Health Care Delivery

A new study found that protection from the Omicron variant waned 6 months after the second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine in older patients.

Congress has no solution for out-of-network ambulance rides; teenagers going to an emergency department in a mental health crisis don't receive necessary follow-up care; Medicaid explores nutritional benefits of food as medicine spending in some states.

Overall survival and recurrence-free survival showed substantial improvement when physicians more closely followed quality recommendations for non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Individuals exposed to antidepressant drugs for longer than 365 days had an increased risk of epilepsy, particularly those given escitalopram, venlafaxine, and mirtazapine, according to a recent study conducted in Taiwan.

An analysis of 112 infant deaths found that the contribution of genetic diseases to mortality was higher than previously known, and that treatments are available for 30% of the genetic diseases uncovered by the study.

The patient, an 83-year-old man, experienced onset of myasthenia gravis after a severe SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Strength training for people with hemophilia (PwH) should consider exercise variables and pain threshold, a review finds.

Among older adults with chronic noncancer pain on long-term opioid therapy, greater continuity of opioid prescribing was significantly associated with fewer opioid-related adverse outcomes.

The Biden administration released 2 sets of guidance documents for pharmaceutical manufacturers about how it plans to implement the new Medicare Prescription Drug Inflation Rebate Program as required under the Inflation Reduction Act, and said some beneficiaries could see lower coinsurance for some Part B drugs as soon as April 1.

Kirk Campbell, MD, FASN, Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai Health System in New York, spoke on educational initiatives implemented by Mount Sinai to train resident physicians, medical students, and senior faculty on health equity, as well as further research efforts to address disparities.

Jessica Allegretti, MD, MPH, medical director of the Crohn's and Colitis Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, discussed how the FDA’s approval of Rebyota for the prevention of recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) may promote cost effective management of CDI for patients and health systems.

The authors conducted a subanalysis of data on 100,000-plus children from 3 studies to estimate the global prevalence and severity of eczema; they used linear mixed models to do so.

Data released in the CDC’s latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report indicate that patients with end-stage kidney disease on hemodialysis who are Black, Hispanic/Latino, or of lower socioeconomic status (SES) are at greater risk of Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections, with Hispanic/Latino ethnicity cited as an independent risk factor.

On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we speak with Tom Stanis, CEO and cofounder of Story Health, and Phillip Wood, Intermountain Ventures program director, on how their partnership came about, how it is going so far, and the future of their collaboration.

Drug costs, particularly for immunotherapies, contributed to the rising cost of care during the last 6 months of life for a fee-for-service Medicare beneficiary, according to a recent study.

Even patients with the mildest symptoms of myasthenia gravis said they experienced negative quality-of-life (QOL) effects from the disease.

The modified Atkins diet exhibited superior tolerability and effectiveness in reducing seizure frequency compared with other dietary therapies in the management of childhood drug-resistant epilepsy.

Telemonitoring may help improve continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy adherence for patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSA), while motivational enhancement therapy (MET) most significantly impacted long-term adherence, according to a recent study.

In this column, a health insurance executive discusses 2 ways to address rising inflation, including moving past the traditional fee-for-service payment model.

With greater attention being paid to the heterogenous patient population, researchers questioned whether this has resulted in a more diverse group of patients included in Parkinson disease (PD) studies in the Netherlands.

Vaccination was shown to lower risk of developing severe COVID-19 in both variants, with the largest difference in risk observed in patients aged 40 to 59 years.

A study attempted to see how symptoms affect quality of life after adjusting for confounding factors.

Jeremy Abramson, MD, director of the Jon and Jo Ann Hagler Center for Lymphoma at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, shared his take on the potential benefits of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in earlier lines of treatment.

Five leading academic cancer centers are assessing the feasibility of implementing the Health Equity Report Card pilot project as a tool that can both meaningfully and feasibly measure and report on equitable care practices.

CDC warns against EzriCare Artificial Tears, which were recalled by the manufacturer; certain weight loss drugs not covered by most payers; Mississippi's Republican governor denies being privately in support of Medicaid expansion.

Paul G. Alexander, MD, MPH, executive vice president and chief health equity and transformation officer, RWJBarnabas Health, discusses how community partnerships helped ameliorate disparities in health care access and accessibility, as well as food and travel insecurities amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

With atopic dermatitis (AD) prevalence increasing around the world, primarily in developing countries, investigators evaluated the potential for pollution to have an impact on development of the chronic skin condition among an adult population.

Edward Partridge, MD, chief medical officer of Guideway Care, spoke on his organization’s 25-year history in addressing cancer disparities and the crucial role that care navigators/guides have in achieving value-based care within oncology.

A new study aimed to assess the quality and reliability of videos uploaded to YouTube that provide information around spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

Health care expert and lived experience panels came to a consensus on several aspects that should be considered in the decision to offer and continue active surveillance for prostate cancer.