Health System

Guideline-directed cancer care—with help from a clinical support tool—can close disparities while reducing costs more efficiently than other means, such as prior authorization.

Joneigh Khaldun, MD, MPH, FACEP, vice president and chief health equity officer for CVS Health, speaks on the goals of the Community Equity Alliance in improving health care disparities, particularly for cardiovascular health and mental health outcomes, within underserved communities.

An increased risk of hospitalization for more than 6 days due to community-acquired infections was associated with male sex and admittance to the Pulmonology or Surgery department, with risk shown to differ according to pathogen.

Paul G. Alexander, MD, MPH, executive vice president and chief health equity and transformation officer, RWJBarnabas Health, speaks on strategies his organization implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic to address continuity of care and communication challenges in underserved communities and further efforts to improve health equity.

Some communities will use COVID relief money to pay medical debt; residents living near train car derailment site in Ohio are worried about toxic chemical health effects; following medical guidelines point by point would create impossibly long workdays for providers, studies are pointing out.

On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we speak with Inland Empire Health Plan, a managed care plan serving more than 1.4 million residents on Medi-Cal in California, about a new maternal mental health program aimed at supporting new mothers, both before they give birth and afterward.

Children with epilepsy had an increased risk for injuries requiring hospitalization compared with controls in Finland, with boys showing greater risk than girls among all included participants.

HHS wants to require nursing homes to disclose more ownership and management information; privacy advocates warn that mental health data can legally be sold from certain platforms not covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act; the FDA won’t review Soligenix’s cancer drug proposal because of an insufficient application.

The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) reaffirmed previous recommendations against routine serologic screening for genital herpes infection among asymptomatic adolescents and adults, including pregnant individuals.

An analysis of 112 infant deaths found that the contribution of genetic diseases to mortality was higher than previously known, and that treatments are available for 30% of the genetic diseases uncovered by the study.

CDC recommends adults and children get routine COVID-19 shots; single dose of antibiotic during labor reduces risk of mothers developing sepsis; suicide rates increase after 2-year decline.

Findings from the survey suggest that certain symptoms of depression could help identify patients vulnerable to both worsening psoriasis symptoms and disease-related quality of life (QoL).

The Biden administration released 2 sets of guidance documents for pharmaceutical manufacturers about how it plans to implement the new Medicare Prescription Drug Inflation Rebate Program as required under the Inflation Reduction Act, and said some beneficiaries could see lower coinsurance for some Part B drugs as soon as April 1.

Kirk Campbell, MD, FASN, Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai Health System in New York, spoke on educational initiatives implemented by Mount Sinai to train resident physicians, medical students, and senior faculty on health equity, as well as further research efforts to address disparities.

Jessica Allegretti, MD, MPH, medical director of the Crohn's and Colitis Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, discussed how the FDA’s approval of Rebyota for the prevention of recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) may promote cost effective management of CDI for patients and health systems.

China’s angry reaction after spy balloon retrieval rouses drug supply chain anxiety; after allegedly overcharging California’s Medi-Cal program, managed care company Centene will pay millions in a settlement; major drug companies are chasing new pharma deals amidst dropping patent exclusivity.

Data released in the CDC’s latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report indicate that patients with end-stage kidney disease on hemodialysis who are Black, Hispanic/Latino, or of lower socioeconomic status (SES) are at greater risk of Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections, with Hispanic/Latino ethnicity cited as an independent risk factor.

A pediatric shot for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) may not be covered as a free routine vaccine; hospitals fail to comply with payment transparency rules; the fate of abortion pills is in the hands of conservative judges

Vaccination was shown to lower risk of developing severe COVID-19 in both variants, with the largest difference in risk observed in patients aged 40 to 59 years.

Five leading academic cancer centers are assessing the feasibility of implementing the Health Equity Report Card pilot project as a tool that can both meaningfully and feasibly measure and report on equitable care practices.

Approximately 70% of veterans with drug-resistant epilepsy reported diagnosis of at least 1 psychiatric condition, with female patients showing a higher prevalence than male patients.

Paul G. Alexander, MD, MPH, executive vice president and chief health equity and transformation officer, RWJBarnabas Health, discusses how community partnerships helped ameliorate disparities in health care access and accessibility, as well as food and travel insecurities amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Edward Partridge, MD, chief medical officer of Guideway Care, spoke on his organization’s 25-year history in addressing cancer disparities and the crucial role that care navigators/guides have in achieving value-based care within oncology.

Developing a terminology strategy that reflects real-world practice and industry standards can help data scientists and other allied data professionals efficiently and accurately identify clinically relevant insights that help improve the health of populations and individual patients.