AJMC® in the Press, September 22, 2017

A MIT Technology Review article discussing the $475,000 price tag of the newly approved gene therapy for treating leukemia argued that genetic therapies “might actually be a better deal than currently available therapies” for costly chronic diseases. It used the example of hemophilia, citing a study published in The American Journal of Managed Care^® (AJMC^®) in April 2016, “Economic Costs of Hemophilia and the Impact of Prophylactic Treatment on Patient Management,” which found that the mean annual cost for men with hemophilia was $155,136.

Tips for successfully implementing a secure patient portal messaging system were offered in an article on PatientEngagementHIT.com. It advised clinicians to ask about patients’ communication expectations and preferences, referencing the findings of an April 2017 AJMC^® study, “Patients’ Preferences for Receiving Laboratory Test Results,” that found 98% of patients would like to be notified by text message when their results were ready to view. However, the PatientEngagementHIT.com article advised clinicians to tread carefully when delivering bad news electronically.

An article on RevCycleIntelligence.com stated that specialists largely lack the opportunity to join Medicare alternative payment models. For instance, emergency medicine providers have no such models available, even though more than 40,800 emergency doctors billed Medicare in 2012. The article noted that the field of emergency medicine could benefit from reforms like the ones discussed in “Aligning Payment Reform and Delivery Innovation in Emergency Care,” an article published in AJMC^® in August 2016. The research provided pathways for transitioning acute care away from fee-for-service, which could support innovations in the delivery of care.