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What We're Reading: Alaska Has a New Method to Hold Down Insurance Costs
What we're reading, November 23, 2016: Alaska has a novel plan to hold down insurance premiums; MedPAC's executive director discusses continuation of value efforts; and new findings regarding microcephaly in Zika-infected babies.
Alaska is going to pay for the healthcare costs of the 500 sickest patients in the state in order to hold down premiums for the rest of the state’s residents. According to The Wall Street Journal, the sickest patients in the state had contributed to health insurance premiums rising 40% for the entire state. Now, Alaska, which is controlled by a Republican legislature, will contribute $55 million for at least 1 year to cover the costs of those patients.
During a Bloomberg Government discussion, the executive director of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) discussed efforts to bring more value to Medicare. He discussed increasing the adoption of site-neutral payments across Medicare and the expansion of bundled payments in fee-for-service, reported Bloomberg.
The abnormally small heads that became a way of identifying babies affected by the Zika virus may not be a reliable way to determine babies with microcephaly. Data has shown that a small group of babies born in Brazil who were infected with the Zika virus were born with normal sized heads, but developed microcephaly 5 months after being born, according to The Washington Post. Even without microcephaly, the Zika-infected babies had brain abnormalities, such as severe neurological damage.
Consumers should not eat precut cantaloupe if they do not know the source, as the number of illnesses and recalls tied to a deadly salmonella outbreak grows; the White House and the Department of Education urged schools to take proactive steps to prevent youth drug use; a study published this week found a high prevalence of arrhythmia in patients with long COVID.
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Oncology Onward: A Conversation With Thyme Care CEO and Cofounder Robin Shah
October 2nd 2023Robin Shah, CEO of Thyme Care, which he founded in 2020 with Bobby Green, MD, president and chief medical officer, joins hosts Emeline Aviki, MD, MBA, and Stephen Schleicher, MD, MBA, to discuss his evolution as an entrepreneur in oncology care innovation and his goal of positively changing how patients experience the cancer system.
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Study Finds ASCT Similarly Safe, Effective in Older and Younger Patients With Multiple Myeloma
November 30th 2023A real-world study suggests high-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) is feasible for appropriately selected elderly patients, with similar results seen in older and younger patients.
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Study Highlights BMP7 as a Potential Therapeutic Target for Ovarian Cancer
November 30th 2023High Bone Morphogenetic Protein 7 (BMP7) expression was significantly associated with aggressive phenotypes, including advanced grade, International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage, residual disease, and adverse overall survival.
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