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The US District Court for the District of Columbia has blocked the Aetna-Humana merger on the grounds it is anticompetitive.

The current chair of the Federal Trade Commission will like to make a decision on the proposed merger of Walgreens and Rite Aid pharmacies before she leaves office-but the fate of the merger remains unclear.

A study published last October indicated that hospitalist groups with a higher ratio of physician assistants to physicians achieved the same outcomes at lower cost in a community hospital setting. Lead author Timothy Capstack, MD, explained to The American Journal of Managed Care® how these hospitalist models can benefit patients in a variety of healthcare settings.

What we're reading, January 23, 2017: it is currently unclear what the impact President Donald Trump's executive order will have on the Affordable Care Act; New York requires that insurers cover birth control and abortions; and hospitals reexamine guidelines for opioid prescribing.

There is a new administration in the White House and the top priority is repealing the Affordable Care Act; however, a replacement plan still has not been presented. We break down the latest report from the Congressional Budget Office regarding the impact of a repeal with no replace.

With the Affordable Care Act poised to become repealed, or at least changed, researchers sought to understand the health and healthcare utilization of people at risk to lose their insurance.

After his inauguration, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order ordering federal agencies to ease the burden of his predecessor’s landmark healthcare law.

Rates of food insecurity remain high in American Indian communities, and a recent study indicates that inadequate food quality and quantity may put these populations at higher risk of diabetes, obesity, and hypertension.

Despite being up to 15 times more likely to be HIV positive, people with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and major depression with psychosis aren’t much more likely than the general population to be tested for the virus.

Two fundamental reasons explain why patient engagement is critical for success as a Medicare Advantage provider.

"Voluntary" is the key word in today's wellness programs, after EEOC rules were tested in court.

After great effort to resolve apparent conflicts between the ACA and older statutes, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, a repeal of the healthcare law may send regulators back to the drawing board.

Outgoing FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, MD, has announced that Richard Pazdur, MD, who was serving as the interim director, will now be heading the Oncology Center of Excellence.

This week, the top managed care stories included news that Republicans will introduce legislation to replace the Affordable Care Act, a report found the abortion rate hit a historic low, and results showed Januvia is safe for the oldest patients, even if they have cardiovascular risk.

A Big Data approach reveals the link between well-known insecticides and melatonin, a chemical that affects sleep patterns.

What we're reading, January 20, 2017: Minnesota will help residents with steep insurance premium hikes; the director of the National Institutes of Health appointed by President Barack Obama will stay on under the new administration; Anthem will end pre-authorization for opioid use disorder treatments.

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

A collaborative study has concluded that genomic assays can be successfully used to identify diagnostic, prognostic, and treatment-relevant alterations and can help guide precision treatment decisions for pediatric brain tumors.

The use of health information technology in small primary care practices continues to rise, but a recent study found that the extent of its adoption varies based on practice size, ownership, and financial incentives.

Observers have called the mini-pump, which continuously delivers exenatide, a "game changer" because it has the potential to overcome medication adherence in the patients who are most resistant to treatment.

Shantanu Agrawal, MD, MPhil, pursued the use of analytics to prevent and identify fraud in public healthcare programs. He takes the helm of a 16-year-old group that has worked to bring consensus among stakeholders on what in healthcare should be measured.

The FDA is giving serious consideration to the economics of the drug or device development process, and to that effect, has released a draft guidance for manufacturers on how and what to communicate with payers and formulary committees.

What we're reading, January 19, 2017: California has withdrawn a request to sell health coverage for illegal immigrants; Pfizer's CEO pushes back against Donald Trump's depiction of the pharmaceutical industry; some Republican governors urge caution on Obamacare repeal.

Patients with rare diseases often turn to the Internet for information on their illness, but an analysis of some of these websites found that their content often failed to meet important quality criteria and neglected key information categories.

A new report released by the American Cancer Society indicates that while the cancer-related death rate was higher among blacks than in whites in 2014, the racial gap could reduce as minority patients increasingly gain access to insurance and subsequent healthcare.

The abortion rate in the United States hit a historic low in 2014 with 2 likely contributing factors: improved access to contraceptives and increased restrictions to abortion services.

During a Public Health Grand Rounds seminar hosted by the CDC on Tuesday, 3 experts from different vantage points within the healthcare system discussed why opioid use disorder presents unique challenges in women and what can be done to address this crisis.

What we're reading, January 18, 2017: GOP senators plan to reveal Obamacare replacement next week; McKesson to pay $150 million to settle claims that it didn't report suspicious opioid orders; and Sylvia Mathews Burwell will go on DC health insurance exchange once she leaves her post.

The trial, evaluating the programmed death ligand-1 inhibitor durvalumab, alone or in combination with tremelimumab, versus platinum-based chemotherapy, has refined its endpoints to include overall survival (OS) along with progression-free survival.

The study found only tobacco use and hypertension were worse on the heart than depression.