks an end to AIDS is possible wiithin the next 7 years; a New York agency for the dying created directives for those with dementia allowing them to withhold food and water if they wish.
Walmart is in preliminary talks to buy insurer Humana, The Wall Street Journal reported. If negotiations are successful, it would be the latest big healthcare deal between a retailer and an insurer. Humana currently has a market value of about $37 billion.
The new CDC director is predicting an end to AIDS within 7 years, according to STAT News. Robert Redfield, MD, also told the agency’s staff the CDC is “a science-based, data-driven organization” in an all-hands meeting this week.
A New York end-of-life agency has approved a directive that allows people to say in advance that they don’t want food or water if they develop severe dementia, Kaiser Health News reported. In the 7 US jurisdictions that allow medical aid-in-dying, dementia is not a condition covered by the laws. The document from End Of Life Choices New York offers 2 options: 1 for “comfort feeding” and 1 that would halt all assisted eating and drinking, even if a patient seems willing to accept it.
Exploring Medicare Advantage Prior Authorization Variations
March 26th 2024On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we're talking with the authors of a study published in the March 2024 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care® about their findings on variations in prior authorization use across Medicare Advantage plans.
Listen
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
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