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What We're Reading: UnitedHealth Leaves ACA Exchanges in Georgia, Arkansas
What we're reading, April 11, 2016: UnitedHealth calls it quits for 2 Obamacare state exchanges; study finds disparities across country in lifespans of low-income people; and Hillary Clinton and PhRMA agree on one proposal to curb drug costs.
After considering to quit the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges all together, UnitedHealth Group has called it quits in 2 states: Georgia and Arkansas. The insurer won’t sell plans on the ACA exchanges in those 2 states for next year, and it is unconfirmed whether the company will drop out of additional states, reported The Washington Post. UnitedHealth posted losses from the ACA policies last year, as did Aetna. Individuals currently enrolled in UnitedHealth’s ACA plans in Georgia and Arkansas will have to find a new insurance provider next year.
While previous studies have found that the poor have shorter lifespans than those with more money, a new study has found that it’s not just how much you earn, but where you live. NPR reported that big disparities in life expectancy exist across the country with poor people living in expensive, well-educated cities, like San Francisco and New York, live longer than low-income people in other parts of the country. What accounts for the disparity isn’t clear, but may be related to cities that promote healthier lifestyles and have smoking bans.
Hillary Clinton and the pharmaceutical industry don’t usually see eye-to-eye on her proposals to bring down drug costs, but the main trade group for drug companies, PhRMA, agrees with one of her proposals. According to STAT, Clinton’s proposal to cap out-of-pocket costs is one thing PhRMA is in favor of as patients face challenges in accessing medicine. Clinton would cap out-of-pocket costs at $250 a month, which would put health insurers on the hook for covering the remaining costs.
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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