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Use of an HIV-prevention pill is increasing across the country, but has lagged among blacks and Latinos; Wyoming House fails to pass Medicaid work requirement bill that sailed through the state Senate; Los Angeles County is overhauling the healthcare in its jails in order to better equip inmates to manage their health.

Cigna has announced that it will acquire Express Scripts in a $67 billion deal. The deal brings health benefits and pharmacy benefits under the same roof and is the latest in a string of acquisitions and mergers as the industry attempts to address health costs.

In a keynote address at the 2018 National Health Policy Conference of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) in Washington, DC, HHS Secretary Alex Azar asked his audience to consider 4 areas that he said are key to “accelerating value-based transformation, and creating a true market for healthcare” through means of some sort of federal intervention that puts patients in control of their own health records.

Reviewing 25 years of experience with accelerated approvals (AAs) for malignant hematology and oncology drugs and biologics, FDA officials say that the AA program has demonstrated that it can be used successfully to expedite approval of safe, effective cancer therapies that balance uncertainty with the need to provide faster access to promising agents for serious and life-threatening diseases.

Proprietary technology helps overcome the problem of long travel distances for those taking part in clinical trials.

A continued shift towards value-based care incentivizes better health behaviors and improves coordination of care among healthcare providers by focusing on cost savings, according to UnitedHealthcare’s second annual report on value-based care.

A reimbursement system that relies on rebates passed between pharmaceutical companies and pharmacy benefit managers is holding back development and competition in the biosilimar market, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, said in the opening session of the 2018 National Health Policy Conference of America’s Health Insurance Plans in Washington, DC.

CMS Administrator Seema Verma announces a new health data initiative; Pennsylvania and Oklahoma consider implementing Medicaid work requirements; New Jersey moves forward with a state individual health insurance mandate.

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who were trained on appropriate inhaler use and who were checked on their use were significantly more likely to be adherent, study found.

The FDA approved the antiretroviral medication for adult patients living with HIV who have been treated with multiple medications in the past and whose HIV infection did not respond to other currently available antiretroviral therapies.

Accoding to FAIR Health, recent accidents highlight a disturbing trend: rising claims involving sleep apnea.

The FDA has authorized, with special controls, the first direct-to-consumer test that reports on 3 specific BRCA1/BRCA2 breast cancer gene mutations that are most common in people of Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jewish descent.

Last week, Uber introduced Uber Health, a service that allows hospitals, doctor’s offices, and other health systems to order an Uber for their patients. Yesterday, Allscripts announced a collaboration with Lyft to let clinicians to order the Lyft service for patients through its electronic health record system.

Amid a rising uproar over drug prices, UnitedHealthcare said Tuesday it will pass along to consumers in employer-based plans the rebates it receives from pharmaceutical companies.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar said the administration will announce actions to lower healthcare costs, as well as a move to give patients control of their data; doctors and patients with chronic pain oppose proposed prescribing limits sought by CMS for opioids; doctor groups are disagreeing about blood sugar targets for patients with diabetes.

Three House Democratic leaders introduced a healthcare bill aimed at reversing some of the actions taken by the Trump administration regarding the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Because Republicans currently control Congress, however, the legislation may largely be moot for now.

A new study from the Yale School of Public Health finds that states that did not expand Medicaid appeared to have a chilling effect on the participation of eligible adults who could have enrolled in the program, but did not, because of undocumented immigrants living in the same household.

Arkansas became the third state to create work requirements for Medicaid since the Trump administration announced it would allow them.

During a discussion, 4 panelists addressed their main issues of growing up with rare diseases, including that physicians often doubted their feelings of pain and distress.

Policy experts look at curbing healthcare spending by encouraging comparison shopping in exchange for cash back; the home healthcare industry worries about immigration policy changes; the promise of a universal flu vaccine is still elusive.

A recently published study in JAMA Internal Medicine sought to determine whether a symptom and psychosocial collaborative care intervention improves heart failure–specific health status, depression, and symptom burden in patients with heart failure.

Researchers have identified a molecular target that could allow chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy to be used in treating patients with glioblastoma. Although the heterogeneous expression of tumor-associated antigens limits the efficacy for CAR-redirected T cells for the treatment of glioblastoma, chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan 4 (CSPG4), a cell surface type 1 transmembrane protein, is highly expressed in a majority of glioblastoma specimens with limited heterogeneity.

During the 4-year time period, the rates of HIV diagnosis decreased among those aged 16 to 19 years, were stable among those aged 20 to 23, and increased among those aged 24 to 29, according to a study published by the CDC.

Mindfulness meditation is effective in treating adults with attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to a study published in the Journal of Attention Disorders.

Next week, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) holds its annual National Health Policy Conference in Washington, DC. The American Journal of Managed Care® spoke to David Merritt, its executive vice president of public affairs, about possible things to watch for during this event.

This week, the top managed care stories included a bipartisan group of governors releasing an outline for health reform; a report finds value-based contracts brings down prescription drug co-pays; 20 states file a lawsuit over the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.

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

An investigation into same-day surgery centers uncovered deadly risks for patients; Uber is launching a medical ride sharing service; the immortality market is attracting cash as well as plenty of skeptics.

More than half of physicians find that their patients encounter coverage issues due to inaccurate information included in payer directories at least once per month, according to a survey from the American Medical Association (AMA) and LexisNexis Risk Solutions.

Since 2000, the number of patients undergoing gender-affirming surgery who identified as self-payers decreased. From 2012-2013 to 2014, coverage by Medicare and Medicaid of gender-affirming surgeries increased 3-fold.