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States that implement strict laws to limit smoking in public areas and add heavy taxes on cigarettes have a lower rate of not only cigarette users, but also e-cigarette users, according to a report from NYU School of Medicine and the NYU College of Global Public Health.

In California, 1 minute of operating room (OR) time costs an average $36 to $37 per minute, according to a study published in JAMA Surgery. Hospital costs are important to understanding value-based care, and are even more critical when analyzing cost-saving interventions during surgery, the study said.

Thirty-six percent of Americans who have health coverage through the Affordable Care Act and 27% of those with Medicaid are pessimistic they will be able to keep their future coverage, according to a new Commonwealth Fund survey of 2410 adults. In addition, most believed all Americans should have the right to affordable healthcare. Those agreeing with that sentiment included 99% of Democrats, 92% of independent voters, and 82% of Republicans.

A lack of communication among older Americans and their physicians increases unnecessary healthcare spending on unneeded scans, screenings, medications, and procedures for the patient, according to a survey from the National Poll on Healthy Aging.

A proposed rule by the Trump administration to allow association health plans to sell insurance across state lines would shift 3.2 million enrollees out of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)'s individual and small group markets by 2022 and increase premiums, according to a new analysis from Avalere.

In a joint letter, several organizations urged CMS Administrator Seema Verma to allow certain accountable care organizations to continue in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) Track 1 for a third agreement period, warning that these ACOs are not ready to take on a 2-sided risk.

State variations in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) outcomes suggest that the condition is more common in large rural areas compared with metropolitan areas, according to the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from CDC.

Thousands of people in 5 states are not paying monthly premiums towards their Medicaid benefits; the House GOP is considering a complicated, multistep budget maneuver regarding Affordable Care Act cost-sharing reductions; a report says it's time to reimagine what healthcare could look like in rural America.

CMS should use its Innovation Center to pilot a proposal from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) to reform the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), according to a senior fellow at Project HOPE. Gail Wilensky, PhD, writing in The New England Journal of Medicine, said a pilot based on the proposal that MedPAC submitted to Congress would provide “real-world evidence” as to whether or not its idea to eliminate the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) is an improvement.

Adults with obesity have an earlier onset of incident CVD, a greater proportion of life lived with CVD morbidity, and shorter overall survival compared with adults with normal BMI; and the proportion of adults with incident CVD events was significantly higher in adults who were classified as overweight or obese compared with adults with normal BMI, according to a study in JAMA Cardiology.

A newly published report, “Fairness in Precision Medicine,” by Kadija Ferryman, PhD, and Mikaela Pitcan, seeks to better understand how bias could impact biomedical research into precision medicine.

Aledade and Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey partner to help practices take advantage of payment models that reward physicians who offer better quality care while lowering costs.

New research has found that allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is just as effective in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma who are age 65 and older as it is in patients between the ages of 55 and 64.

Shifting provisions of infused chemotherapy from physician offices to hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs) is increasing; however spending for commerical insurers was lower for patients treated in physician offices compared with HOPDs, according to a research letter in JAMA Oncology.

An opinion piece in the Annals of Internal Medicine makes the case for shifting value-based payment models to address the issue of healthcare disparities directly into hospitals’ financial calculations, incentivizing institutions to address the issue head-on without sacrificing quality.

Pediatricians call for universal depression screening of teenagers; CDC reports on tobacco use during pregnancy and the wide disparity among states and ethnic groups; the divergence between red and blue states on health policy is widening.

Twenty states are suing the federal government challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), since the individual mandate was abolished in the tax reform law signed last December by President Donald Trump. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminated the tax penalty of the ACA, without eliminating the individual mandate itself, according to the lawsuit filed Monday in US District Court in the Northern District of Texas.

A new report questions what metrics policy makers are using to evaluate whether or not children enrolled in Medicaid managed care organizations are receiving quality care, given the public investment these programs receive. The report, from the nonpartisan Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, said that state Medicaid agencies and CMS do not use 1 common measurement for measuring quality of care.

The National Comprehensive Cancer Center (NCCN) has released new NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology to help ensure that people living with HIV who are diagnosed with cancer receive safe and necessary treatment.

Commercially insured individuals with health plans with value-based contracts for diabetes, high cholesterol, and HIV medicines had average co-pays that were 28% lower for those prescription medications compared with people on other plans, according to a report from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).

On Friday, a bipartisan group of governors unveiled a blueprint to reform the US health system in an effort to produce better health outcomes at a lower cost to governments, employers, and individuals. The plan focuses on aligning consumer and provider incentives, encouraging more competition and innovation, reforming insurance markets, expanding proven Medicaid innovations, and modernizing the state–federal relationsip.

The identification of 16 items specific to patient-reported outcomes (PROs) by the SPIRIT-PRO Extension can improve the quality and use of PRO data.

A lawsuit filed Monday by 20 red states argues that the Affordable Care Act (ACA)’s individual mandate—and the law itself—is invalid; President Donald Trump brought up the issue of mental hospitals in a meeting with governors, and the administration said it is "actively exploring" ways to help states expand inpatient mental health treatment using Medicaid funds; an EPA center that distributes grants and fellowships to test the effects of chemical exposure on adults and children will be dissolved and consolidated within the agency.

As billing and insurance-related costs continue to largely contribute to administrative costs in healthcare, electronic health records (EHRs) were proposed as a potential solution to streamline the billing process and cut costs. However, a study in JAMA has found that EHRs do not lower administrative costs.

Traditionally, objective response rate (ORR) is used as the primary end point for phase 2 trials assessing the efficacy of anticancer therapies. However, in phase 2 trials of immune checkpoint inhibitors for advanced solid cancers, progression-free survival (PFS) is recommended as a primary end point over ORR, according to a study published in JAMA Oncology.

On Friday, Novo Nordisk announced the results from PIONEER 1, a phase 3a trial featuring oral semaglutide for treatment of adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Oral semaglutide is a new glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analogue taken once daily as a tablet, making this investigational therapy the first oral treatment in this class.

A new policy report from the Urban Institute examining the effects of the Trump administration’s changes to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) finds that premiums will rise in ACA insurance plans and more people will be without insurance in certain states.

The FDA is expected to release guidance to phamarceutical companies about expanding medication-assisted treatment (MAT) to help combat substance use disorder; the National Governors Association meeting featured a number of healthcare discussions, including HHS Secretary Azar meeting with Idaho officials about their plan to sell insurance not compliant with the Affordable Care Act; the CDC has requested $350 million for a new laboratory to work on dangerous pathogens.

In the next phase of the program, researchers will dig into the data they have gathered so far to identify the best practices for reducing 30- and 90-day readmission rates.

Partners in Healing, a program where family members of hospitalized patients are invited to take part in caring for their loved ones, reduced readmission rates and enhanced the healing process for patients, according to a study published in CHEST.