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What We're Reading: HHS Extends Deadline for HealthCare.gov 2017 Enrollment
What we’re reading, December 16, 2016: consumers now have until December 19 to enroll in a marketplace plan for coverage starting on January 1; 20 states file lawsuit against 6 pharmaceutical companies alleging generic price fixing; women who were tested for the BRCA mutation gene after Angelina Jolie’s announcement may not have been at high risk to begin with.
Consumers now have more time to sign up for Affordable Care Act marketplace plans, as HHS has extended the deadline for consumers to sign up for coverage starting on January 1. Nearly 1 million people were still in the process of enrolling as the original deadline approached last night, so officials announced the sign-up period would be extended until midnight on December 19, citing the “extraordinary demand at HealthCare.gov” in recent days.
Twenty states have filed a civil lawsuit against 6 generic drug manufacturers, including Mylan NV and Teva Pharmaceuticals. The suit, led by Connecticut, alleges that Heritage Pharmaceuticals was the “ring leader,” as it conspired with the other manufacturers to fix prices and allocate market shares. Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen told Reuters that prosecutors “believe that this is the tip of the iceberg” and there is “widespread and pervasive” price fixing in the generic drug industry.
Angelina Jolie’s 2013 editorial in The New York Times announcing that she had undergone a preventive mastectomy after testing positive for the BRCA gene caused a spike in the number of women seeking the genetic test, according to a study in BMJ. Researchers found a 64% relative increase in BRCA tests from the 15 days before Jolie’s announcement to the 15 days after. However, mastectomy rates were decreased among women who had a BRCA test after the editorial was published, “suggesting that women who underwent tests as a result of the editorial had a lower pre-test probability of having the BRCA mutation than women tested before the editorial.”
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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California Aims for Equity by Redefining Cancer Care
December 8th 2023Authors highlight key aspects of the California Cancer Care Equity Act, including its focus on Medi-Cal beneficiaries, the requirement for managed care plans to contract with specialized cancer centers, and the definition of complex cancers.
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Insufficient Data, Disparities Plague Lung Cancer Risk Factor Documentation
September 24th 2023On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we speak with the senior author of a study published in the September 2023 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care® on the importance of adequate and effective lung cancer risk factor documentation to determine a patient's eligibility for screening.
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What We’re Reading: RSV Vaccine Demand; Permanent Contraception; Drug Negotiation Impact
December 8th 2023The Biden administration recently met with manufacturers of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) immunizations to encourage them to increase access to the vaccine; since the Dobbs v Jackson decision, many patients have been seeking more permanent reproductive health care solutions; a Mathematica analysis showed that Medicare prescription drug price negotiations could have cut seniors’ out-of-pocket costs by nearly a quarter had the program been in effect in 2021.
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Patients With RA in Remission Withdrawing From TNF Inhibition Show Flare Increases
December 8th 2023New data presented at ACR 2023 highlighted the differences in rates of flares and Boolean 2.0 remission rates compared to patients with rheumatoid arthritis who continued a tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi).
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