Insurance

Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) have sent a letter to the FDA urging the regulatory body to find efficient ways to distribute expensive cancer drugs.

Despite various attempts to increase the vaccination rate among adults, Medicare beneficiaries are still susceptible to extensive cost-sharing for recommended vaccines, according to a study by Avalere.

The health insurance marketplace’s application/verification process is vulnerable to fraud, found a report from the US Government Accountability Office.

The average cost per episode dropped $6708 from the first year of the pilot to the third year.

Keynote speaker Dr Julie Vose said the oncologist faces many administrative burdens in the transition to value-based care. Solving them is essential to spending more time with the patient.

Primary care physicians correctly estimate medication adherence of their Medicare patients only half of the time and usually overestimate adherence rates, according to a new study.

The pharmaceutical industry needs to rethink its approach to packaging cancer drugs into a one-size vial to avoid drug wastage and save over $1.7 billion in 2016.

The report found that in 2013 the price for the average therapy rose 9.4%, while inflation only rose 1.5%. Social Security benefit increases are pegged to overall inflation, not drug prices.

The event saw participation by patient advocacy groups, health economists, health policy researchers, and patient advocacy groups-the primary interest of the participants was to identify the healthcare-associated economic hardships faced by patients and their caregivers across therapeutic areas and discuss potential solutions that could help alleviate some of this burden.

New research indicates that spending is relatively higher when care is initiated in the hospital outpatient department setting compared with the physician's office or an ambulatory surgical center.

What we're reading, February 29, 2016: hospital readmission declines tied to Obamacare program; Medicare negotiating powers may not have a large impact; and Aetna is on board with Affordable Care Act exchanges again.

While the cost of the widely used stroke clot-busting drug alteplase has more than doubled over the past decade, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement has remained far behind.

Payment reform in the US is progressing considerably, but more transparency is necessary in order to change payment for the better in the United States, said Elizabeth Mitchell, president and CEO of the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement.

Experts and biological researchers aren’t completely convinced with the president's cancer moonshot initiative and the released budget.

While smart cards would stop about 20% of fraudulent act, it wouldn't catch acts in which providers or beneficiaries are complicit, such as billing for unnecessary services.

To improve access for beneficiaries, CMS has proposed a plan to increase the availability of preferred cost-sharing pharmacies in Medicare.

CMS proposes increasing payments to Medicare Advantage plans by an average of 1.35% in 2017 in contrast to proposed cuts in recent years.

Two studies presented at the ongoing 2016 Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium report on financial hurdles faced by patients diagnosed with head and neck cancer that result in lifestyle modifications, advanced disease, and worse outcomes.

Population health, healthcare value, innovations in healthcare, cost of care-these were just some of the topics discussed at the meeting.

What we're reading, February 19, 2016: long-term hospice care is weighing on Medicare; both the pope and the World Health Organization suggest women in Zika infected countries have access to contraception; and Texas health official steps down after co-authoring study on Planned Parenthood.

The shared savings payments were for specialists in hip and knee replacements, knee arthroscopy, and pregnancy. These areas have been among CMS' top targets for savings, while New Jersey has been focused on reducing its high rate of C-sections.

Additional cuts to Medicare Advantage plans would unduly affect the more than one-third of beneficiaries in the low-income bracket, according to a report from America's Health Insurance Plans.

CMS, in collaboration with a working group of national organizations, has developed a set of Medical Oncology Measures to improve quality of care and avoid redundancy for providers of care.

A noninvasive colorectal cancer screening test manufactured by Exact Sciences, which received CMS coverage within months of its FDA approval, is not included under Humana’s coverage policy

Results in the current issue of The American Journal of Managed Care show that Texas Health Resources, in collaboration with Healthways, put a care transitions program into 14 hospitals that sharply reduced readmissions through collaborative discharge planning and follow-up.

Looking at trends in economic growth, healthcare costs, and employment, researchers find that the Affordable Care Act has acted as an economic stimulus.

What we're reading, February 15, 2016: despite cuts to the program, enrollment in Medicare Advantage is up 50% over 5 years; orphan drug designations from the FDA up 22% in 2015; and Zika virus infections on the rise in Puerto Rico.

Patrick Conway, MD, explains why CMS looked toward value-based insurance design for Medicare Advantage plans.

From fighting cancer to the nation's heroin epidemic, there are items in President Obama's final budget that likely have bipartisan support even if the budget as a whole was panned on arrival.

What we're reading, February 12, 2016: the former Kentucky governor is looking to block the current governor's plans to dismantle Kynect; Senator Orrin Hatch speaks out against Medicare negotiation of drug prices; and the link between Zika and microcephaly is growing stronger.