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The Affordable Care Act expanded healthcare coverage to many low-income Americans, but this same demographic has a low health literacy that makes it difficult for them to navigate program eligibility systems, according to a study from The Urban Institute.

bioTheranostics, Inc's Breast Cancer Index, a genomic test quantifying the risk of breast cancer recurrence and predicting which patients will likely benefit from extended endocrine therapy, will be covered by Medicare.

Highmark Inc. won a court ruling Thursday allowing it to exclude UPMC hospitals and doctors from some plans it sells to seniors.

Google is aiming to diagnose cancers, impending heart attacks or strokes and other diseases, at a much earlier stage than is currently possible.

Seventy percent of breaches involving the California healthcare industry were due to unencrypted data on lost or stolen hardware or portable media, a problem that strong encryption would fix.

A spike in the blood bilirubin levels resulting in hepatic dysfunction and/or renal impairment was determined as the cause of death.

The guideline, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, recommends against using PSA to screen for prostate cancer, pointing to the high risk of false positives and overdiagnosis.

The retrospective study analyzed SEER data from 2001 through 2009, and found that the annual CAD prevalence among Medicare screening mammograms increased from 3.5% to 79.7%.

The retrospective study, results of which were presented at the 2014 Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology, showed that the total diagnostic workup cost for the study sample of Medicare beneficiaries was $38.3 million.

An investigation into 2012 Medicare claims for HIV-infected patients unearthed payment for prescriptions that were filled up to 32 days after the patient's passing.

From Medicaid providers that are regulated as insurers alongside managed care organizations, as happens in Mississippi, to "enhanced medical homes," which are found in Colorado, the variety that exists in healthcare delivery across the states has adapted to reflect the shift to accountable care, according to an author writing for the American Journal of Public Health.

In 2015, hospital readmissions will be a growing concern as the maximum penalty increases to 3% of Medicare payments. Researcher from Columbia Business School found that one extra day in the hospital can make all the difference to readmission and mortality rates.

The Danish study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, identified a 70% greater risk of severe depression in the first year after diagnosis.

Kindred Healthcare, Inc's chief operating officer and president, Benjamin A. Breier will take over as chief executive officer next year, just after the company is expected to close its acquisition of Gentiva Health Services.

Phase 2 results from the Checkmate-063 trial found that treatment with the PD-1 inhibitor Nivolumab (Opdivo) resulted in a median OS of 8.2 months in NSCLC patients who had received 2 prior treatments.

Gaps in accountable measure sets exist among some of the most prevalent and costly conditions, according to a new report from the National Pharmaceutical Council and Discern Health.

Panelists discussed the price of pharmaceuticals and controlling the cost of care at the 64th Annual Roy A. Bowers Pharmaceutical Conference: A Measured Approach-Health Care Delivery and Transformation in a Metric Driven World, held by Rutgers University.

The European Medicines Agency granted an orphan status to ATIR, a T-cell immunotherapy-based medicinal product being developed to treat blood cancers.

From the youngest patients to the oldest, the Affordable Care Act's promise that care will be provided despite pre-existing conditions is bumping against the challenge of keeping costs in check. From around the country come reports of pushback, which evoke the 1990s stories of managed care's debut: limited choice.

Optum, UHC's technology and services subsidiary, has bought Allere's wellness subsidiaries.

The report, published in the journal Diabetes, found that children between 5 to 9 years of age were the hardest hit.

Despite using fewer medical services, privately insured Americans spent more money on these services in 2013, according to a report from the Health Care Cost Institute. The average enrollee in an employer health plan increased spending by 3.9% last year.

A crackdown to ensure that Medicaid beneficiaries get accurate information about provider networks is coming in January, CMS officials vowed yesterday, according to published reports. New regulations for Medicaid managed care to be unveiled in early 2015 will ensure that consumers get timely access to care and better integration of services.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) seemed to be in dire straits as its leadership slowly left for other jobs. However, despite Dr DeSalvo's new position within HHS, she will maintain her leadership position in ONC, according to a new report.

While the USPSTF recommended against screening for prostate cancer, citing the high rate of false positives, complications from biopsy, and side-effects of aggressive treatment for a sometimes slowly-progressing disease, several medical organizations disagree.

A miniature device can measure a patient's blood for methotrexate, a commonly used but potentially toxic cancer drug.

The American Medical Association voiced concerns over the fact that in addition to the departure of Karen. B. DeSalvo, MD, MPH, several other senior staff have recently left the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

If the current payment parity program is allowed to expire at the end of the year, doctors will be forced to limit the number of new Medicaid patients they can afford to take on, according to 4 medical associations.

The war of words between managed care and pharmaceutical manufacturers, which began when Gilead set the price for its drug to treat the hepatitis C virus (HCV), has taken off in October with the reclassification of a trio of cancer drugs from Genentech. Growth in the "specialty pharma" sector, where prices are rising much faster than drug prices generally, has drawn concern from payers and the umbrella group that represents them, while the trade group that represents drugmakers is pushing back against critics, saying that it faces challenges in bringing life-saving therapies to market.

Recently approved as second-line treatment of metastatic melanoma, following resistance to ipilimumab, the FDA has now designated Keytruda as breakthrough therapy to treat EGFR-mutation and ALK-rearrangement negative NSCLC patients who have pr0gressed following platinum-based therapy.