Gilead's new Hep C drug costs $84,000 for a 12 week course of treatment and PBMs and payers are determined not to pay it. The latest in the battles over the frightening rise in specialty drug use and spending.
With the proliferation of quality measures, a timely research piece in Health Affairs suggests that out of 13 common AHRQ indications, 7 account for 93% of the total benefits of compliance with the measures. The number of measures could be cut back on without affecting quality and lowering compliance costs and confusion.
Health Catalyst, which sells data warehousing and analytics services to providers and payers, raised another $41 million in financing to assist in the growth of the company.
Successful techniques for better medication adherence are presented in a JAMA viewpoint, including patient education and counseling, self-monitoring and cost interventions.
A JAMA viewpoint discusses how to reconcile evidence-based medicine and patient preferences, with a focus on the importance of recognizing informed patient choices, even when they may conflict with the best research evidence represented by a guideline.
A Wall Street Journal article discusses the reaction to the Veteran's Administration decision to let nurse practitioners treat patients without physician supervision, which many doctors oppose, largely in a bid to protect their turf.
Quantum Health, which offers care coordination and patient navigation services, has received an undisclosed amount of financing from GE and other investors.
MediSwipe, which provides software and equipment to the medical and recreational marijuana markets, has received a $1.1 million investment from a private equity fund. To be blunt, not a high amount, but enough to keep them from going to pot.
Hearst Corporation is bundling several companies it owns into a new health subsidiary, Hearst Health, which includes First DataBank, Zynx Health, the Milliman Care Guidelines, HomeCare HomeBase and Map of Medicine.
Noted health economist Uwe Reinhardt, in a JAMA viewpoint, suggests that price transparency is a "disruptive innovation" for health care, particularly when linked to reference pricing. This assumes, however, that patients are more interested in price than in a relationship with a particular doctor, and that consumers have sufficient incentives to care about price.
A viewpoint in JAMA looks at the tension between population health management approaches and individualized health care, suggesting that population health goals should take precedence over individual choices.
Brightree, which provides billing and related services for home health providers, has acquired Strategic AR, which offers collection and similar services.
A perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that application of the Medicare value-based purchasing program to hospitals serving more disadvantages patients punishes them financially, reducing their resources to improve care, which hopefully is an unintended consequence.
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1312654
About this Blog
The Healthy Skeptic is a website about the health care system, and is written by Kevin Roche, who has many years of experience working in the health industry. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements through Roche Consulting, LLC and may be reached at khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.
The Healthy Skeptic is a website about the health care system, and is written by Kevin Roche, who has many years of experience working in the health industry. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements through Roche Consulting, LLC and may be reached at khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.