All News

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.

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and who have other comorbid conditions are undertreated when hospitalized for exacerbations, study finds.

The approval was notable not only for the promise that it offers patients, but also for the strategy by which Alnylam hopes to sell the drug: In order to help payers cope with the $450,000 annual list price of patisiran, Alnylam is working with commercial insurance plans to offer value-based contracts for the therapy.

Advocacy groups filed a lawsuit on behalf of 3 Medicaid recipients challenging Arkansas' Medicaid work requirements; CVS Health announced that its pharmacy benefit manager will target expensive drugs to be excluded from formularies if they are not cost effective; Senate leaders have received a letter from 120 consumer and patient associations on the impact Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh could have on health policy.

A web-based teaching conference was found to be an effective teaching model to improve adherence to clinical pathway guidelines in a large radiation oncology network looking to improve compliance with dosimetric parameters in whole breast irradiation, according to a report published earlier this year.

A special task force established by the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) has developed 4 overall principles and 10 specific recommendations to ensure that physical activity is a part of the standard of care among patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), spondyloarthritis, and osteoarthritis in Europe.

Patients using only in-network facilities still have at least 1 claim from an out-of-network provider in over 15% of inpatient admissions, according to an analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

In a test of what could happen as more work requirements are attached as conditions to receiving government health benefits or other forms of government assistance, more than 25% of Medicaid recipients in Arkansas are at risk of losing health insurance for failing to meet work requirements, a recent blog post in Health Affairs said.

The 2018 International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam brought a plethora of new clinical implications for HIV care, reflecting ongoing investments in research efforts and optimism across all clinical domains, including vaccines, prevention, and new treatment approaches. However, with the excitement also came caution in other areas, such as stagnant incidence rates.

Major tech companies publicly committed at a Trump administration event to improve provider–patient communications and data exchanges in health information technology in an effort to cut costs and improve outcomes; public health advocates and the FDA are at odds over how to regulate the exploding electronic cigarette industry, even as both sides agree teens and college students are using the devices at an alarming rate; billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who last week said Cigna was overpaying for Express Scripts, is no longer intending to solicit proxies to vote against the $52 billion deal.

The first in a series of articles that identifies CMS' goals in updating the Medicare Shared Savings Program and how well the proposals make taking on more risk appealing for accountable care organizations.

A study that sought to replicate the effects of vaping on lung cells found that vapor from e-cigarettes boosts the production of inflammatory chemicals and disables key protective cells in the lung that engulf potentially harmful particles. Some of the effects were similar to those seen in regular smokers and people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

In a study published in JAMA Oncology, researchers found that a majority of patients eligible for immune checkpoint inhibitors started to receive the treatment within a few months of the drugs approval.

Allowing a partial expansion of Medicaid to some low-income adults may help some people in nonexpansion states, but it would cause a significant loss of health coverage if approved in expansion states, according to a recent analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

PatientPoint and Migraine Again have partnered to provide educational video content in nearly 5000 primary care and obstetrics/gynecology practices nationwide, offering patients and physicians insight into better managing migraine.

FAA policy on granting medical certificates to people who use insulin are based on policies created in 1949, and advocates for people with diabetes say there's been a revolution in technology and medication since then.

The FDA has approved a new drug to treat 2 rare types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma based on phase 3 clinical trial results that found mogamulizumab-kpkc improved progression-free survival and had a higher overall response rate compared with the chemotherapy vorinostat.

Back-to-school planning is an optimal time to consider a behavioral health check-in for children, and telepsychiatry can fill gaps and improve access to this care.

A proposed rule from CMS would end the practice of home health aides paid directly by Medicaid having their union dues automatically deducted from their paychecks; the Trump administration says it has found a way around a federal judge’s June ruling stopping a Kentucky plan from introducing work requirements on those receiving Medicaid and will continue to allow states to put the restrictions in place; a California jury found Monsanto liable in a lawsuit filed by a school groundskeeper who said the company’s weedkillers, including Roundup, caused his non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

A new rule in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act’s 2019 Quality Payment Program and the proposed 2019 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule could negatively affect the quality of cancer care for Medicare beneficiaries, according to the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

While more healthcare organizations are understanding the benefit of upstream interventions, sustainable financing is still lacking.

While Orkambi was already approved to treat patients aged 6 years and older, this week’s approval marks the first time that very young patients, aged 2 to 5 years, have had a therapeutic option available to treat the cause of their cystic fibrosis.

People living with HIV are twice as likely to develop cardiovascular disease and the global burden of HIV associated with cardiovascular disease has tripled over the last 2 decades.

Researchers recently evaluated data collected from a lung cancer screening program at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and compared results to the national lung cancer screening guidelines.

The global age-standardized lung cancer mortality rate among women is expected to increase by 43% from 2015 to 2030, while the global age-standardized breast cancer mortality rate is projected to decrease by 9%, according to an analysis published in Cancer Research.

A new report from the Congressional Budget Office explored Medicaid managed care’s enrollment and spending and factors that affect both.

Lifestyle factors and individual characteristics, rather than air pollution, explain which women with asthma go on to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), resulting in asthma and COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS), according to a new study published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

A recent study aimed to evaluate the burden of age of onset of cardiovascular conditions in a US population with multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder, or transverse myelitis and found that cardiovascular conditions are as common in those with demyelinating diseases compared with unaffected individuals.

Since biosimilars gained a US approval pathway as part of the Affordable Care Act, these follow-on drugs have been widely seen as a key way to address the problem of high-cost biologic drugs. However, cost savings have been disappointing as only 12 biosimilar products have been approved to date, and just 4 have become commercially available. That’s a reality that led FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, to call the US market for biosimilars “anemic.”

Patients with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) are often treated with radiation after lumpectomy, although it has remained unclear whether this can reduce the risk of dying from this noninvasive form of breast cancer. A new study published Friday said that the combination of the 2 treatments was associated with a small benefit in reduced risk of breast cancer death compared with lumpectomy or mastectomy alone.