Laura Joszt, MA

The Affordable Care Act and rising healthcare spending were the main topics of conversation at America’s Health Insurance Plans Health Insurance Exchanges Forum and National Health Policy Conference, which were held March 8-10 in Washington, DC.

Major health information technology (IT) developers and the government are coming together to improve the flow of health information.

Pay-for-performance (P4P) programs have the potential to improve overall quality of care and the prevalence of these programs has increased in the last 15 years. Here are 5 things to know about P4P and how it can impact healthcare in the move to value-based care.

With a vote of 89-4, the Senate confirmed Robert Califf, MD, for the position of FDA commissioner.

CMS proposes increasing payments to Medicare Advantage plans by an average of 1.35% in 2017 in contrast to proposed cuts in recent years.

A collaboration led by CMS and America’s Health Insurance Plans released 7 core sets of quality measures created to reduce complexity, decrease cost burden, and ensure high-quality care.

Justice Antonin Scalia has died at the age of 79. The absence of the conservative justice from the Supreme Court bench has set off a political firestorm and could have repercussions for upcoming healthcare cases.

Every year, health policy wonks get into the loving spirit of Valentine’s Day with poetry, puns, and more on Twitter using the popular hashtag #HealthPolicyValentines. We round up some of the best.

A. Mark Fendrick, MD, co-editor-in-chief of The American Journal of Managed Care and director of the University of Michigan Center for Value-Based Insurance Design, testified before a Michigan senate subcommittee on the benefit of clinical nuance.

Yet another alliance has been formed to help transform healthcare. This time 20 major employers, who represent 4 million employees and family members, have come together to improve how healthcare benefits are purchased.

The latest piece in HHS’ roadmap to move the healthcare industry to value-based payments is the Accountable Health Communities model. Here are 5 things to know about how this model addresses social determinants of health.

The annual Clinical Cancer Advances report from the American Society of Clinical Oncology highlights the accomplishments made in the last year in the fight against cancer.

Study finds a link between maternal obesity and diabetes and a significant increase in the risk of autism spectrum disorder in children.

CMS has proposed changes to accountable care organizations benchmarks in the Medicare Shared Savings Program, as well as a way to better facilitate the transition to performance-based risk.

For the second year, Anthony D. Slonim, MD, DrPH, is in the running for Modern Healthcare’s 50 Most Influential Physician Executives and Leaders. Recently, he discussed what it means to be a physician leader, the industry’s move to population health, and more.

In an effort to address safety concerns regarding severe neutropenia, the FDA has made changes to requirements for monitoring prescribing, dispensing, and receiving the schizophrenia medicine clozapine.

As Americans as asked to pay a greater portion of their healthcare expenditures, new insurance design models are being implemented, such as value-based insurance design, to combat issues like nonadherence.

After pressure from insurers over concerns of rising costs, the government is eliminating several special open enrollment periods and will provide stronger enforcement of the remaining special open enrollment periods.

Just hours before Bernie Sanders (I-VT) took the stage to face off against Hillary Clinton for the last Democratic presidential debate before the Iowa caucus, the senator released an outline of his single-payer healthcare plan.

The digital health panel at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference analyzed how the industry can move from collecting data to turning it into actionable and useful information.

Ahead of the president’s final State of the Union address, Democrats announced new plans to investigate drug prices in 2016.

Robert Califf, MD, just unanimously won the Senate panel vote for advance his nomination for FDA commissioner. Now the nomination goes to the full Senate.

Medicare's accountable care organization (ACO) initiatives now include a total of 477 participants across 4 different model types, including the 21 just announced as part of the new Next Generation ACO Model.

Before the House of Representatives had even passed the bill that guts the Affordable Care Act, President Obama had already announced he would veto it. And now he has made good on that promise.

More than 5 years after the Affordable Care Act was passed, Republicans are sending a bill to unravel the healthcare law to the president's desk. President Obama has already vowed to veto the bill.

A new 5-year program has been created to focus on the health-related social needs of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.

The country’s top insurance lobbying group is losing another big member as Aetna has decided not to renew its membership with America's Health Insurance Plans.

While the prevalence of problems paying medical bills may be greater in certain groups compared with others, almost anyone can experience difficulty paying medical bills, according to the results of a survey from Kaiser Family Foundation/New York Times.

Bundled payments may be part of the future in healthcare’s move to value-based care, but this payment scheme runs into the challenge of penalizing providers for factors that are beyond their control, explained Joshua T. Cohen, PhD, research associate professor of medicine at Tufts Medical Center.

During the last month of 2015, The American Journal of Managed Care asked readers to choose what they thought was the top healthcare story from the year. Options included overall themes from the year and specific events.