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Speakers at the VBID Summit discuss health equity and applying value-based benefit design principles to provide quality care at a lower cost.

For millions, the Affordable Care Act promised relief from the expenses of contraception. So why are many still not feeling it?

Long-term follow-up of women who underwent mastectomy and breast reconstruction subsequent to a breast cancer diagnosis found that the success of the procedure and associated complications were not influenced by the woman’s age.

The quality of outpatient care for adults has not improved during the past decade, and in some important areas has worsened, according to a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine by David M. Levine, MD, of Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, and colleagues.

A CMS investigation found that almost 46% of the doctor listings in Medicare Advantage (MA) directories contained incorrect information. Officials worry that these inaccuracies could make it more difficult for seniors to access the healthcare they need.

The healthcare news outlet STAT went to court to unseal records that show officials with West Virginia's state employee health plan were derailed in their early efforts to slow access to OxyContin.

What we're reading, October 27, 2016: the number of counties with just 1 Obamacare insurer will skyrocket in 2017; Teva and IBM partner for 2 projects; and the United States may never be able to rid itself of the Zika virus.

The findings highlight the need for collaborative care, which has support in the proposed 2017 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.

An 18-month study conducted at a 384-bed community hospital found that including hospitalists in the care team reduced the cost of inpatient care without any impact on the quality of care rendered.

A new study suggests pollution particles could set into motion events like heart attacks and strokes years before they occur.

Challenges outlined by healthcare experts back in 2010 are coming to pass, as young adults do not see the current penalties for going without coverage as enough incentive to become insured.

What we’re reading, October 26, 2016: AAP advises that parents take measures to reduce the risk of SIDS; Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump reacts to ACA premium hikes announced by HHS; patients with ALS volunteer for an accelerated study on the effects of a dietary supplement.

Patients newly diagnosed with non—small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that expresses the programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) protein now have a new treatment option: pembrolizumab (Keytruda).

Ralph McDade, PhD, Myriad RBM's president, explained earlier this year how the precision medicine approach, pioneered in oncology, was finding its way into the cardiovascular arena, and that it could ultimately lead to develop of a risk panel that would make the ELIXA trial simpler and less costly.

A year after its high-profile arrival in New Jersey, Horizon's OMNIA plan will give most enrollees premium increases of 5% to 6%-far less than the 25% average increase announced in a report from HHS.

Clinical nuance is one of the core tenets of value-based insurance design, which is one possible solution to alleviate the financial burden Americans face as they are asked to pay a greater percentage of their healthcare expenditures.

The opportunities for telehealth to radically transform the healthcare system are enormous, but the foremost priority of these innovations must be the delivery of value, said Reed V. Tuckson, MD, FACP, at the National Committee for Quality Assurance Quality Talks conference in Washington, DC, on Monday.

What we're reading, October 25, 2016: individuals with discontinued Obamacare plans will have a special enrollment period; Arizona governor orders limits on opioid prescriptions; and the FDA aims to speed up generic drug reviews.

For millions, the Affordable Care Act promised relief from the expenses of contraception. So why are many still not feeling it?

Including a real-time decision support tool in the prior authorization process significantly reduced the cost of therapy for UnitedHealthcare, while complying with nationally accepted guidelines established by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

The healthcare community needs to understand and address the personal and social circumstances that contribute to a patient’s health before they can improve the quality of care, according to 2 presentations in the first segment of the National Committee for Quality Assurance Quality Talks conference in Washington, DC.

Lawmakers have been working on the problem of what to do about out-of-network bills that result from emergency room care for more than a year.

Analysis by researchers from the American Cancer Society has found that US southern states rank at the top when it comes to death from cigarette smoking.

What we’re reading, October 24, 2016: Cigna makes it easier for clinicians to prescribe drugs to treat opioid addiction; some hospitals move to eliminate sugary drinks from their campuses; and a researcher at the National Cancer Institute was months late to notify authorities of 2 deaths in the clinical trial he oversaw.

While the link between stress and medication adherence is well known, this study attempted to measure how much stress affected adherence.

The number of accountable care organizations (ACOs) has grown rapidly over the last 4 years, with more than 800 ACOs now covering an estimated 28 million Americans. A study found that commercial ACOs were significantly larger and more integrated with hospitals and had lower benchmark expenditures and high quality scores compared with noncommercial ACOs.

Despite awareness of a rapidly increasing size and proportion of older persons in the United States, the nation is not investing sufficiently in keeping people healthy late in life, and significant deficiencies are predicted in our capacity to deliver the medical, public health, and support services needed for the future frail and ill older population.

Freestanding children’s hospitals had the largest financial losses for pediatric inpatients covered by Medicaid, and may be unable to offset reductions in federal Disproportionate Share Hospital payments because of the expansion of health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

A home-based palliative care (HBPC) program tested within an accountable care organization (ACO) demonstrated substantial cost savings and reduced hospital admissions for patients near the end of life, according to a Journal of Palliative Medicine study.

A study of heavy drinkers found that those who drank coffee regularly were less than half as likely to develop alcoholic hepatitis. A certain genotype was also found to be a significant protective factor.