All News

The incidence rate for heart failure dropped steeply over a decade in a population-based study, and while hospitalization rates remained steady over time, causes shifted from cardiovascular to noncardiovascular.

Adoption of draft United States Preventive Services Task Force breast cancer screening recommendations would result in thousands of additional and unnecessary breast cancer deaths each year, the American College of Radiology said.

New legislation introduced by a bipartisan group of US senators would make it more difficult for new and generic opioid drugs to obtain the approval of the FDA.

Adoption of alternative payment models that reduce the number of visits to the emergency department could cause unintended consequences for emergency care through a reduction in revenue, according to researchers at the Brookings Institute.

The total number of breast cancer cases in the United States is forecast to be 50% greater in 2030 than it was in 2011 driven mostly by a marked increase in cases of estrogen receptor-positive tumors.

While statins can prevent disease in older adults, they can also cause potentially serious side effects that could outweigh the benefits, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The Kaiser Health Tracking Poll found Americans strongly support ensuring that those with chronic conditions like cancer, HIV, and mental illness can have access to affordable drugs, and this sentiment was shared across partisan lines.

Women with an average risk of breast cancer should have screening mammography every 2 years during ages 50 to 74, according to updated recommendations from the United States Preventive Services Task Force.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Cancer Center found combining 2 immunotherapies to be safe and elicit a clinical response in patients with metastatic melanoma.

What can the US learn from the UK National Health System? Probably not acute care management, but definitely, primary care and preventive interventions.

While most patients do not benefit from early follow-up after they are discharged from the hospital, researchers from Duke University Medical Center and Community Care of North Carolina found follow-up within 7 days was associated with substantially lower readmission rates among patients with high clinical complexity and high risk of readmission.

One of the hot new cancer immunotherapy drugs, Merck & Co's Keytruda, strongly benefited patients with melanoma, lung cancer and mesothelioma, according to 3 studies presented at the American Association for Cancer Research conference.

Governor Rick Scott's decision to sue CMS could harm an opportunity to expand a pilot program in Medicaid managed care first championed by former Republican Governor Jeb Bush, which was found to save $118 million a year. It was praised by the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Patients in states that expanded Medicaid eligibility had 25.4% more prescriptions filled than in 2013, compared with a 2.8% prescription increase in states that did not expand eligibility.

CMS has introduced star ratings based on patient experiences on Hospital Compare to make it easier for consumers to choose a hospital and understand the quality of care they deliver.

Improvements in quality of care and patient safety in hospitals have saved $12 billion from 2011-2013, according to a new report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. However, while disparities in access to care are diminishing, they still remain.

In the usual cancer biopsy, a surgeon cuts out a piece of the patient's tumor, but researchers in labs across the country are now testing a potentially transformative innovation. They call it the liquid biopsy.

Fifteen states are betting they can convince more doctors to accept the growing number of patients covered by Medicaid with a simple incentive: more money.

HHS' Office for Civil Rights (OCR) could hand down some whopping fines for HIPAA violations later this year, privacy attorney Adam Greene told govinfosecurity.com in an interview.

A study of 8 states that chose to expand Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act found budget savings of $1.8 billion as well as revenue gains by the end of 2015, just one-and-a-half years into expansion.

An experimental lung cancer pill from AstraZeneca delays disease progression by more than a year, according to new data presented at European Lung Cancer Conference.

A one-minute look at managed care news during the week of April 13, 2015, including a the official repeal of the sustainable growth rate formula and a look at the rising cost of generic drugs.

After months of anticipation, the FDA has approved a generic version of Copaxone, which means Momenta Pharmaceuticals and Sandoz can now sell a knockoff of a drug that generated more than $3.1 billion in sales in the US last year.

To help them spread out their bills in a more manageable way Covered California, the state's insurance exchange, may require insurers to cap the monthly cost of each expensive specialty prescription at $500.

Soaring e-cigarette use will likely increase momentum for FDA's proposed regulation of the product, which critics say is being heavily marketed at teenagers.

The study, in more than 250,000 women, found that combining Pap test with HPV screening works best in identifying women with cervical cancer and reduces the possibility of false negatives.

In the first year of Medicare's Pioneer Accountable Care Organization program, the 32 participating provider organizations achieved a 1.2% savings while maintaining or improving performance on measures of quality of patient care.

While the effect of pregnancy on melanoma has been debated for several years, a study at the Cleveland Clinic has provided evidence that women who were pregnant or recently pregnant at the time of melanoma diagnosis were 5.1 times more likely to die of the disease than those who were not.

An accompanying editorial by a Fred Hutch researcher says, "The demanding cancer patient looks less like a budget buster and more like an urban myth."

Studies have shown that income is tied to most matters of health, including life expectancy, prevalence of diseases, and health behaviors. The Urban Institute and the Center on Society and Health have analyzed emerging evidence and prospects of income-related policies that work to improve population health.