- Center on Health Equity and Access
- Clinical
- Health Care Cost
- Health Care Delivery
- Insurance
- Policy
- Technology
- Value-Based Care
What We're Reading: Retail Clinics Do Not Alleviate Emergency Department Burden
What we’re reading, November 15, 2016: retail health clinics are not associated with decreased emergency department visits; House Speaker Paul Ryan will push for Medicare reform along with repeal of the Affordable Care Act; screening of donated blood finds just a fraction of units are contaminated with the Zika virus.
The increasing popularity of retail health clinics has not lowered the amount of emergency department (ED) visits for low-acuity conditions, according to a study in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. The authors report that the major effect of retail clinics is “new use,” when people who would not otherwise have sought treatment visit these convenient retail settings for minor issues. People can generally discern whether they are having a true medical emergency and pick the most appropriate care setting, meaning that retail clinics do not directly compete with EDs.
House Speaker Paul Ryan is preparing for a repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) after President-elect Donald Trump takes office, and he has recently suggested that the replacement would include Medicare reforms. In a Fox News interview, he blamed the ACA for Medicare’s financial troubles, which he said would be addressed by the Republican plan to replace the healthcare law. Trump’s transition website states his administration would “modernize Medicare,” but does not include specifics.
Many American blood banks have been testing donated blood for the Zika virus at a cost of $6 to $10 per unit, even though they are not yet legally required to. They report that screenings have found only 40 positive results out of around 800,000 blood donations tested over the last 6 months. In contrast, about 1% of blood donors in Puerto Rico were infected with Zika in July.
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
New TROPiCS-02 Data Back Sacituzumab Govitecan for Older Patients With Breast Cancer
December 9th 2023This phase 3 study investigated sacituzumab govitecan, a Trop-2–directed antibody-drug conjugate, vs treatment of physician’s choice in pretreated patients who have endocrine-resistant hormone receptor–positive/HER2-negative breast cancer, the most common form of breast cancer.
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
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.
Read More
