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What We're Reading: Colorado's ACA Exchange Misused $9.7 Million
What we're reading, January 3, 2017: Colorado's Affordable Care Act exchange misused more than $9 million in federal funds; an over-the-counter birth control may be coming to the United States; and returning health data to patients could reduce health record breaches.
Colorado’s healthcare marketplace received $183.7 million from the federal government to set up its exchange under the Affordable Care Act. However, nearly $9.7 million of the grant funds were misused, a new report found. According to The Daily Caller, the majority of the misused funds were spent on improperly awarded and mismanaged contracts, as well as performance bonuses for senior staff without appropriate documentation.
Birth control that is available over-the-counter (OTC) may become available in the United States. While the process could take several years, a French pharmaceutical company is prepared to apply for FDA approval to bring an OTC contraceptive to the US market, reported Vox. The company plans to seek FDA approval for a progestin-only pill, which presents fewer potential problems than pills that combine progestin and estrogen.
Patients may have trouble accessing their health data, but criminals don’t. An opinion piece in The New York Times outlined the so-called “health data conundrum,” in which consumers don’t have control of their medical data, but an epidemic of cybercrime has led to this information being stolen. Currently, millions of patient health records are stored together, which means criminals who breach the database have access to all the information. Storing data in separate units would return control of the data to the patient and prevent massive breaches, the authors argue.
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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Bimekizumab-bkzx, the Newest Psoriasis Treatment, Is Now Available
November 30th 2023Bimekizumab-bkzx (Bimzelx) is the first dual interleukin 17A (IL-17A) and interleukin 17F (IL-17F) inhibitor to treat moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis. It launches with a list price of $7200 per syringe.
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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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