Clinical

While some of the misconceptions of palliative care have been cleared up over the years, it is still very much associated with end-of-life care, explained Judith Peres, LCSW-C, clinical social worker and health policy consultant.

Presenters at an education session, titled Patient-Reported Outcomes in Hematology, addressed the importance of embracing the patient perspective in healthcare delivery, on the second day of the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology, being held December 5-8, in Orlando, Florida.

This week in managed care, an exclusive report on how Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey's OMNIA plan will affect maternity patterns; a Senate investigation found Gilead Sciences knew its Sovaldi price was high; and World AIDS Day observes the progress made.

At the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology, providers brooded over implications of quality measures and how they will influence clinical practice in the coming years.

An early session on the first day of the annual meeting and exposition of the American Society of Hematology, being held December 5-8, 2015, in Orlando, Florida, saw presentations on the promise of newly approved hematology/oncology agents, in addition to the challenges that clinicians face in treating patients with these drugs.

There are a number of areas where pharmacy benefit managers can help support employers with the high-cost of specialty pharmacy drugs, but so far they have only been doing a good job in some priority areas, said Bruce Sherman, MD, FCCP, FACOEM.

As the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology kicks off on Saturday, December 5, 2015, a lot of new clinical data will be presented, practice-changing treatments will be introduced, and new healthcare policies will be discussed.

What we're reading, December 4, 2015: restaurant group sues New York City over salt warnings rule; Turing CEO remains unapologetic over Daraprim price hike; and women face a higher risk of needing costly, long-term care.

In a study published in the Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy, the authors present a rating system that includes downstream costs following treatment to estimate the real-world financial impact of the drug.

An exhaustive study published by Kaiser Permanente in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute has confirmed that antidepressants do not cause recurrence in breast cancer patients treated with tamoxifen.

A study published in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment cognitive-behavioral stress management introduced early in care management can improve breast cancer outcomes.

Compared with patients who had clinical encounters involving low computer use, those who experienced high computer use by their physicians were less likely to rate their care as excellent, a study reports.

A new study suggests that a poor response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy-frequently administered to black, Hispanic, and Asian women-could dictate survival rates in breast cancer.

In California, a class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of thousands of Blue Cross beneficiaries living with hepatitis C who were denied treatment.

Following the approval of daratumumab earlier this month, multiple myeloma patients now have another opportunity to combat the disease: elotuzumab.

Relaxed direct-to-consumer advertising restrictions for drugs by the FDA in 1997 has precipitated an increase in prescription drug utilization, not just among Medicare enrollees, but also among non-elderly users.

What we're reading, November 30, 2015: the Spanish language HealthCare.gov is lagging in sign-ups; the overall federal insurance exchange has fewer preferred provider organizations; and many Americans don't understand why they need the flu vaccine.

Initial adoption of clinical pathways grew from payers mandating their use with individual providers, but there is now greater interest from accountable care organizations and others to use pathways to reduce variation and cost while improving outcomes, explained Robert Dubois, MD, PhD, chief science officer and executive vice president of the National Pharmaceutical Council.

A new study finds that the use of proton pump inhibitors, used for many patients admitted to the hospital, may actually cause more harm to hospitalized patients than good.

This week in managed care, CMS proposed changes to the health insurance marketplaces for 2017, AJMC highlights 5 takeaways from the HHS Pharmaceutical Forum, CVS chose to cover just 1 PCSK9, and industry reacts to FDA regulating diagnostic tests.

The Nationwide Inpatient Sample has been critically underreporting certain health information for its database, according to a recent study by Johns Hopkins researchers.

Diabetes is a growing epidemic in the United States and new research has indicated that half of healthy 45-year-olds will develop pre-diabetes and one-third will develop diabetes at some point.

The American College of Physicians has published a paper in the Annals of Internal Medicine that advices clinicians to prescribe generic drugs whenever possible.

Here are the top 5 papers published by The American Journal of Managed Care and its sister publications about hepatitis C, treatment, and costs of care.

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) will approach biosimilar research the way it does research on anything else, but there is the added element of finding the right timing, said Joe V. Selby, MD, MPH, executive director of PCORI.