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With more states in the works for introducing and passing Medicaid work requirements, and states with approved bills preparing to implement them, here are 5 updates to know about.

This week, the top managed care stories include Medicare Part A will run out earlier than predicted; healthcare costs for families continue to rise; and thousands of women with a common form of early breast cancer can forgo chemotherapy.

New study results have concluded that antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation within 30 days of HIV diagnosis is associated with a significantly reduced risk of treatment dropout and failure.

Researchers say they’ve found an association between autism spectrum disorder and allergic conditions in children—especially food allergies—in the largest study looking at the issue to date, but noted more research is needed before fully understanding any possible link between the 2 conditions. A leading pediatric allergist also cautioned against drawing any conclusions from the study.

Ocrelizumab (Ocrevus) has been FDA approved for the treatment of primary progressive multiple sclerosis, and recent clinical trials with the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody have revealed significant decreases in disease activity and disability progression in relapsing multiple sclerosis.

The large-scale patient registry and biorepository includes patient information and biological samples and leverages machine learning to track the progress of patients over time.

With few Americans receiving all the preventive services recommended for them, efforts across the full delivery system are needed to increase the use of preventive services, according to a paper published in Health Affairs.

Although anemia is associated with adverse outcomes in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), its contribution to outcomes in individuals with other comorbid chronic diseases is not well understood. A recent study examined the association of anemia with outcomes in a large group of patients with COPD in an effort to understand the contribution of anemia to outcomes and phenotypes in individuals with other comorbidities.

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

Researchers have developed an inexpensive blood test they say can predict a pregnant women’s due date and potentially identify women at risk for of preterm birth; Virginia's governor has expanded Medicaid in the state; and the American Medical Association is expected to take a stance on over-the-counter birth control this weekend.

Galcanezumab demonstrated clinically and statistically significant benefits across several migraine-relevant outcomes when compared to placebo.

The CDC reported Thursday suicide rates have been rising in nearly every state between 1999 and 2016, finding that suicide rates increased more than 30% in half of states.

The authors speculated that some cancer regimens, such as those with corticosteroids, cause hyperglycemia.

President Trump has signed off on a bill to expand private care access for veterans; the Michigan House passed a revised Medicaid work requirement bill; and HHS will allow insurers to use a workaround for 2019 prices.

Two recent studies examined issues related to asthma statistics and treatment: is mortality underrepresented due to how death certificates are recorded? How well do providers adhere to clinical guidelines for asthma?

Among HIV-positive women with diabetes, HIV control has improved over time, but diabetes control has not.

More female than male adults visited office-based doctors in 2015, a CDC report noted Tuesday, and chronic conditions made up the largest category of visits. The data brief from the National Center for Health Statistics gave insight into who went to office-based providers that year and why, and which services were offered and who paid for them.

A study recently published in Cell investigated the deletion of the CD33 protein to enable CAR T-cells to more accurately target and attack cancerous cells in patients with n acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

While it is well understood that, in the general population, regular exercise is associated with a reduced risk of death, less is known about whether exercise is similarly beneficial for adult survivors of childhood cancer who may already have an increased risk of death and a shortened life expectancy because of late effects of treatment.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a vote for the Creating and Restoring Equal Access to Equivalent Samples (CREATES) Act; the FDA is targeting websites illegally marketing and selling opioids; and the White House has dropped its proposal to cut Ebola funding amid the outbreak in Congo.

The fact that trust cannot be purchased highlights an important truth: trust needs to be earned. And healthcare professionals have earned it.

A study of baseline characteristics and spending of hospitals participating in Medicare's voluntary and mandatory orthopedic bundled programs found that there were few differences, indicating that mandatory programs could engage more hospitals that otherwise would not have participated in voluntary programs.

Pulmonary hemosiderosis (PH) is a rare, chronic lung disease characterized by hemoptysis, iron deficiency anemia, and alveolar and/or interstitial opacities on lung imaging. Little about the etiology and pathophysiology of the disease is known, but PH typically involves periods of remission and relapse. New research that investigated the relationships between PH and Down syndrome (DS), and found that patients with DS have a higher risk of developing PH.

The estimate includes the average cost of healthcare paid by both employers and employees through insurance, deductibles, and out-of-pocket costs.

Trustees for Medicare said that Medicare Part A, which covers hospital bills, will become insolvent in 2026, 3 years earlier than the projection last year. In its annual report, the trustees cited lower payroll taxes attributable to lowered wages in 2017, lower levels of projected gross domestic product, and lower income from the taxation of Social Security benefits as a result of the tax-reform package President Trump signed into law in December 2017.

The interim analysis of the phase 3 A.R.R.O.W. trial found that once-weekly carfilzomib at 70 mg/m2 had superior progression-free survival and overall response rates compared with twice-weekly carfilzomib at 27 mg/m2.

Repealing or phasing out Medicaid expansion could reverse improvements in quality and service use and could be particularly harmful to low-income rural populations, said the authors of a study looking at the effect of Medicaid on community health centers.

National efforts to reduce hospital-acquired conditions (HACs), such as infections, adverse drug events, and injuries from falls, helped prevent an estimated 8000 inpatient deaths and save $2.9 billion between 2014 and 2016, according to a report released Tuesday from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

In healthcare, brokers help most companies buy, manage, and choose healthcare plans. But, judging by rates of change, spending trends, and objectivity, it’s debatable where they’re adding value and how keen their eye is for innovation.

A state judge in Maine ordered Goveror Paul LePage’s administration to stop stalling and implement a Medicaid expansion; the National Institutes of Health reported on a treatment that eradicated cancer from a patient who had untreatable, advanced breast cancer; citing changes to the Affordable Care Act, insurers are proposing double-digit rate hikes for 2019.