Health Care Delivery

Patricia Salber, MD, MBA, of The Doctor Weighs In, and Sandeep “Bobby” Reddy, MD, an oncologist at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and chief medical officer of NantHealth, discuss the clinical care of patients with cancer in the age of COVID-19.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines that are leading the pack are utilizing a new vaccine technology that has never been approved for human use by the FDA. As a result, there are a lot of unknowns.

The attorneys general who spoke about the suit—California’s Xavier Becerra, Massachusetts’ Maura Healey, and New York’s Leticia James—said they found it difficult to believe that the administration would adopt the rule in the midst of the coronavirus disease 2019, which is disproportionately affecting communities of color.

Karen Kobelski is the vice president and general manager of clinical surveillance, compliance & data solutions at Wolters Kluwer. She brings more than 25 years of experience to her position, which expands her previous leadership role over the Safety & Surveillance group to also include the Health Language portfolio of data normalization solutions.

States currently facing a surge of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases also report the greatest increases in residents who lost health insurance due to the pandemic, according to an analysis published by Families USA.

Oral anticancer therapies have become popular alternatives to more traditional care, such as chemotherapy. However, research shows that adherence to oral anti-cancer therapies can range from 20% to 100%. Several factors contribute to medication nonadherence and access barriers. To learn more, we spoke with Ami Vyas, PhD, an assistant professor of pharmacy practice, specializing in health outcomes research, at The University of Rhode Island.

Following implementation of several major provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2014, health insurance coverage for HIV-positive individuals increased, leading to sustained viral suppression in some instances and improving their ability to increase access to often life-saving services.

Voters in Oklahoma will decide whether or not to amend the state's constitution to expand Medicaid; new studies find that nearly 300 children in the United States have contracted a rare inflammatory disorder related to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); the House of Representatives passed a bill aimed to bolster the Affordable Care Act.

The Trump administration and Republican state attorneys general called on the Supreme Court to overturn the entire Affordable Care Act (ACA, also known as Obamacare). President Trump has endorsed repealing the ACA since his 2016 campaign, while Republican lawmakers have largely opposed the law since its inception in 2010.

Inadequate access to health care can truly be a life or death matter, so health care policy designed to improve access to care, as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is, can have a fundamental effect on making progress against cancer-related mortality and improving the quality of the care delivered, noted Fumiko Chino, MD, assistant attending radiation oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Medicaid expansion was associated with a decrease in nonprofit hospitals’ burden of providing uncompensated care, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open. However, hospitals did not redirect this financial relief toward spending on additional community benefits.

The Association of Accessible Medicines (AAM), which supports biosimilar development, argues that even if the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is overturned by the Supreme Court later this year, the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA) is severable and should survive.

Being uninsured carries with it a host of adverse health consequences, including more advanced stages of disease when seeing a physician, avoidable deaths, and not receiving lifesaving treatments for conditions such as heart failure.

The benefit was especially pronounced for Hispanics, the researchers reported.

The Supreme Court says insurers are owed $12 billion under the Affordable Care Act; a study finds those with cancer are at higher risk from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); a survey shows millions would avoid seeking care for COVID-19 due to cost.

The US Supreme Court ruled in favor of health insurers seeking $12 billion from the federal government under the risk corridors program set up by the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

To mark the 25th anniversary of the journal, each issue in 2020 will include an interview with a healthcare thought leader. For the April issue, we turned to Sherry Glied, PhD, dean of New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

A record number of Americans filed for unemployment last week; President Trump decides not to reopen Affordable Care Act enrollment; a survey found a majority of physicians say they cannot test for COVID-19 fast enough.

As the Affordable Care Act (ACA) turns 10 years old, the coronavirus pandemic is focusing a spotlight on the coverage gains made under the landmark law.

Research highlighting these trends, based on 10 million death records pulled from a CDC database, will be presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session together with World Congress of Cardiology (ACC.20/WCC), which is taking place as a virtual meeting March 28-30.

This week, the top managed care news included the COVID-19 crisis bringing changes to telehealth and testing; presentations of science in virtual formats; the Affordable Care Act turns 10.

To mark the 25th anniversary of the journal, each issue in 2020 will include an interview with a healthcare thought leader. For the March issue, which marks the 10th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act being signed into law, we turned to Representative Frank Pallone Jr, D-New Jersey, who played a key role in the law’s writing and passage.

Investigators tracked time to treatment for 3 types of cancer in states that expanded Medicaid coverage on January 1, 2014, comparing rates before and after the expansion. Patients with new diagnoses of invasive breast, colon, or lung cancers aged 40 to 64 years were included in the analysis.

Federal incentives fail to spur development of new drugs to treat rare diseases; alcohol-related deaths have risen steadily over the past several years; will CMS stop auto-enrolling low-income individuals in exchange health plans?