Health Care Delivery

Changes with insurance products have led to more costs being shifted to consumers and they are having very mixed emotions when faced with high-deductible health plans, explained Niteesh Choudhry, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Policy decisions can influence whether communities are supportive of or detrimental to community health and well-being. Such housing policies can also play important roles in reducing or even preventing diseases.

Clinical pathways have been emphasized as a means to deliver efficient, quality care and to ensure better outcomes at lower costs. The Oncology Medical Home takes this to the next, more comprehensive, step of quantifying and improving quality and value in cancer care while lowering overall costs.

What we're reading, April 11, 2016: UnitedHealth calls it quits for 2 Obamacare state exchanges; study finds disparities across country in lifespans of low-income people; and Hillary Clinton and PhRMA agree on one proposal to curb drug costs.

Hurricane Katrina revealed the gaps in public health services in New Orleans, especially for those living in poverty, said Charlotte Parent, director of health of the New Orleans Health Department.

States can greatly improve access to behavioral health services for residents by expanding Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act, HHS reported.

A preliminary briefing document expresses concerns over clinical benefit over existing treatments, safety, and overall risk-benefit of the drug for the subset of lung cancer patients for whom the drug has been developed.

What we're reading, April 7, 2016: hospitals will help Louisiana pay for Medicaid expansion; Pfizer considers splitting the company after deal with Allergan falls through; and Pfizer gets 300 lawsuits dismissed.

Systems failures frustrate women who seek access to evidence-based, cost-effective contraceptive care.

What we're reading, April 6, 2016: the federal government could be doing more to alert uninsured individuals about their eligibility for subsidies; the White House will transfer leftover Ebola funds to combat the Zika virus; and Senate companion bill to 21st Century Cures Act is almost done.

People who enrolled in a Blue Cross Blue Shield health plan after enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have higher rates of disease and received significantly more medical care compared with those enrolled before the ACA was enacted.

In order to combat a projected budget gap of $3.8 billion, Connecticut state employees were provided the opportunity to enroll in a program using value-based insurance benefit design concepts.

A new study by researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research has found that visits by trained community health workers improved screening rates for breast cancer among Latino women.

What we're reading: California will open Medi-Cal to all low-income children regardless of immigration status; Arizona governor signs bill to follow earlier FDA guidelines for abortion-inducing drug; and the loss of 2 Obamacare provisions could result in increased premiums in 2017.

The National Pharmaceutical Council has released a set of guiding principles on specific elements that should be included in value assessment frameworks.

According to IMS Health, increased penetration and acceptance of biosimilars in Europe and in the United States can result in $110 billion in total savings to the 2 healthcare systems.

During the opening session at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network 21st Annual Conference, healthcare providers came together to discuss palliation from the provider and the patient perspective.

Tricia Neuman, ScD, director of the Kaiser Family Foundation's Program on Medicare Policy and the Project on Medicare's Future, discussed patient access to expensive treatments and the barriers to improving transparency.

The current primary care provider workforce will not be able to meet the growing demands driven by recent healthcare reforms. What is the solution?

State newspapers have been sharply critical of Governor Matt Bevin's last-minute changes to the Benefind system, which was designed to work alongside Kynect to integrate benefits, not replace it to administer Medicaid.

The Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco and the Association for the Treatment of Tobacco Use and Dependence have developed a position statement recommending access to smoking cessation interventions for smokers in the high-risk group who undergo a lung cancer screen.

What we're reading, March 30, 2016: the Supreme Court asks for more information in birth control case; Americans display lack of knowledge about Zika virus; and China provides an opportunity for drugs that fail to make it to market elsewhere.

Getting patients access to their own data is a good thing that will increase engagement, but it is important that improving access to data will create cohesive care for the patient and not lead to fragmentation, said Julia Adler-Milstein, PhD, assistant professor at the School of Information and the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan.

What we're reading, March 29, 2016: the Obama administration is expected to announce new measures to combat opioid addiction; cholesterol test results from Theranos could throw off doctors' decisions; and Republicans aren't talking as much about Obamacare on the campaign trail.

Pointing out that high drug prices are access barriers, the Congressmen have urged the government agencies to hold a public hearing to address the issue.