Practice Management
Feature
Winners and losers under bold Trump plan to slash drug rebate deals
“A shadowy system of kickbacks,” was how Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar described the current system in a speech on Feb. 1.
Feature
CMS proposing more flexibility in Medicare Advantage, Part D
Agency is encouraging plan sponsors “to provide lower cost sharing for opioid reversal agents such as naloxone.”
From the Journals
Shifting drugs from Part B to Part D could be costly to patients
The impact would vary based on the drug, as well as patients’ insurance coverage in addition to Medicare.
From the Journals
Outcomes could improve with Oncology Care Model treatment plans
The intervention group performed significantly better on measures of pain management, emotional distress, and documentation of advanced directives...
Feature
Lifetime cost of tobacco use tops $1.9 million per smoker
Connecticut’s estimated cost is more than twice as high as Georgia’s.
From the Journals
Female radiation oncologists receive less funds from industry
Industry gave fewer payments to female radiation oncologists than to male radiation oncologists across every type of compensation evaluated.
From the Journals
Top cancer advance: Treatment of rare diseases
ASCO’s annual progress report names treatment of rare tumors as the Advance of the Year
Opinion
Medical ethics and economics
It’s up to physicians to build an ethical wall between interests in clinical research.
From the Journals
Anxiety, depression, burnout higher in physician mothers caring for others at home
While the study did not examine physician fathers, caring for someone with a major illness or disability more frequently falls to women.
Latest News
Drug-pricing policies find new momentum as ‘a 2020 thing’
Spurred on by midterm election results that showed health care to be a deciding issue, lawmakers are pushing a bevy of new proposals and...
News
Useful financial and efficiency advice to practices is hard to come by