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Enough moderate Democrats joined Republicans in the Senate to approve President Donald Trump's choice of Alex Azar to be HHS secretary 55-43. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, praised Azar's experience in the public and private sector, while Democrats who voted no were concerned about his committment to the Affordable Care Act and reigning in drug prices. Azar replaces Tom Price, MD, who resigned in September 2017.

Patients diagnosed with cancer want their doctors to ask them their desire location for end-of-life (EOL) care, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

The study will evaluate the current preferred first-line regimen for pregnant women recommended by the World Health Organization and 2 regimens containing newer antiretroviral drugs that are becoming more widely used.

The Drug Enforcement Administration is allowing more health practitioners prescribe buprenorphine to treat opioid addiction; a public health review found mixed results on the outcome of using e-cigarettes based on age; a new index has graded pharmaceutical companies on how well they are fighting against the spread of superbugs.

Earlier this month, CMS announced that 561 accountable care organizations will be participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program in 2018, with 10.5 million assigned beneficiaries.

Rising prices, especially for prescription drugs, surgery, and emergency department visits, caused overall healthcare spending in 2016 to grow faster than at any time in the last 5 years; however, Americans used the same amount or less healthcare in 2016 compared with 2015, according to a report by the Health Care Cost Institute.

Respimat from Boehringer Ingelheim is now the first and only inhaler to be awarded the Ease of Use Commendation by the Arthritis Foundation. This award identifies products that make life easier for people with arthritis and other physical limitations.

Smoking is not an inexpensive hobby. Smokers not only spend money on cigarettes and tobacco, but also on healthcare to manage smoking-related illnesses. Approximately 36.5 million Americans are avid tobacco users who spend large sums of money on their addiction and the consequences that come with it.

Novartis' calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibitor for prevention of migraine, erenumab, showed positive results in a phase 3b study in episodic migraine patients who have failed multiple prior preventive treatments.

Kentucky may require Medicaid patients who lose coverage to pass a health literacy test; new tax law encourages companies to offer paid family and medical leave with tax credit; biopharma leaders head to Davos to share ideas.

The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) was funded for 6 years, through fiscal year (FY) 2023, under a deal worked out between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-New York.

The CDC reported recently that the percentage of privately insured reproductive-age women who filled a prescription for a medication for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) soared 344% from 2003 (0.9%) to 2015 (4.0%).

A government shutdown would have far-reaching implications for public health, with health services halted and almost half of HHS staff furloughed. In an updated contingency plan, HHS outlined which activities would continue during a shutdown and which would not.

The FDA has approved a supplemental New Drug Application to add new overall survival (OS) data for carfilzomib (Kyprolis). The label will now show that carfilzomib and dexamethasone reduced the risk of death by 21% and increased OS by 7.6 months compared with bortezomib and dexamethasone in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (MM).

A study released Monday found the Affordable Care Act (ACA) helped lower average out-of-pocket spending (OOP) overall, mainly because of reductions in spending among people eligible for the Medicaid expansion and cost-sharing and premium subsidies on the insurance exchanges. However, premium spending rose, mostly, because of large increases for those with higher incomes, said Anna Goldman, MD, MPA, one of the authors of the JAMA Internal Medicine study.

Flu season may have peaked with a hospitalization rate reaching 31.5 per 100,000 people; Wisconsin's Republican governor now seeks to stabilize the state's Affordable Care Act marketplace; the Trump administration revokes protection for Planned Parenthood funding.

Estimating episodic target prices for each patient in the Oncology Care Model (OCM) can be challenging and time consuming. Applying that time to quality-focused care management tactics, based on observed utilization and patient outcomes, may wind up being more valuable, and help to reduce unnecessary spending.

Patients dually enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid have higher levels of Medicare spending compared to other beneficiaries, and it can impact hospitals' performance on a Medicare cost measure, according to a study published in Health Affairs.

While emergency departments (EDs) are often blamed as the culprit of allotting excessive amounts of opioids to patients, office-based opioid prescriptions have increased 12% from 1996 to 2012 while ED use of opioids have decreased, according to a study published in Annals of Emergency Medicine.

Placing seniors on observation status appears to be a tactic to avoid adding to a hosptial's readmission rate, but it hurts seniors financially.

Despite years of stability, patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) are at risk of progressing to multiple myeloma or another blood cancer, according to a long-term follow-up study published in New England Journal of Medicine. MGUS usually causes no problems, but it is a precursor to cancer.

Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center recently reported in Lancet Oncology that a pair of targeted therapies given before and after surgery for melanoma produced a 6-fold increase in time to progression of the disease, compared with standard-of-care surgery for patients with stage 3 melanoma.

Researchers were especially concerned about barriers for patients with familial hypercholesterolemia, whose needs would seem clear cut but who nonetheless faced costly hurdles, such as genetic testing.

Researchers assessed associations between the duration of oral contraceptive use and ovarian, endometrial, breast, and colorectal cancer risk and whether these associations were modified by certain modifiable lifestyle factors.

This week in managed care, the top stories included the announcement that Kentucky is the first state approved to require patients work to receive Medicaid benefits; FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, reveals a new program to improve clinical trial transparency; research finds the worst cases of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder could lower life expectancy.

Analysis of randomized controlled trials finds there is not enough proof that wearable biosensors actually improve patient outcomes, such as weight and blood pressure, according to a study by Cedars-Sinai investigators published in npj Digital Medicine.

Five health systems are coming together to form a new nonprofit generic drug company that will addressing rising generic drug costs and drug shortages at hospitals.

Benitec Biopharma, an Australia-based drug developer, has received the FDA’s Orphan Drug designation for BB-301, an investigational drug for the treatment of oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy.

House passes spending bill that includes funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program for 6 years; researchers work on an experimental blood test that could detect 8 cancers; President Donald Trump plans to slash the budget of the Office of National Drug Control Policy by as much as 95%.

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