What we're reading, September 27, 2016: a panel of experts recommends expanding preventive services for women with no cost sharing; BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee is exiting 3 Obamacare exchanges; and Pfizer will not split into 2 companies.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) has proposed expanding the list of preventive services available for women with no cost sharing. According to Kaiser Health News, the panel considered breast cancer screening, follow-up testing or procedures, and even male methods of birth control. The group drafted the original list of preventive services that most health plans are required to cover that took effect in 2012.
BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee (BCBST) will exit the Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurance exchanges in Nashville, Memphis, and Knoxville. BCBST is the state’s largest insurer and is projecting losses on the ACA exchanges of close to $500 million by the end of this year, according to The Tennessean. There are 95 total counties in Tennessee, and 73 of them will only have 1 insurer offering plans after BCBST exits.
Pfizer has decided it would not split into 2 companies: 1 focused on patent-protected drugs and the other on older products. The company spent at least $600 million preparing for the potential split, but ultimately decided that staying whole was the best strategy, reported The Wall Street Journal. The new drug business with patent-protected medicines brought in $26.8 billion in sales in 2015, while the older-drugs business had $22.1 billion in sales.
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.
Listen
Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs Linked to Decreased Risk for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease
November 28th 2023A nationwide cohort study linked biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs with decreased risks for the onset of autoimmune thyroid disease in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
Read More
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.
Listen
Gene Therapy Success in UK Likely Depends on Overcoming Education, Psychological Support Challenges
November 27th 2023Education, psychological support, and implementation guidance are the top unmet needs identified by investigators from the United Kingdom concerning gene therapy use for hemophilia.
Read More
Lawsuits target initiatives aimed at reducing racial disparities; less than 10% of trials for COVID-19 treatments included children in the first 3 years of the pandemic; the World Health Organization requests more information on increased respiratory illnesses in China.
Read More