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Karen Ignagni is stepping down as president and chief executive officer of America's Health Insurance Plans for a position with EmblemHealth in New York.

Although the new and more effective hepatitis C drugs are expensive, they could save the United States and 5 European countries more than $3.2 billion annually, according to estimates reported at Digestive Disease Week 2015.

ASCO says that it's Patient-Centered Oncology Payment model meets the criteria for an Alternative Payment Model as defined by Congress in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, which replaced the Sustainable Growth Rate formula.

Another 1.1 million individuals could potentially be affected by another cyberattack. CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield announced that it had been the target of a sophisticated cyberattack. The hackers gained access to a single database in June 2014, according to the company.

The most sweeping overhaul of Medicaid regulations since 2002 is due soon. So far there are few hints at what CMS may require states to do as they award managed care contracts in an effort to better coordinate care and control costs.

The article, published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine, found that large urban hospitals that serve as a safety net for patients with lower socioeconomic status, are at a disadvantage due to factors outside of their control.

Researchers at Cancer Research UK have challenged the current standard of care in advanced ovarian cancer patients. Results of their study, published in Lancet, found that administering chemotherapy prior to surgery can have huge benefits on health outcomes and the patient's quality of life.

Intelligent Engagement, through the use of virtual health assistants in conjunction with a variety of adherence technologies hold the promise to create an overall strategy for an intelligent adherence plecosystem.

With studies showing that patients overestimate the benefits of cancer screening and are misinformed about the potential harms, the American College of Physicians has issues advice for screening adults with average risk and no symptoms for 5 common cancers: breast, colorectal, ovarian, prostate, and cervical.

A secondary analysis on results of the CAPTION trial pointed to a role for pharmacists in helping tailor the treatment regimen for patients with hypertension, although it did not improve blood pressure control.

A Science study found that recurrent mutations in the promoter of the telomerase gene, TERT, could be responsible for overexpression of telomerase in a majority of cancers, thereby sustaining the replicative potential of cancer cells.

Although the uninsured rate among Americans between the ages of 50 and 64 years was already lower than the national average, the rate fell by nearly a third from December 2013 to December 2014, according to a study published by the AARP Public Policy Institute.

Although the vision of the learning health system is simple in theory, it is highly complicated, said Penny Mohr, senior program officer for improving healthcare systems at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, during the first plenary session at the ISPOR 20th Annual Meeting, held May 18-20 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Findings of a study published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology show that 95% of inpatients at a VA hospital in Minneapolis with an incorrect or indeterminate diagnosis, were given inappropriate antibiotics, as opposed to 38% who were accurately diagnosed, yet administered incorrect medication.

Data presented at the American Urological Association in New Orleans show a 50% drop in PSA testing in the years since the USPSTF issued its controversial D recommendation. Some see a "chilling" effect, but not all see a problem.

Health insurance companies will be looking for consumers to pay more in 2016, according to Kim Holland, director for state affairs for Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, who called demands for lower premiums or monthly fees "unrealistic."

Large data sets like SEER need better quality control checks and researchers and clinicians who use these data sets should also consider using secondary data analyses that answer specific research questions. This is the advice of a senior urologist following the removal of the PSA data.

One of the reasons may be that health plans primarily have access to retrospective information rather than real-time information, unlike providers, and they also have to consider other factors such as a member's health indicators, plan, deductible, and family structure.

Although there has been improvement in the use of health information technology for care coordination, fewer than half of patient-centered medical homes routinely use computerized systems to identify patients seen in emergency departments or hospitals or to send care summary to other providers.

The study, conducted by researchers at the Henry Ford Hospital, found that complications associated with robot-assisted radical prostatectomies were higher in low-volume hospitals, with relatively inexperienced staff.

Karen Davis, director of Roger C. Lipitz Center for Integrated Health Care at Johns Hopkins University, says increasing resources available for home treatments and services and support for family caregivers of the elderly and those with debilitating diseases might work to reduce reliance on costly nursing homes for those afflicted.

The FDA said it had received 20 reports in the 15 months since the first of the SGLT2 inhibitor class was approved, and had continued to receive reports since that time. All drugs in the class were included in the safety communication.

The study, published in Cancer, found a 14% higher rate of obesity among childhood cancer survivors in their surveyed population, compared to the federal numbers.

ICD-10 should not only be delayed, but scrapped, said Steven Stack, MD, the incoming president of the American Medical Association, throwing his organization's support behind a bill by Texas Republican Representative Ted Poe delaying its rollout.

Despite ample health research showing that needle exchanges can reduce the spread of disease, the ban on federal funding of these programs has remained mostly intact since 1988.

As of April 2015, 21 states have chosen not to expand Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act. All but one of those states have also chosen to rely on federally facilitated marketplaces.

Even though patient-centered medical home models are being implemented by multiple provider practices and health systems, little is known about what facilitates their implementation.

This week The American Journal of Managed Care launched its new Managed Markets News Network, featuring the top stories in managed care and interviews with industry experts.

More than 1 in 4 adults who bought insurance for themselves or their families last year had to skip needed medical care because they couldn't afford it, according to a study released Thursday by Families USA, a consumer health group.

Gov. Rick Scott told agency heads to prepare for the worst Thursday, asking them to list only the state's most critical needs in the event the Legislature can't reach an agreement on a budget that doesn't expand healthcare to the poor.