January 9th 2025
If the subcutaneous delivery method gains approval, an advantage daratumumab holds over isatuximab would be removed.
Insurer Costs of COVID-19 by Disease Severity and Duration
Payer costs for COVID-19 ranged from a mean of $505 for asymptomatic cases to $126,094 for severe cases with post–COVID-19 condition.
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Coverage Expansion, Other Economic Policies May Yield Positive Impact on Hypertension Management
February 28th 2024Researchers of the review are underscoring the potential for economic policies to improve the management of hypertension for the millions of people throughout the United States with the condition who are at risk for cardiovascular disease.
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FDA Grants Accelerated Approval to Lifileucel, First Cellular Therapy for Advanced Melanoma
February 16th 2024Lifileucel was granted approval for the treatment of adults with unresectable or metastatic melanoma that has been previously treated with other therapies, marking the first approval of a tumor-derived cellular therapy in a solid tumor cancer.
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Health Inequities and SDOH Affect Primary Care Across Insurance Types
February 9th 2024At an Institute for Value-Based Medicine® event held in Phoenix, Arizona, experts from Banner Health and Aetna discussed how health inequities and social determinants of health can affect primary care in patients with any type of insurance.
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Lowering Cardiometabolic Drug Costs May Improve Diabetes Health Outcomes
February 9th 2024Patients enrolled in a preventive drug list (PDL) benefit saw an 8.4% reduction in acute, preventable diabetes complication days, and PDL members residing in lower-income areas saw a 10.2% decrease compared with control members.
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UnitedHealthcare is incorporating real-world evidence into pathways design and policy formulation, leveraging its members' data to evaluate the impact of different regimens on health resource utilization and costs, explains Lucy Langer, MD, MSHS, national medical director of oncology and genomics at UnitedHealthcare.
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Drug Prices and OOP Costs Increased Beyond Inflation Rates 2009-2018, But Were Not Related
January 31st 2024Drug prices in the US increased 4.4% annually and median out-of-pocket (OOP) costs increased 9.6% annually from 2009 to 2018, but there was no direct link between these amounts for individual drugs.
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Real-Time CGM Shows Benefits Over Intermittently Scanned CGM in T1D
January 16th 2024In a systematic review and meta-analysis, real-time continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) demonstrated benefits in terms of time in range, hypoglycemia, and hyperglycemia among patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D).
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Updated Guidelines Expand Lung Cancer Screening Eligibility for At-Risk Patients: Dr Melinda Aldrich
January 5th 2024Melinda C. Aldrich, PhD, MPH, associate professor in the departments of medicine, thoracic surgery, and biomedical informatics at Vanderbilt University, discussed recently updated lung screening guidelines from the American Cancer Society and the importance of equity across populations as new guidelines are developed.
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CareFirst Files Lawsuit Against J&J Over Delay Tactics for Stelara Biosimilars
January 1st 2024While the first ustekinumab biosimilar, Wezlana, was approved in October 2023, a settlement with Johnson & Johnson (J&J) will keep it off the market until 2025, preventing competition, and causing purchasers to pay substantially more for the agent.
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Top 5 Most Popular Reimbursement Content of 2023
December 31st 2023The most popular reimbursement content of 2023 included coverage of the shift from the Oncology Care Model to the Enhancing Oncology Model, reactions to the 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, and concerns around denial of services in Medicare Advantage plans.
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Dr Lalan Wilfong Highlights the Challenges of EOM Compared With OCM
December 28th 2023While the Enhancing Oncology Model is the successor of the Oncology Care Model, it includes some very real challenges for participating practices, explained Lalan Wilfong, MD, senior vice president of payer and care transformation at The US Oncology Network.
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Understanding the Social Risk Factor Adjustment’s Effect on Star Ratings
This article examines how CMS’ adjustment for social risk factors affects the Medicare Advantage Star Ratings and the type of contracts affected by the adjustment.
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FDA Approves Enfortumab Vedotin Plus Pembrolizumab for Locally Advanced or Metastatic Bladder Cancer
December 18th 2023In the phase 3 EV-302/KEYNOTE-A39 clinical trial, the antibody-drug conjugate enfortumab vedotin plus PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab nearly doubled both median overall survival and progression-free survival compared with chemotherapy.
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AHIP Report Touts Medicare Advantage’s Quality Edge, but Hospital Concerns Persist
December 14th 2023A new report from AHIP shows that Medicare Advantage outperformed traditional Medicare on several clinical quality measures, including preventive screenings. However, debate continues over these plans’ cost efficiency and impact on the financial sustainability of rural hospitals.
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