Insurance

A recent study has found that low-income subsidies under the Medicare Part D program can help improve rates of persistence and adherence to breast cancer therapies among Hispanic and black women.

A landmark reimbursement decision from Medicare, and news in diabetes prevention.

While the Ohio governor is getting more attention for his efforts to keep federal funds for Medicaid expansion, he's quietly working just as hard on maintaining the momentum toward value-based care.

The roundtable provides a forum for academic researchers, health policy experts, patient advocates, health insurance plans, and the pharmaceutical industry to debate on the most sustainable strategies for patient cost sharing for medications.

Research presented by Jalpa A. Doshi, PhD, associate professor of medicine, director, Economic Evaluations Unit, Center for Evidence-based Practice, and director, Value-based Insurance Design Initiatives, Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics, University of Pennsylvania, the Cost-Sharing Roundtable: Sustainable Strategies for Providing Access to Critical Medications. The event was co-hosted by the PAN Foundation and The American Journal of Managed Care®.

A key takeaway from a panel discussion at the Patient Access Network Foundation’s second cost-sharing roundtable was the need for educating stakeholders.

The lack of measurement goes against the trend toward accountability in healthcare. Studies show there are savings to be found in post-acute settings.

At the 2nd cost-sharing roundtable hosted by the Patient Access Network Foundation and The American Journal of Managed Care®, Tricia Neuman of the Kaiser Family Foundation provided a perspective on what the future might hold for patients enrolled in Medicare.

The results are important given the concentration of Medicare beneficiaries who are in Medicaid and being treated for multiple chronic conditions.

The announcements come as Medicare is set to start reimbursing the Diabetes Prevention Program on January 1, 2018.

As CMS moves forward with the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, it is funding organizations to help solo and small practices succeed under the new payment system.

A look at Seema Verma’s approach to reforming healthcare policy, and what it could mean for Medicare and Medicaid if she is confirmed as CMS administrator.

An e-mail, from Mark Merritt, president and CEO of the trade group Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, to the organization’s board, lays out a plan to develop an aggressive campaign to convince the new administration that the fault rests with pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Lawmakers from both parties have expressed their dislike for an entity that could take away their spending authority. But a leading Democrat also raised the fact that the new HHS Secretary, Tom Price, MD, would be harsh on the most vulnerable.

A program linking elderly cancer patients to lay navigators was shown to substantially reduce costs and decrease hospitalizations, making it an appealing tool for providing value-based oncology care.

Early in the morning on Friday, the Senate voted along party lines (52-47) to confirm US Rep. Tom Price, R-Georgia, as secretary of HHS. President Donald Trump nominated Price with the expectation that he will lead the charge to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

Michael Abrams, managing partner for Numerof and Associates, said regions where states have taken a lead in promoting value-based care are further ahead in moving away from fee-for-service.

A long-term health study has found that seniors with a higher body mass index were less likely to make use of hospice care. Additionally, obese seniors spent significantly fewer days in hospice care than their nonobese counterparts.

Research into the financial performance of Medicare accountable care organizations (ACOs) has found that organizations benefit from having prior experience with risk-bearing contracts, but that organizations that had reduced growth in healthcare spending before joining an ACO would find it difficult to improve further and share in savings, according to Marietou Ouayogode, PhD.

Lung cancer screening rates in the United States remained low and unchanged in 2015 despite recommendations that high-risk current and former smokers be screened.

Buy in from physicians and lack of enthusiasm from payers are seen as barriers to moving quickly into value-based models.

Early discharge from the emergency department resulted in more than 10,000 Medicare patients dying, annually. Researchers determined that low-volume hospitals actually had higher rates of early death.

The University of Michigan Center for Value-Based Insurance Design (V-BID) celebrated significant initiative milestones in 2016.

A white paper commissioned by the Community Oncology Alliance (COA) delved into the practice of “direct and indirect remuneration” fees administered by pharmacy benefit managers and how they could drive up drug prices for Medicare Part D beneficiaries and taxpayers.

A study last year found that more than half of all California adults have diabetes or prediabetes.

CMS has tried to improve patient experience by tying payments to performance as part of the Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) program; however, a paper published in Health Affairs found no evidence that the program has had a beneficial effect.

While the Congressional Research Service calls for delaying new bundled payment rules, a webinar to explain them is still on CMS' website.