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Christie’s Place, a nonprofit social service organization, puts a large focus on social determinants of health to help their clients not only keep up with their medical care, but also improve their quality of life.

This week, the top managed care news included final numbers for 2018 enrollment in Affordable Care Act plans; an increase in Medicare Advantage payments; National Public Health Week highlighted the importance of community relationships in improving health.

On Monday, CMS announced that it has finalized policies for Medicare health and drug plans for 2019 aimed to lower the cost of drugs for beneficiaries and provide additional plan choices.

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

Surgeon General Jerome M. Adams, MD, issues a call for more people to carry naloxone to counteract opioid overdoses amid the ongoing national public health emergency; however, it is unclear if increased access to naloxone will combat the opioid epidemic or exacerbate overdoses.

JPMorgan CEO gives more details about the healthcare venture with Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway; a White House report on insurers comes under scrutiny; a database tracks pharmaceutical donations to patient groups.

For the first time, medical students are being evaluated on how they deliver bad news, whether it be the death of a loved one or a medical mistake.

Sanofi, 1 of 3 drug manufacturers embroiled in a lawsuit involving insulin prices, said Thursday it is offering a discount program for some patient with diabetes who are uninsured or who have high-deductible insurance plans.

Children in poverty from one Ohio county spend more time hospitalized than those from more well-off Census tracts within the same county, according to a recent study published in Health Affairs. These health disparities could be reduced by building a “culture of health” within a hospital or healthcare system using goals aligned with the surrounding community, instead of approaching disparities condition by condition, the researchers wrote.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, calls on social media sites and internet providers to crack down on illegal online opioid sales; Ohio will require pharmacy benefit managers and insurers to inform patients of the lowest price for a drug; a court is weighing if a hospital is responsible for a discharged patient with schizophrenia who committed murder.

Researchers have been trying to find a way to screen populations at high risk of developing a precursor condition to multiple myeloma in order to intervene early and reduce disease prevalence and mortality.

Telepsychiatry models improve access, utilization, and patient satisfaction.

With food insecurity attributing to $77 billion in excess healthcare expenditures annually, support services such as meal programs have been implemented. A study in Health Affairs found that meal delivery programs reduce the use of costly healthcare services, such as emergency department (ED) visits, and help cut costs for dually eligible Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.

New research suggests that the composition of bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract may help predict which patients with cancer may benefit most from adoptive T-cell immunotherapy, including chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy.

Medicaid work requirements will ultimately harm children’s health if their parents lose health benefits, a new policy report says. The report summarizes how health insurance gains for parents translates into improved healthcare access for children.

Enrollment for 2018 in Affordable Care Act plans is only slightly below figures from 2017; a rare breed of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is spreading in hospitals; a new company will develop off-the-shelf CAR T-cell therapies that do not need to be personalized to the patient.

A study of 2 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) inhalers from the same company was published recently in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. The DYNAGITO trial showed tiotropium bromide and olodaterol, a dual bronchodilator sold under the name Stiolto Respimat, prevented exacerbations better than tiotropium bromide alone (sold as Spiriva Respimat), although not quite as much as expected.

Health policy experts laid out a series of proposals to bring down prescription drug costs, lower US healthcare spending, and protect patients in a series of 3 papers published recently in Health Affairs. The papers, supported by the Commonwealth Fund, advocate for increasing competition, applying value-based purchasing, and protecting patients from high out-of-pocket costs.

Nine in 10 people with non-group health insurance will continue buying coverage despite the repeal of the individual mandate and express worry over future availability and price of health coverage, according to a health tracking poll from Kaiser Family Foundation. The poll also found that for the uninsured, the main reason for not purchasing coverage is that it is too expensive.

National Public Health Week kicked off on Monday with an event that focused on the importance of building strong relationships within communities in order to address health inequities, as well as the declining life expectancy in the United States.

The governor of Iowa signed a law allowing health plans that are not compliant with the Affordable Care Act; custom medically designed meals keep patients healthier, a study found; the CDC is probing a teen suicide outbreak in an Ohio county.

CMS finalized its 2019 Medicare Advantage rates, raising payments it pays to insurers, and also made changes to a final rule aimed at curbing opioid misuse and abuse by Medicare beneficiaries. Payments to Medicare Advantage plans will rise an average of 3.4%, and with another 3.1% adjustment coming from a change in risk scores (which are a measure of the sickness or health of the population served) the payment increase could be as high as 6.5%.

Black–white disparities in hospital readmission rates in the United States narrowed after the introduction of the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP), but hospitals that serve a large number of minority patients continue to disproportionately receive penalties for their readmission rates, a study published in Health Affairs said Monday.

Following the American Society of Clinical Oncology's (ASCO's) evaluation of leading oncology clinical pathway vendors nationwide, an article in Journal of Clinical Pathways provided insight into the evaluation from 2 of the report's co-authors.

Two separate studies published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine suggest that marijuana has a role to play in helping patients cut back on prescription opioids. One study looked at prescribing patterns for opioids in Medicare Part D and the implementation of state medical marijuana laws. The other looked at Medicaid prescription data from 2011 to 2016.

The National Institutes of Health's alcohol chief told an industry official in an email he would stop research about marketing to teens; California sues Sutter Heath, alleging antitrust violations; whether the Department of Veterans Affairs chief resigned or not could have broader implications for the agency.

The insurer's chief medical officer reports that the CDC metric is proving useful over time.

Some Medicare Advantage plans may not be fully ready for the requirements of this history-making preventive service.

As the opioid epidemic persists as a public health crisis in the United States, there has been growing concern the injection drug use will affect infectious disease, as it increases the risk of infections, such as HIV. A graphic series from Kaiser Family Foundation took a look at the interaction between the nation's HIV and opioid epidemics. Here are 5 take aways.

Results of a double-blind, randomized, phase 3 trial, published last week in The Lancet, show that siponimod—a selective sphingosine 1-phosphate receptor modulator—slowed the progression of disability in secondary progressive multiple sclerosis.