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As 2018 draws to a close, the articles in the December issue of The American Journal of Managed Care® (AJMC®) touch on some of the timeliest topics of the year, including the value of innovative immuno-oncology treatments, results of practice transformation initiatives, and much more. Here are 5 findings from the research published in the issue.

The project will initially focus on improving patient outcomes for 2 conditions: osteoporosis and migraine.

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

This week, the top managed care news included a report that found uninsured rates were on the rise in 2017; an analysis of rising health insurance costs for families; predictions for cardiology trends in 2019.

The CDC reported the number of drug overdose deaths per year increased 54% from 2011 to 2016, with the synthetic drug fentanyl involved in most overdoses in 2016, although actual numbers of all overdose deaths may be underreported. The report also showed how multiple drugs are typically involved in overdose deaths.

With $5 million appropriated from Congress, CDC is launching a National Neurological Conditions and Surveillance System to help increase understanding of neurological disorders and to further support neurologic research, starting with multiple sclerosis and Parkinson disease.

A combined analysis of data gathered from the Canadian Health Measures Survey and the US–National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found a 2.5% to 3.5% increase in the 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease in patients with a hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.

During the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium held in San Antonio, Texas from December 4-8, 2018, Biotheranostics presented new data evaluating the impact of the Breast Cancer Index (BCI) in patients with early stage hormone receptor positive (HR+) breast cancer who are classified as an immediate risk for distant recurrence by previous genomic testing.

A forecast from the American College of Cardiology covers trends from therapy to technology to value-based care.

A panel of patient advocates at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Patient Advocacy Meeting, held in Washington, DC, discussed the reasons behind and consequences of inequities in cancer care.

How long a person with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) stops breathing may be a better predictor of mortality risk from OSA in both women and men than the number of times they stop breathing, a new study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine concludes.

Ibrutinib-containing regimens have similar overall survival rates but significantly higher progression-free survival (PFS) rates at 2 years compared with bendamustine plus rituximab.

In the final weeks of open enrollment, the number of people signing up for Affordable Care Act plans has surged, although overall numbers still lag behind 2017; a study following the progress of babies who were born to mothers infected with the Zika virus during pregnancy are showing more development problems; new research has shown that the longer women breastfeed, the greater the reduction in their risk of developing nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

The report in Diabetes Care, the official journal of the American Diabetes Association, comes after reports of rising rates of diabetes and obesity among young adults and soaring insulin costs, which may mean diabetes is not being effectively treated.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) said that it will fund a series of collaborations with medical research institutions in the region as part of a new initiative that will expand ongoing research at the NIH-funded Centers for AIDS Research, a group of HIV-focused research institutions focused on reducing the burden of HIV domestically and globally.

Exmaning an assessment of data from the 2016 Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors study, researchers found that headache disorders, specifically migraine, are important causes of disability worldwide and therefore require more attention in health policy debates and greater resources for research.

The observational, noninterventional study was part of an emicizumab clinical development program in which a daily bleed and medication questionnaire developed by the sponsor on a handheld device was used to prospectively collect data on treatment with factor VIII or bypassing agents in adult and adolescent people with hemophilia A, with and without inhibitors to FVIII.

A Pennsylvania report examining the role of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in the state called for more transparency in how they do business managing Medicaid prescriptions.

Only alcohol was found to have a strong positive correlation with breast cancer risk in a recent study looking at diet in postmenopausal women.

While weight loss surgery is safe and effective, only 0.4% of patients who qualify to receive such surgery actually go ahead with a procedure.

Following failure with ruxolitinib, there are limited treatment options available and among these patients who fail on the treatment, prognosis is unfavorable, particularly among those who started ruxolitinib with advanced stage disease, according to a study presented at the 60th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting & Exposition.

The House has passed a bill that would support state efforts to investigate pregnancy-related deaths and research how to prevent future deaths; a column in The New York Times examined 4 specific drug pricing policies and had 3 health policy experts weigh in on what the outcomes of implementing these policies could be; despite the benefits of using biosimilar filgrastim, the United States has lagged behind other countries in adopting the therapy.

After growing modestly between 2011 and 2016, the average premium for employer health plans rose sharply in 2017, growing 5.5% from 2016 to 2017 for family plans and 4.4% for single-person plans.

The Supreme Court refused to hear 2 cases arising from efforts by states to bar Planned Parenthood clinics from the Medicaid program; the NIH will spend up to $20 million over 2 years to find and develop alternatives to using fetal tissue in research projects; whether or not the United States needs another opioid painkiller on the market has been widely debated since the FDA approved Dsuvia last month.

In November, AstraZeneca announced that the phase 3 MYSTIC trial investigating durvalumab (Imfinzi) monotherapy and durvalumab in combination with tremelimumab in patients with previously untreated stage IV non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) did not meet its primary end point.

Days before open enrollment for health insurance in the individual market for 2019 sold through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges comes to a close, a new report found health insurance coverage gained between 2013 and 2017 under the ACA is slipping.

Competing breast cancer tests vie for attention from clinicians and payers at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

A large coalition of medical associations, patient advocacy groups, drug companies, and others sent a letter to Congress Monday asking that they intervene on a CMS plan to use an index based on drug prices in other countries to determine reimbursement for Part B therapies, saying it would have a negative effect on the elderly and people with disabilities.

According to a study results presented at the 60th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting & Exposition, the use of opioid medications for pain control in sickle cell disease (SCD) is relatively safe, and there has been no associated increase in hospital SCD mortality.

The authors of a study conducted in China assessed nearly 2000 women who were to identify whether premature birth leads to variability in long-term systolic blood pressure.