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A coalition of diverse interest groups—payers, unions, and business groups—wrote Senate leaders Monday to express their opposition to the inclusion of “pay for” legislation regarding end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in an opioid bill passed in June by the House of Representatives.

Authors of a Health Affairs blog post cite an initiative that rates how well cities are doing in making sure their laws allow for affordable housing, which is getting more attention as a factor in population health.

Long-term exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) during childhood increases the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) death in adulthood, according to a new study.

Patients with type 2 diabetes and moderate renal impairment who took oral semaglutide in a phase 3a trial reported a larger reduction in glycated hemoglobin and more weight loss than patients taking placebo.

A Dartmouth College investigation has concluded that H. Gilbert Welch, MD, MPH, a prominent healthcare policy researcher, committed research misconduct in connection with a breast cancer paper published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2016; a Boston University endocrinologist, Michael Holick, MD, who had a crucial role in drafting national vitamin D guidelines, has benefitted from the industry in the amount of hundreds of thousands of dollars; 24 states have passed 37 bills this year to curb rising prescription drug costs as bipartisan efforts are forcing pharmaceutical companies to disclose and justify price increases.

To address the needs of individuals with complex health and social needs, providers first need to know who they are. Integrating data from multiple sectors, such as social services, education, criminal justice, and healthcare, can help providers identify individuals who are facing multisector barriers to wellness.

Despite patients with migraine being younger and having fewer indicators for predicting readmission, they had an increased risk of 30-day hospital readmission due to pain.

Pentraxin-3 is known to promote the transition of monocytes to fibrocytes, though little is known about its role in myelofibrosis.

FAIR Health recently analyzed data from its database of more than 26 billion privately billed healthcare claim records dating back to 2002. The report also identified the top 10 procedure codes for specific treatments and services associated with opioid abuse and dependence diagnoses by utilization and aggregate cost in each US Census region.

The rate of disease progression in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can be associated with a poor prognosis in patients.

A recent study discovered more about the immunological mechanisms correlated with lung inflammation in some severe asthma patients, raising possibilities it may serve as a baseline for future research and drug development.

Announced today, Bristol-Myers Squibb’s nivolumab (Opdivo) has received FDA approval as the first immuno-oncology treatment for patients with metastatic small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) whose cancer has progressed after platinum-based chemotherapy and at least 1 other line of treatment.

Persistent use of osteoporosis medications was associated with reduced risk of fracture and significantly lower total healthcare costs, a recent analysis of Medicare claims data found.

A recent study found that the association between vitamin D (Vit D) status and multiple sclerosis (MS) susceptibility is genotype dependent and suggested that the outcome of Vit D status in MS is determined by gene-by-sex interactions.

Accountable care organizations (ACOs), either directly or indirectly, are affecting physician employment patterns in regions where they have high penetration.

The authors of a recent editorial explained that the higher prevalence of migraine in obese individuals may be due to a common etiological factor, because both conditions are linked to inflammatory processes.

Every single future medical student who will study at the New York University School of Medicine, in perpetuity, will have their tuition costs fully covered; HHS has approved New Jersey’s waiver request to create a reinsurance program that would help lower insurance premiums for everyone in the state; an analysis highlights how marketing documents from the mid-1990s downplayed addiction to opioids.

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

This week, the top managed care stories included CMS outlining a plan to encourage Medicare accountable care organizations to take on more risk, faster; a study found substantial growth in Medicaid managed care enrollment; an analysis showed nearly 1 in 5 inpatient hospital stays includes a claim from an out-of-network provider.

The FDA cleared the first generic version of EpiPen and EpiPen Jr, an epinephrine auto-injector for severe allergic reactions, 2 years after generic drugmaker Teva Pharmaceuticals was first turned down in its bid to win approval for the device. The Teva device is the first-ever generic to the one marketed by Mylan, which is still in short supply during the busy back-to-school season in pharmacies due to production issues at Pfizer, which makes the device.

Next week, a CMS committee will hold a day-long meeting to discuss a national coverage determination (NCD) for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapies, and in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine, Peter B. Bach, MD, MAPP, reviewed several strategies open to CMS as it continues to try to determine how to pay for CAR T.

A recent study found that the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor talazoparib extended progression-free survival (PFS) and improved quality of life over chemotherapies for patients with metastatic human epidermal growth factor 2-negative breast cancer and mutations in the BRCA 1/2 genes.

A new technology platform utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) could change how drug combinations are designed and help doctors to identify optimal personalized drug combinations for patients with multiple myeloma.

A recent study investigated whether different insulin regimens, such as metformin and rosiglitazone, influence bone metabolism in individuals with type 2 diabetes, who often have an increased risk of fractures.

The FDA will start to review gene therapy experiments and products the same as other treatments and drugs; Alaska and Minnesota have become models for other states looking to curb health insurance premium increases with reinsurance programs; patients with limited English proficiency often have to rely on family members and friends to interpret for them, which can have serious consequences.

Less than 2 months after receiving a report showing that pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in Ohio billed taxpayers 8.8% more for medications used by those in the state’s Medicaid program, the state this week said it is ending its contracts with all of its PBMs and starting over in transparent contracts.

Chronic diseases, insufficient access to care, and social determinants of health are targets that can help reduce maternal mortality.

A study recently published in Brain and Behavior has shown that certain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) parameters correlated with a greater risk of recurrence and progression to multiple sclerosis (MS) within the first year following diagnosis of clinically isolated syndrome (CIS).

Insilico Medicine, an artificial intelligence (AI) for drug discovery company, and A2A Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on novel drug development for oncology, have recently announced their research collaboration to form a new company, Consortium.AI, which will apply advances in AI to discovery of novel small molecules for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and other rare diseases.

Contrasting the excitement and optimism coming out of clinical research presented at the AIDS 2018 conference, there was a sobering takeaway in the political and advocacy sphere. Among the general consensus that we are in a fragile moment in time, there were several policies and advocacy efforts that made it to the forefront of the conference.