Another Try at ACA Repeal Coming
With a deadline of September 30, some Senate Republicans are trying to revive a repeal of the Affordable Care Act using reconciliation rules. According to Reuters, Senator Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, and Senator Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, will introduce a bill to replace the Affordable Care Act on Monday. The bill apparently has the backing of President Donald Trump and will give more healthcare powers to states. Senator John McCain, R-Arizona, who voted against the last Senate bill, indicated that he was open to this new one, although he hasn’t seen details about the bill yet. The bill would still need to be reconciled with legislation the House already passed.
Senate Expands NIH Funding
The president may have proposed a 22% funding cut for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), but a Senate subcommittee approved an increase in funding. The spending panel approved a $2 billion raise, bringing funding to $36.1 billion for fiscal year 2018, according to Science magazine. A House panel only approved a $1.1 billion increase. The Senate’s draft bill includes new spending on Alzheimer’s disease research and additional funding for a brain-mapping initiative and a precision medicine study. Both the Senate and the House bills block the White House’s proposal to cut NIH payments that cover the overhead costs of research at universities.
Overseas Clinical Trials Raise Concerns
A recent herpes vaccine trial that flew American patients to St. Kitts for experimental injections has garnered negative attention because it hadn’t received permission from a safety panel or the FDA. These types of trials are not unusual, reported STAT, which found that 90% of new drugs approved in 2017 were tested in part outside of the United States and Canada. However, trials overseas run risks: cultural differences and lapses in ethical and scientific standards can cast doubt on the data used to support decision making.
Standard Criteria for Loss of Ambulation Needed in DMD
April 19th 2024A recent study suggests the differences between ambulation definitions for patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) can impact the identification of ambulant vs nonambulant individuals, and standard criteria across settings are needed.
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Navigating Health Literacy, Social Determinants, and Discrimination in National Health Plans
February 13th 2024On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we're talking with the authors of a study published in the February 2024 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care® about their findings on how health plans can screen for health literacy, social determinants of health, and perceived health care discrimination.
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Early Involvement Critical in Treating Immunotherapy-Induced Overlap Syndrome
April 19th 2024A series of case studies reveals the importance of early diagnosis and involvement of special teams of clinicians when dealing with potential cases of overlap syndrome, which encompasses myocarditis, myasthenia gravis, and immune checkpoint inhibitor–related myositis.
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Drs Raymond Thertulien, Joseph Mikhael on Racial Disparities in Multiple Myeloma Care Access
December 28th 2023In the wake of the 2023 American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition, Raymond Thertulien, MD, PhD, of Novant Health, and Joseph Mikhael, MD, MEd, FRCPC, FACP, chief medical officer of the International Myeloma Foundation, discussed health equity research highlights from the meeting and drivers of racial disparities in multiple myeloma outcomes.
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Government agencies have created an online portal for the public to report potential anticompetitive practices in health care; there are changes coming to the “boxed warning” section for chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies (CAR T) to highlight T-cell blood cancer risk; questions about the safety of obesity medications during pregnancy have arisen in women on them who previously struggled with fertility issues.
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