AJMC® in the Press, August 16, 2019

A study published in this month’s issue of The American Journal of Managed Care^® (AJMC^®) was highlighted by Medscape, RAND Corporation, Axios, Medical Research, RevCycle Intelligence, and Becker’s Hospital Review. The study, “Influence of Out-of-Network Payment Standards on Insurer—Provider Bargaining: California’s Experience,” concluded that the state’s experience implementing a policy to address surprise medical billing demonstrates that out-of-network payment standards can influence payer—provider bargaining leverage, affecting prices and network breadth. The study was also picked up by California Healthline’s Thursday Daily Edition.

Yahoo Finance covered the AJMC^®-published study “Access to Chiropractic Care and the Cost of Spine Conditions Among Older Adults,” which found that among older adults, access to chiropractic care may reduce medical spending on services for spine conditions.

The AJMC^®-published study “The Potential Impact of CAR T-Cell Treatment Delays on Society” also received attention this week. Featured in an article from Insurance News Net, the study found that treatment delays limit the social value generated by chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for the treatment of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. The study was also highlighted in the National Pharmaceutical Council (NPC)’s Tuesday CER Daily Newsfeed.

An article from Myeloma Research News centered around a 14-part educational series from AJMC^®. During the video series, “A Review of the Treatment for Multiple Myeloma,” experts discussed the current treatment landscape of multiple myeloma (MM), which included conversations on initiating treatment in relapsed or refractory MM, guidelines for newly diagnosed MM, and the impact of maintenance therapy in MM.

AJMC^®’s coverage of a study assessing the association between coffee and chocolate and migraine was highlighted by Shape. The article, “Coffee and Chocolate Most Common Dietary Triggers for Migraine,” found that among Malaysian patients with migraine, coffee and chocolate were the most commonly cited trigger factors of migraine.

America’s Health Insurance Plans’ Thursday Solutions SmartBrief included AJMC^®’s article “Opioid Injection in Rural Areas Presents a Challenge to Ending HIV Epidemic in US,” which covered a viewpoint in JAMA detailing the issue. According to the viewpoint, a growing amount of people in rural communities are injecting opioids, which is an emerging risk factor for HIV transmission, and these communities often lack the infrastructure or resources to prevent, diagnose, and treat HIV.

OBR Oncology’s Thursday newsfeed included an article from AJMC^®’s sister site The Center for Biosimilars^®. The article, “UnitedHealthcare Will Prefer Amgen’s Anticancer Biosimilars Beginning in October,” covered the insurer’s announcement that beginning October 1, 2019, biosimilar bevacizumab (Mvasi) and biosimilar trastuzumab (Kanjinti) will be preferred products for commercial, community, and Medicare Advantage plans.

NPC’s Monday CER Daily Newsfeed included a segment from AJMC^®’s Peer Exchange Series “Rare Neurological Diseases: Payer Perspective and Value of Treatment of SMA.” During the segment, Surya Singh, MD, provides a payer perspective on the value of treatment for patients with spinal muscular atrophy.

Wednesday’s newsfeed included AJMC^®’s interview with Jeroen Jansen, PhD, lead scientific advisor, Open-Source Value Project, Innovation and Value Initiative, in which he explained that, with the increasing prevalence of more expensive, potentially curative therapies, there comes the question of whether we can still afford expensive interventions that are that valuable. The newsfeed also included an article in this month’s issue of Evidence Based Oncology™. The article, “COTA Collaboration: Helping FDA Figure Out What's Possible and What's Not in Embrace of Real-World Evidence,” features a conversation with Andrew Norden, MD, MPH, MBA, chief medical officer of COTA.