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What we’re reading, November 30, 2016: the FDA agrees to clinical trials of Ecstasy to treat posttraumatic stress disorder; University of Pittsburgh Medical Center workers strike to protest wages and union rights; a New York pharmacy owner will spend 4 years in jail for distributing 500,000 oxycodone pills without prescriptions.

A nationally representative study among patients enrolled in Medicare, who were diagnosed with cancer, found that out-of-pocket costs averaged at 23.7% of their household income. A majority of these costs could be attributed to hospitalization.

In New Jersey, a group of business and labor leaders-along with the state's largest health plan-decided it was time for the term "patient-centered" to be understood by a key constituency: patients themselves.

Community coalitions are a backbone of public health, and offer a unique perspective towards implementation of managed care disease management/case management programs.

The proposal from CMS may make it difficult for groups that have been providing the DPP to take part in Medicare reimbursement.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has released the Criteria for High-Quality Clinical Pathways in Oncology, which is expected to help providers assess the quality, utility, and integrity of pathway programs in the United States.

Early results published Tuesday were first presented this summer at the meeting of the American Diabetes Association.

What we're reading, November 29, 2016: Warren cries foul over pharma's role in legislation; women fear what will happen to coverage under Trump; and Gallup poll finds most Americans want changes or repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

The Georgia Congressman is a longtime critic of the Affordable Care Act.

Awareness of Medicaid eligibility rules meant that in 2014 alone, more than 2 million people enrolled for benefits who belonged in the program but for some reason had never signed up.

With $372 million carved out for the National Institutes of Health innovation account in 2017, and about $114 million assigned to President Barack Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative for the fiscal year 2018, the 21st Century Cures Act has a lot at stake for healthcare in the United States.

Patients who received care for their chronic diseases in a patient-centered medical home had higher rates of medication adherence over 12 months than patients treated elsewhere, according to a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

A well-functioning healthcare system must be coordinated, efficient, cost-effective, and goal-oriented. Unfortunately, these words don’t summarize healthcare services in the United States.

The statement calls for delivery behavioral health services through a collaborative model when possible, both to share electronic health data and offer convenience and continuity for patients.

What we're reading, November 28, 2016: The GOP is considering reforms to Medicare and Democrats are gearing up for a fight; the IRS will send letters to try to sign more people up for Obamacare; and the abortion rate reaches the lowest level in decades.

On average, many families are spending a larger share of their income on healthcare than they were prior to 2010. That is because median incomes, despite their recent surge, have not kept pace with healthcare costs.

Trial data on the use of plinabulin for mitigating chemotherapy-induced neutropenia with docetaxel will be presented as a poster at the American Society of Hematology’s annual meeting in San Diego.

In a report published in Pediatrics, the American Academy of Pediatrics discussed several barriers to care for young children with mental health problems. The authors suggested that prompt access to treatment and more complete training for pediatricians could help remove some of these barriers.

A study published in the Annals of Oncology has analyzed data on young patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) to evaluate risk factors for febrile neutropenia and infection-related complications.

Over the past 4 years, search interest for "urgent care" has risen steadily, while search interest for "hospital" has slowly declined.

Emergency departments are a common destination for people with serious mental illness, even though these urgent care settings are costly and overburdened. Some healthcare systems are implementing transitional care clinics to help keep these mentally ill patients out of the ED.

Within 4 months of the last reported incident, Juno Therapeutics has again halted the phase 2 “Rocket” trial of JCAR015 in patients with relapsed or refractory B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Here's a glimpse into what The American Journal of Managed Care’s 5th annual Patient-Centered Oncology Care® meeting had in store for its attendees.

This week, the top managed care stories included the FDA's approval of rival combination therapies for type 2 diabetes, the American Medical Association issued mHealth guidelines, and a study found the dementia rate declining.

At the 5th annual Patient-Centered Oncology Care® meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, moderator Bruce Feinberg, DO, was joined by a care provider, a payer, and a community oncology representative to discuss efforts that maintain the patient at the core of payment models.

What we're reading, November 23, 2016: Alaska has a novel plan to hold down insurance premiums; MedPAC's executive director discusses continuation of value efforts; and new findings regarding microcephaly in Zika-infected babies.

While smoking has long been known to aggravate diabetes, the new study shows just how deadly the habit is for those with the chronic condition.

Some estimates put the market for insulin and GLP-1 combination therapy at $1 billion.

Scientists compared genomes of more than 20,000 people with schizophrenia and 20,000 without the mental disorder to uncover the variants associated with the disease.

The 5th annual Patient-Centered Oncology Care® (PCOC) meeting, hosted by The American Journal of Managed Care, November 17-18, in Baltimore, Maryland, concluded with a panel discussion on the future of oncology care in 2017. The panelists concurred that value-based payment is here to stay despite the imminent changes in healthcare.