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Reimbursement models, novel gene therapy–based treatments, and price transparency: these were some of the topics covered by presenters and panelists at the annual meeting of the Community Oncology Alliance.

AIDSinfo, a portal from the National Institutes of Health, has outlined recent changes that have been made to the adult, adolescent, and perinatal HIV guidelines, including the incorporation of people-first language.

At the National Policy & Advocacy Summit on Biologics and Biosimilars, held in Washington, DC, on April 17, Congressman Earl “Buddy” Carter, R-Georgia, discussed the burden of the opioid epidemic, addressed the stigma surrounding addiction, and highlighted initiatives being taken to increase access to medication-assisted treatment and identify fraudulent prescriptions.

A few days after releasing a call for action about social determinants of health, the American College of Physicians (ACP), talked more about the topic as they began their Internal Medicine Meeting 2018. The briefing discussed ways to reduce inequalities in healthcare and how the ACP and other medical professionals can promote health equity.

The analysis comes a few weeks after FDA approved a label change that reflects a study showing insulin degludec was associated with a 40% drop in hypoglycemia.

Amgen and Novartis announced full results from the LIBERTY trial, which assessed erenumab as preventive treatment for patients with episodic migraine who had previously failed on 2 to 4 treatments. The study met its primary endpoint and all of its secondary endpoints.

An FDA panel recommended approval of a marijuana-derived medicine for the treatment of severe seizures in children with epilepsy; prescriptions for opioid painkillers continued to fall while the number of new monthly prescriptions for medications that treat opioid use disorder nearly doubled over the past 2 years; GOP candidates in midterm races this fall are retreating from calls to further dismantle the Affordable Care Act.

Coverage of our peer-reviewed research and news reporting in the healthcare and mainstream press.

This week, the top managed care stories included a new bill in Congress to tackle the opioid epidemic; an analysis that warns against including drug costs in bundled payment models; the FDA commissioner shares ideas to improve innovation and access to next-generation sequencing.

Incorporating the principles of value-based insurance design (VBID) can help prevent the negative effects of outcomes-oriented contracting, such as cost-related nonadherence.

Divorce and socioeconomic status (SES)—measured by disposable income and education—predict patients who survived a heart attack who are at higher risk of a second event.

Food insecurity (ie, if a patient suffers from inadequate access to enough healthy food on a regular basis) is one of the markers of social determinants of health (SDOH). Earlier this week, the American College of Physicians called for action on SDOH in order to improve patient care and health outcomes. But a proposal in the farm bill that passed out of a Congressional committee Wednesday does the opposite and will worsen food insecurity, according to an analysis by a research and policy institute.

While calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibitors are projected to have a positive impact on the health of patients with chronic or episodic migraines for whom preventive therapy had failed relative to no treatment, it is likely that the inhibitors will exceed commonly-cited willingness-to-pay thresholds, according to a report from the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER).

A group of Democrats unveil a bill to set up a new public health insurance option; a look at the health challenges that persist in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria; married people are more likely to get diagnosed early and be treated in a timely fashion for melanoma.

A novel drug that targets MDMX and MDM2, which inhibit a protein that suppresses tumors when they are overexpressed, has tripled the median survival rate in an animal model of human acute myeloid leukemia, according to new research.

A new study comparing triple therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) against dual therapy resulted in a lower rate of moderate or severe COPD exacerbations and a lower rate of hospitalizations. However, triple therapy had a much higher incidence of pneumonia, which the researchers said was to be expected.

The majority of quality measures for ambulatory internal medicine in Medicare's Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) program are not valid based on criteria developed by the American College of Physicians (ACP), which called for a "time out" to assess and revise the approach to assessment of physician performance.

The number of consumers enrolled in high-deductible health plans with health savings accounts (HSA-HDHPs) increased by 8% from 2016 to 2017, according to a report from America’s Health Insurance Plans.

Taking the rebates that it expects to negotiate into consideration, Ultragenyx said that burosumab will cost approximately $160,000 per patient per year for children and $200,000 per patient per year for adults, depending on body weight. The company said that it does not plan to increase costs in the early years of the drug’s availability.

Virginia's House of Delegates passes Medicaid expansion and sends bill to Republican-controlled Senate; the president's pick to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) states he opposes privatizing veterans' healthcare; in New York City, some mice carry bacteria that are resistant to 3 common antibiotics.

The increased risk of cancer in patients with HIV has been well defined, and some studies have suggested that patients with HIV have not only a higher risk of lung cancer, but also an increased risk of mortality from their cancer than patients without HIV.

An analysis of a hypothetical bundled payment that included drug costs would unfairly penalize practices based on patient mix and could destabilize the cancer care delivery environment, according to research published in the Journal of Oncology Practice.

Two different approaches to attack the opioid-fueled substance use disorder crisis are on display this week, as Congress readies itself for action on more legislation, while 2 major medical organizations focused on payment models in order to deliver improved care.

A new, large cohort study of transgender or gender nonconforming youth—the Study of Transition, Outcomes, and Gender—showed that people who first presented as transgender or gender nonconforming before their 18th birthday have a higher prevalence of mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, and attention-deficit disorders compared with their cisgender counterparts.

President Donald Trump will deliver his first major speech on drug prices on April 26; a recent Medicare Payment Advisory Commission proposal would cut Medicare payment rates by 30% for some services at hospital-affiliated free-standing emergency departments; nursing homes routinely turn away patients seeking care if they are using medication-assisted treatment to treat substance use disorder for opioids.

The American College of Physicians released a set of 9 recommendations today meant to address social determinants of health (SDOH) in order to improve patient care and health outcomes that are negatively impacted by the conditions in the United States under which patients live, grow, and work. However, in an accompanying editorial, 2 physicians wrote that they feared inequities that widen gaps in SDOH would worsen.

The identification of 40 genes involved with the development of multiple myeloma could lead to the development of more personalized treatments.

Researchers found that cost-effectiveness calculations shifted dramatically when they assumed people with diabetes used continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) sensors for 10 days instead of 7 days. This is significant because Dexcom just received approval for a next-generation CGM system with a factory-calibrated 10-day sensor.

A Virginia Republican-led House Appropriations Committee agreed to expand enrollment in the state’s Medicaid program, imposing tougher work requirements on recipients in an attempt at gaining acceptance in the state Senate; there’s a growing industry that makes money by coaxing women into having surgery to remove their vaginal mesh implants, sometimes unnecessarily; HHS Secretary Alex Azar was admitted to a hospital after suffering "a minor infection."

Pfizer has dosed its first patient in a phase 1 clinical trial of an investigational gene therapy for the treatment of patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic disease that results in the absence of dystrophin, a protein that helps to keep muscle cells intact.