Briana Contreras

The "end is in sight" for the COVID-19 pandemic, as the number of related deaths world-wide last week was the lowest reported since March 2020.

Nicole Bulochnik, Vice President of Drug Pricing and Network Strategy at Abarca Health delivers her presentation, "PBM-Payer Partnerships: Insight into Alternative Cost Management Strategies Across Common PBM Levels," during this year's PBMI National Annual Conference in Orlando, FL.

Cate Lockhart, MS, PharmD, PhD, Executive Director at the Biologics and Biosimilars Collective Intelligence Consortium covers her presentation "New mAbs on the Block: A Rocking Research Update on Biosimilar Uptake and Benefit Design" which she delivered at this year's PBMI national conference.

Michael Agostino, RPh, a registered pharmacist and entrepreneur of Onesto One Advisors, LLC, addressed how his career has been spent over the last few decades during his presentation Sept. 12 at this year's PBMI Annual National Conference in Orlando.

In this week's episode, MHE Editor Briana Contreras and Managing Editor Peter Wehrwein met with CIO of Prime Therapeutics, Jim Graham to discuss the process of an organization’s digital transformation from a traditional Pharmacy Benefit Manager to a complete data-driven drug management system. Graham addressed the risks an organization may come across to successfully transition to this system, but also mentioned the benefits to come.

CIO of Prime Therapeutics, Jim Graham, discusses with MHE how to successfully reach digital transformation in healthcare from a traditional PBM.

The occurrence of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMID) is higher in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) than in the general population.

Laser treatment presents as being highly effective for vitiligo repigmentation over other forms of treatment.

Back from a brief hiatus, MHE brings you a brand new episode of Tuning In to the C-Suite podcast where Editor Briana Contreras had the pleasure of speaking with Lissy Hu, president of Connected Care Networks at WellSky. Lissy and Briana discussed the shift to home-based care and where it stands after becoming much more of a norm three years into COVID-19. They also addressed the benefits and challenges of home-based care from a payer and patient’s perspective, as well as the cost of this service as its demand rises.

Sarah Raaii, co-chair of McDermott Will & Emery’s multidisciplinary post-Roe team, and Cat Duffy, policy analyst of the National Health Law Program, address the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the court held that the Constitution of the United States does not confer a right to abortion.

Most of the respondents to the survey agreed that negotiations by pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) lowers net drug prices. About half favored imposing transparency rules on PBMs.

Improvement of vitiligo repigmentation in patients can result in higher Vitiligo Noticeability Scale values when assessed from patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) versus traditional investigator-assessed studies.

The respondents were almost evenly split on whether it was a mistake for the FDA to approve Aduhelm, but a large majority agreed that CMS made the right decision to restrict Medicare coverage to those enrolled in clinical trials.

Opinion was split evenly on preexposure prophylaxis as a strategy for preventing HIV infections.

Two-thirds of the respondents to our 2022 annual Pharmacy Survey believe that biosimilars will have a significant effect on drugs prices over the next several years.

Our survey shows some optimism about the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, but concern about Paxlovid rebound. Former President Donald Trump’s job performance on COVID-19 was rated low while the World Health Organization and Pfizer were rated high.

United States employees who lacked access to paid leave missed out on an estimated $28 billion in wages over the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Patients with blood cancers have been reported to have less of a chance to develop immunity from the COVID-19 vaccination. However, new data has been found stating those who have been previously vaccinated with no immunity and then followed up with a booster dose, eventually developed antibodies against the virus.

In this second part of a two-part video series, Nathan Allen, Senior Vice President – Healthcare Provider Solutions at Firstsource, discusses Medicaid Redetermination for those who are Medicaid members, but are deemed to lose their coverage due to the upcoming expiration of COVID-19’s Public Health Emergency. Allen set a scope on Medicaid populations in rural settings and how they could be affected. However, there is hope through tech-based solutions and a proposed rule by CMS to prevent facility closures and preserve access to care for all affected Medicaid populations.

Nathan Allen, Senior Vice President – Healthcare Provider Solutions at Firstsource, discusses Medicaid Redetermination for those who are Medicaid members, but are deemed to lose their coverage due to the upcoming expiration of COVID-19’s Public Health Emergency.

Public Citizen advised Amazon's acquisition of One Medical should be rejected if Amazon does not commit to robust, legally binding safeguards in a letter sent today to authorized U.S decision-makers.

There's hope for Medicare beneficiaries who believe Medicare should negotiate with drug companies to reduce costs after members of the senate announced the recent proposed legislation, Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

The House of Representatives recently passed a bill this week that continues telehealth use under Medicare through 2024 that was initially authorized during the the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

MHE spoke with Matt Parker, vice president of Products at Kyruus and HealthSparq, about the recent price transparency rules that recently went into effect and how they can bring efficiency into care.

MHE spoke with Matt Parker, vice president of Products at Kyruus and HealthSparq, about the recent price transparency rules that went into effect, who they apply to and compliance improvement by insurers.

This week welcomes Managed Healthcare Executive's 100th podcast episode featured on "Tuning In to the C-Suite" podcast! Guests on this episode are members of 1upHealth, CEO Joe Gagnon and Chief Strategy Officer, Don Rucker. The two were featured on the latest episode of "Tuning In to the C-Suite's" podcast series "MHE Talks: Improving Patient Access" to discuss the adoption of FHIR, or Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource, in healthcare and how it’s not only simplifying healthcare through care quality, outcomes and costs, but how it’s providing further access to health data for patients and payers. The guests of the 100th episode also shared some strategies for payers and providers in using FHIR to implement and scale modern data, and more.

Ryan Urgo, Managing Director, Health Policy at Avalere addressed the Biden administration’s healthcare priorities and if the Build Back Better legislation will include provisions that deal with drug prices? Urgo spoke at this year's annual Asembia Specialty Pharmacy Summit in Las Vegas on the subject, as well.

Briana Contreras, editor of Managed Healthcare Executive, spoke with Nancy Lurker, CEO and president of EyePoint Pharmaceuticals. Nancy shared a bit about EyePoint and how the organization’s innovative therapies are addressing patient needs through eye care, and most importantly, she addressed C-Suite positions like the CEO role. Nancy shared advice for those seeking to reach the CEO level, especially toward women in healthcare and other roles, and what it takes to run a biopharma company.

Pediatric severe asthma is a heterogeneous disease and based on data, a multi-disciplinary approach can improve the diagnosis and management of these children.