Policy

Joseph Alvarnas, MD, vice president of government affairs at City of Hope and chief clinical adviser of AccessHope in Duarte, California, spoke March 4 at the closing session of the Association for Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) Annual Meeting & Cancer Business Summit in Washington, DC.

Coverage from the Community Oncology Alliance 2022 Community Oncology Conference, held March 17-18 in Kissimmee, Florida.

The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) and researchers at NORC at the University of Chicago released a white paper that looks at the future of affordability and sustainability of drug development for rare disease through the lens of 4 policy proposals.

Editor’s Note: After this issue of Evidence-Based Oncology™ went to press, Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation announced the $100 million, 5-year initiative will now be called the Robert A. Winn Diversity in Clinical Trials Award Program. The program will also receive a $14 million donation from Gilead Sciences, Inc., over the next 4 years.

Using data from the National HIV Surveillance System, the National Center for Health Statistics, and the US Census, a team from the CDC investigated lifetime HIV risk in the United States.

In this contributor piece, the connection between the complexities of mental health and heart disease in at-risk communities is explored, with the authors stressing the importance of risk factor evaluation and multidisciplinary patient education from both mental and physical health providers.

This paper examines whether the Affordable Care Act reduced the disparities in the use of clinical preventive services, chronic disease prevalence, and the number of uninsured.

This new study used data on women with stage 0 to II breast cancer to investigate their long-term quality of life (QOL) as it related to choice of surgery and the decision to undergo adjuvant radiation therapy.

COVID-19 and overdoses were 2 main factors in the record high 2021 US death rate; nurse practitioners licensed in New York have been granted full authority to practice independently; the Biden administration announced its goal to improve health care in rural areas.

On this episode of Managed Care Cast, Perry N. Halkitis, PhD, MS, MPH, dean of the Rutgers School of Public Health, discusses training the next generation of public health professionals.

Cross-border acquisition of medications such as antibiotics has long been a practice in US communities bordering Mexico, and a lack of sufficient insurance is one driver of the trend, according to a recent study.

Reducing low-value care means saving money, reducing potential harm, and creating room for high-value care to be delivered in the United States.

CMS issues final plan for aducanumab (Aduhelm) coverage; 2021 sees further drop in US life expectancy; individuals have presented with symptoms of trauma throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Review of CMS’ coverage with evidence development program exposes a need to improve program transparency and clarify requirements and timetables for reporting to improve access to novel therapies.

Without addressing rising costs, the problem of underinsurance in health care coverage will remain, said panelists at the 2022 V-BID Summit, discussing some of the smaller steps that are being proposed or are already in place to try to ease the financial burden.

At the 2022 V-BID Summit, hosted by the Center for Value-Based Insurance Design at the University of Michigan, representatives of CMS and the Commonwealth Fund gave an update on the efforts to monitor, evaluate, and improve health equity in the United States.

Although the widespread use of low dose computed tomography screening for lung cancer has led to improved mortality in recent years, disparities in uptake persist throughout the United States.

On this episode of Managed Care Cast, Consuelo Wilkins, MD, MSCI, discusses efforts to improve racial and ethnic disparities in US chronic disease rates.

Mitigating the high cost of prescription drugs is a win-win to address the complex, multipronged problem of getting patients to take their medications as advised.

New research published in Health Affairs details the rates of specialty medication noninitiation among Medicare Part D beneficiaries.

Norman E. “Ned” Sharpless, MD, is departing shortly after the launch of Cancer Moonshot 2.0, an initiative that aims to reduce the cancer death rate by at least half over the next 25 years while improving the experience for all those affected by cancer.

Conversations are ongoing between CMS and patient advocates on how accountable care organizations (ACOs) and similar programs can better interface with beneficiaries.

Although the medication therapy management program in Tennessee's Medicaid population did not reduce costs, some adherence to medication improved and emergency department visits improved.

The American College of Cardiology will host its annual conference beginning Friday, April 1, 2022, both in-person and online.

President Biden releases the budget for fiscal year 2023; health care spending is projected to hit $6.8 trillion in 2030; rates of prediabetes on the rise in children.

New research found Medicaid expansion was associated with lower rates of diabetic limb amputations among racial minorities in the United States.

The FDA approved a drug to treat a rare form of childhood epilepsy; uninsured Americans will no longer have access to free COVID-19 tests; a conservation group is suing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over failure to protect rivers from pollution.

Angela Storseth-Cooper, associate director, Government Relations & Public Policy, The US Oncology Network, discusses state-level legislation that community oncology practices can leverage to address issues involving pharmacy benefit managers and the vertical integration of health plans and specialty pharmacies.

The World Health Organization warns of long-term health impacts from the Ukraine crisis; states sign legislation aimed at curbing abortion access; over 14 million Americans signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.