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Transcatheter mitral-valve repair in patients with heart failure

A new heart device called the MitraClip (from Abbott) has been shown to benefit patients with heart failure and reduce death rates among them significantly.

23 Sep 2018

As states try to rein in drug spending, feds slap down one bold Medicaid move

States serve as “laboratories of democracy,” as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously said. And states are also labs for health policy, launching all kinds of experiments lately to temper spending on pharmaceuticals.

21 Sep 2018

Study: Annual wellness visits improve delivery of preventive services in elderly population

new Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute study assesses the effect of receiving an Annual Wellness Visit between 2011 and 2013 on the annual rate of eight preventive services recommended for the Medicare population following the AWV.

21 Sep 2018

Despite red flags at surgery centers, overseers award gold seals

At his surgery center near San Diego, Rodney Davis wore scrubs, was referred to as "Dr. Rod" and carried the title of director of surgery. But he was a physician assistant, not a doctor, who anesthetized patients and performed liposuction with little input from his supervising doctor, court records show.

20 Sep 2018

Study finds higher readmission rates in for-profit hospitals

Patients who receive care in a for-profit hospital are more likely to be readmitted than those who receive care in nonprofit or public hospitals, according to a new study published by University of Illinois at Chicago researchers.

19 Sep 2018

Paper jam: California’s Medicaid program hits ‘print’ when the feds need info

In the shadow of Silicon Valley, the hub of the world's digital revolution, California officials still submit their records to the feds justifying billions in Medicaid spending the old-fashioned way: on paper.

18 Sep 2018

Day-tripping to the dispensary: Seniors in pain hop aboard the canna-bus

Shirley Avedon, 90, had never been a cannabis user. But carpal tunnel syndrome that sends shooting pains into both of her hands and an aversion to conventional steroid and surgical treatments is prompting her to consider some new options.

18 Sep 2018

Inequality issues persist even under new U.S. kidney transplant allocation system

The implementation of a new U.S. kidney transplant allocation system did not solve many of the inequities that low-income and minority kidney disease patients face, Drexel University College of Medicine researchers found in a new study published recently in the journal Clinical Transplantation.

18 Sep 2018

New Medicare Advantage tool to lower drug prices puts crimp in patients’ choices

Starting next year, Medicare Advantage plans will be able to add restrictions on expensive, injectable drugs administered by doctors to treat cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, macular degeneration and other serious diseases.

17 Sep 2018

FDA approves Teva’s AJOVY injection for preventive treatment of migraine in adults

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved AJOVY injection for the preventive treatment of migraine in adults.

17 Sep 2018

Study shows cost-effectiveness of financial incentive program to control cholesterol

A program that offered financial incentives to both patients and their physicians to control low-density lipoproteins cholesterol could be a cost-effective intervention for patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease, according to new research led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

14 Sep 2018

Study: Overall well-being of a population linked with lower healthcare spending

A new study in JAMA Network Open finds that the overall well-being of a population on a county level is associated with lower healthcare spending for each Medicare fee-for-service beneficiary.

14 Sep 2018

Study: Testosterone replacement therapy may slow disease progression in COPD patients

Researchers from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston found that testosterone replacement therapy may slow disease progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The paper is currently available in Chronic Respiratory Disease.

14 Sep 2018

Medicare incurs more than $1.2 billion over prostate cancer care in older men

Researchers from the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center estimate that screening for and treating prostate cancer in men aged 70 years or older, which is not recommended by national guidelines, cost Medicare more than $1.2 billion over a three year period for each group of men diagnosed in the United States each year.

14 Sep 2018

Podcast: KHN’s ‘What the Health?’ A detour on a smoking off-ramp

The Food and Drug Administration declared Wednesday that vaping among teenagers has reached "an epidemic proportion." The agency told ﬁve major e-cigarette manufacturers that they had 60 days to find ways to keep their products away from minors.

14 Sep 2018

Trying to protect seniors, the most vulnerable, from formidable foe Florence

Perhaps no other population is as vulnerable during a hurricane as frail, older adults, especially those who are homebound or living in nursing homes. With Hurricane Florence predicted to slam the North Carolina coast Friday, health officials are already scrambling to keep older residents safe.

12 Sep 2018

In Trump’s first year, nation’s uninsured rate unchanged

Despite Republicans’ resistance to the federal health law, the percentage of Americans without health insurance in 2017 remained the same as during the last year of the Obama administration, according to a closely watched report from the Census Bureau released Wednesday.

12 Sep 2018

New research identifies one specific source of waste in U.S. healthcare

There is substantial waste in U.S. healthcare, but little consensus on how to identify or combat it.

12 Sep 2018

Unwitting patients, copycat comments play hidden role in federal rule-making

A proposal to sharply cut a drug discount program that many hospitals rely on drew some 1,400 comments when the Trump administration announced its plan last year. Hundreds appeared to come from patients across the country — pleas from average Americans whose treatments for diseases such as cancer depend on costly medicines.

11 Sep 2018

ACP opposes proposed changes to payments for E/M services

Proposed changes to payments for evaluation and management codes do not appropriately recognize the value of cognitive care required to treat complex patients, and the proposal should not be implemented, says the American College of Physicians.

11 Sep 2018