AJMC® in the Press, June 1, 2018

As part of its coverage of President Donald Trump’s plan to lower the cost of prescription drug prices, Stateline, the daily news service of Pew Charitable Trusts, referenced a 2016 paper from The American Journal of Managed Care® (AJMC®) that reviewed formulary drug exclusion policies. The Stateline article highlighted the finding that 21% of closed formularies result in price increases. However, “The Impact of Formulary Drug Exclusion Policies on Patients and Healthcare Costs” ultimately found that the majority of drug exclusion policies reduced costs and did not negatively impact patients.

An article in Becker’s ASC Review on the role of advanced surgical centers as healthcare moves to value-base care cited a 2017 AJMC® paper to highlight how consumers are paying a larger proportion of their healthcare bills. “Impact of Consumer-Directed Health Plans on Low-Value Healthcare” reported that while consumer-directed health plans reduced annual outpatient spending by $231.60, patients in these plans use the same amount of low-value services, indicating that more targeted consumer incentives are needed.

The National Pharmaceutical Council’s Tuesday CER Daily Newsfeed included 2 AJMC® articles. The first is a contributor article from the University of Michigan Center for Value-Based Insurance Design that highlighted a new CMS rule to create more flexibility for the implementation of value-based benefits in Medicare Advantage plans. The second article covered policy recommendations released by the American Diabetes Association designed to spotlight the increasing difficulties patients with diabetes have affording insulin or accessing the medication.

A series of interviews conducted by The Center for Biosimilars®, a sister site of AJMC®, was highlighted in The Pharma Letter. The interviews, with Sheila Frame, vice president, head of biopharmaceuticals, North America, Sandoz, a Novartis Division, discusses the evolving pharmaceutical marketplace. The interview series has 12 parts in total.

A press release from Data Bridge Market Research on the human leukocyte antigen typing transplant diagnostic services market quoted a statistic from a 2015 AJMC® supplement. The paper, “Solid Organ Transplantation Overview and Selection Criteria,” analyzed managed care’s role in improving adherence and outcomes in solid organ transplantation and noted that as of 2012, there were 18,048 kidney transplants performed in the United States alone.