AJMC Staff

The House passed a bill that would streamline prior authorization requirements under Medicare Advantage (MA) plans; last week had the fewest COVID-19 deaths reported globally since March 2020; older Americans who survived COVID-19 had a 69% higher risk of developing Alzheimer disease compared with their uninfected counterparts.

The new therapies for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) have had such a profound impact on disease trajectory that classification terminology has been changed, said Vamshi Rao, MD, attending physician, Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and assistant professor, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

The American Medical Association (AMA) and 2 state medical societies joined a class-action lawsuit against Cigna for underpaying claims filed by providers; 2 cases of monkeypox have led to brain inflammation; for the first time, gay and bisexual men make up less than half of new HIV cases in San Francisco.

340B hospitals are marking up discounted drugs by 4.9 times the cost, per a Community Oncology Alliance report; thousands of nurses in Minnesota are striking due to understaffing and overworking; Amgen’s sotorasib performed better than a common chemotherapy for progression-free survival among patients.

In this interview with The American Journal of Managed Care® (AJMC®), Igor Puzanov, MD, of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Buffalo, discusses the state of treatment selection in the setting of resected advanced melanoma, why sequencing of therapies does not occur in the setting of adjuvant therapy, and best practices to keep in mind for patient education and managing their treatment-related toxicities.

Suresh Ramalingam, MD, FACP, FASCO, a professor in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine, is the executive director of the Winship Cancer Institute and associate vice president for cancer, Woodruff Health Sciences Center, Atlanta, Georgia. Ramalingham spoke with The American Journal of Managed Care® (AJMC®) about the current treatment and research landscape involving EGFR Exon 20 insertion+ NSCLC.

President Joe Biden is set to sign an order to boost biotech as part of his Cancer Moonshot; the health care program for 9/11 survivors and first responders is running short on money; tecovirimat (Tpoxx) has been found to be safe in patients with monkeypox.

The results show the importance of diagnosing lung conditions through spirometry as well the necessity for more effective therapies for patients without COPD.

The Department of Homeland Security is revising a rule that discouraged non–citizen immigrants from using government-funded health services; breast implants may be linked to cancers forming around the scar tissue; the American Medical Association (AMA) calls for guidance on state abortion laws to protect patient health.

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A Texas judge ruled that HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) coverage under the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional; an FDA advisory panel recommended the approval of an experimental drug for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS); Walmart and UnitedHealth Group are collaborating to provide preventive health care for older Americans.

Under a new contract with AmerisourceBergen Corp, HHS will expand access to monkeypox vaccines and treatments; as President Jow Biden encouraged Americans to receive their COVID-19 boosters this fall, the White House signaled toward annual COVID-19 boosters; Juul has reached a settlement with 37 states and Puerto Rico regarding the company’s marketing to teens.

CVS announces its plan to buy Signify Health for $8 billion; government budgets and low reimbursement could limit the ability for new moms to stay on Medicaid for a year after childbirth; the long-lasting symptoms of COVID-19 could be keeping millions of people out of the workforce.

New studies have linked a diet of ultra-processed food to a higher risk of colorectal cancer and to an overall risk of mortality; the CDC endorsed the updated booster shots from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech for use against the omicron variant; South Carolina Department of Corrections and Pear Therapeutics are teaming up to support inmates recovering from substance use disorders.

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Olipudase alfa (Xenpozyme) was granted FDA approval for patients with Acid Sphingomyelinase Deficiency (ASMD); Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech’s bivalent COVID-19 vaccines are each authorized for use as a booster dose; people with type A blood have an 18% higher risk of stroke before age 60, compared with other blood types.

US life expectancy fell by nearly a year in 2021 to 76.1 years; Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill reduced the number of hospitalizations and deaths among older adults during the Omicron surge in Israel; current smokers were found to have thicker, heavier, and weaker hearts compared with nonsmokers.

House members in South Carolina will debate a total ban on abortions with no exceptions for rape or incest; the World Health Organization claimed that the monkeypox outbreak could be eliminated in Europe, citing slowing case counts; a study found that drinking black tea was associated with lower mortality risk.

In this study, researchers reaffirmed the safety and efficacy of using budesonide to treat eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE).

The next step for health care professionals is to teach patients how to act on the data collected by intermittently scanned glucose sensing technologies, according to Viral Shah, MD, an endocrinologist and scientist.

The FDA Friday approved pemigatinib (Pemazyre), a selective fibroblast growth factor (FGFR) inhibitor, to treat adults who have relapsed or refractory (R/R) myeloid/lymphoid neoplasms (MLNs) with FGFR1 rearrangement, a very rare and aggressive cancer.

Moderna is suing Pfizer-BioNTech for vaccine patent infringement; the White House is pushing for American citizens to have access to all publicly funded research by 2026; Monkeypox cases drop 21% globally, stopping a months-long increase.

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Amazon will shut down its telehealth venture Amazon Care by the end of 2022; youth type 2 diabetes (T2D) diagnoses rose by 77% in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic; officials during Donald Trump’s presidency tried to push for the FDA reauthorization of a discredited COVID-19 treatment.

In this interview with The American Journal of Managed Care®, Sigrun Hallmeyer, MD, medical director of Advocate Lutheran General Hospital’s Cancer Service Line and co-director of medical research at Advocate Aurora Health, in Illinois, touches on several important topics within the melanoma space.

Medicaid’s Money Follows the Person (MFP) demonstration program, which began in 2008, has helped states transition more than 107,000 people to community settings rather than living in institutional facilities.

People who experienced childhood poverty and other adversities are at greater risk of premature death in adulthood; Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine is 73% effective in protecting children younger than 5 years; women experience more symptoms of heart failure and other cardiovascular diseases than men.

The FDA is considering Pfizer/BioNTech’s request for its updated COVID-19 booster; California Governor Gavin Newsom rejects bill allowing supervised injection sites; a new report from the CDC shows 2019-2020 life expectancy fell in all states.

Sixteen states requested that they be allowed to weigh in on the US Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Idaho’s strict abortion ban; the Biden administration laid out a rule that would clarify contested medical bill criteria; a federal judge made working a requirement to receiving Medicaid in Georgia.

The Biden administration plans to shift COVID-19 test and treatment costs from the government to individuals and insurers; an old FDA rule is being used to limit access to contraceptives; study results suggest almost half of cancer deaths are attributable to preventable risk factors.