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

This week, the investors and analysts turned their attention to presentations by business leaders at the 36th Annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, held in San Francisco, California. Executives from the pharmaceutical and healthcare worlds showcased their products, pipelines, and visions for the future.

In a lawsuit, customers allege that Centene did not provide adequate access to doctors and misrepresented coverage; a study finds the abortion pill is as safe and effective as getting the procedure in the clinic; New Hampshire considers a bill that would allow pharmacists to dispense birth control pills.

Screening for social risk factors can reduce frequent hospitalization and medical spending, according to a study published in HSOA Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Care.

Asthma costs the U.S. economy more than $80 billion annually in medical expenses, days missed from work and school, and deaths, according to research published online in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society. However, actual numbers are likely to be higher, according to CDC researchers who conducted the study.

More than half of octogenarians and nonagenarians with stage III non–small-cell lung cancer did not receive treatment, according to a study in CANCER. Older age, black race, and living in a lower educated census tract were found to be risk factors for not receiving treatment.

Researchers reported results where they tested performance on a theoretically-based probabilistic decision-making video simulation in adults with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The study examined the relationship between experimental risk taking and history of real-life, risk-taking substance use behavior. Both groups showed similar patterns of risk taking, but adults with ADHD had more history and use of substance use and abuse.

Adfinitas Health, the largest private hospitalist group in the Mid-Atlantic region, describes how its first acquisition complements its advanced pactice provider (APP) staffing model as it looks to continued opportunities in 2018.

Maine Community Health Options is seeking $5.6 million from HHS, claiming the department failed to reimburse marketplace insurers for cost-sharing reductions for 2017. Under section 1402 of the Affordable Care Act, an insurer participating in the marketplace is required to offer CSR plans, and in return will be guaranteed reimbursement by the government.

Recently, the FDA granted a breakthrough therapy designation to eltrombopag (Promacta, Novartis) for combination use with standard immunosuppressive therapy as a first-line treatment for patients with severe aplastic anemia (SAA).

Trump administration freezes a national database on behavioral health interventions; number of alcohol-related emergency department visits rose sharply from 2006 to 2014; and study examines the feasibility of implementing a federal tax on junk food and sugary beverages.

The long-awaited guidance allows states to seek waivers that require able-bodied adults to show they are working, receiving education, serving as a caregiver, volunteering, or receiving substance abuse treatment in order to be eligible for Medicaid.

Convincing your chief financial officer to invest in technology that addresses patients’ social determinants of health.

Racial and ethnic minorities and populations with low incomes will experience more stress during their lifetime compared to wealthy, white individuals, leading to large inequities in both mental and physical health, according to a report from the American Psychological Association.

Syapse, a leading precision medicine company, and Roche have joined forces to advance precision medicine in oncology. They will work together to bring real-world data to providers, bring oncology into the value-based care era, advance patient-reported outcomes, and optimize clinical trial recruiment.

AstraZeneca’s epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor, osimertinib (Tagrisso), is on the fast track in 2018 to become a first-line treatment for adult patients with locally-advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors have EGFR mutations.

Alex Azar, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the next secretary of HHS, suggested during his testimony before the Senate Finance Committee that pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) would be the most effective tool to negotiate for lower drug costs, and said that PBMs should negotiate physician-administered drugs covered under Medicare Part B.

Eisai’s multiple receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor lenvatinib and Merck’s anti–PD-1 therapy pembrolizumab as a combination therapy for patients with renal cell carcinoma received the designation based on results from the renal cell carcinoma cohort in Study 111.

Older adults who are prescribed many medications that require frequent trips to the pharmacy are more likely to not refill their prescriptions on time, but patients who participate in medication synchronization programs have improved adherence to cardiovascular medications, according to a study published in Health Affairs.

Brenda Schmidt, CEO of Solera Health, discusses the historic launch of the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program scheduled for this April and how her company is helping providers and other stakeholders get ready.

Three hospital groups are appealing a ruling that dismissed a lawsuit challenging the new cuts to the 340B program; report finds poor oversight of data repository resulted in $36.7 billion in payment errors in 2017; a new executive order will expand mental health care for new veterans.

The announcement comes after CMS canceled an Obama-era proposal for mandatory bundled payments in cardiac care, as well as a mandatory expansion of a program in joint replacements.

Psychological factors negatively affect quality-of-life scores in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients, according to a recent study published in the International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

It’s true, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are complicated, admitted Tim Wentworth, president and CEO of Express Scripts, during his presentation at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, California. However, the company is built to succeed in the future of healthcare, he said.

A recent study from Australia found that the presence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms was associated with an increased risk of persisting neck pain and disability in motor vehicle crash survivors with whiplash injuries.

When patients with rheumatoid arthritis experience failure of an anti–tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) therapy, clinical guidelines support either cycling to a different anti-TNF agent or switching to a treatment with a different method of action (MOA). However, payers often require cycling of anti-TNF options before they will reimburse for treatments with a different MOA.

Federal budget watchdogs have drastically lowered their estimate of what it will take to fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) because of 3 factors related to tax law changes affecting the Affordable Care Act at the end of last year that basically make it cheaper to insure children through CHIP than through insurance marketplaces.

Cross-sectoral partnerships between Area Agencies on Aging (AAA) and healthcare and non-healthcare organizations are an effective way of addressing determinants of health among older adults, according to a recent study published in Health Affairs.

While public funding through the National Institutes of Health has created a foundation for healthcare research, the private sector can benefit from getting more involved, said Bill Gates, philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft.

A report from the American Cancer Society estimated new cancer cases and deaths for 2018 and took a look at the most recent data to determine cancer incidence through 2014 and mortality through 2015.