Articles by Briana Contreras

In this week's episode, Editor of Managed Healthcare Executive, Briana Contreras, had the pleasure of speaking with Chief Clinical Officer of WellSky, Tim Ashe, about the issue of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services cutting rates for Medicare home health. Tim addressed the solutions that are either underway or those that can potentially preserve access to these services.

Dr. Yuri Fesko of Quest Diagnostics says the "pathways approach" helped one health system speed the time between diagnosis and targeted treatment for lung cancer by as much as a month for some patients. This is the second part of a three-part video series.

Oncologist and Vice President of Medical Affairs at Quest Diagnostics, Dr. Yuri Fesko, talks about why shortening this gap is critical to ensuring better patient outcomes and shared steps hospitals, health systems and physicians can take now to reduce testing delays, improve outcomes and lower costs of care. This is the first part of a three-part video series.

Results from the test reveal that high levels of the immune biomarker Thymus and Activation-Regulated Chemokine (TARC) in babies increases their chances of developing atopic dermatitis.

Taking 80 mg of the high-cholesterol statin drug daily can control patients' vitiligo activity and protect them against the hazardous effects of dyslipidemia.

In this episode of Tuning In to the C-Suite, Briana Contreras, editor with Managed Healthcare Executive spoke with Dr. Yuri Fesko, oncologist and vice president of Medical Affairs at Quest Diagnostics. In the conversation, Dr. Fesko addressed the ongoing issue of long gaps of times between receiving a diagnosis for a type of cancer and finally getting the treatment for it. Dr. Fesko shared the benefits a number of sectors receive when treating patients sooner and the steps to get there.

While initial infection of the virus has resulted in risk of hospitalization and mortality, researchers looked into the effects of reinfection as data has been unclear.

These areas in the new MA territory and existing ones can enjoy some of Cigna's new benefits this year.

The state's child uninsured rate dropped to 6.6% in 2021, its lowest level in recent history. This drop represents a 19% decline from a peak of 8.1% in 2018.

Cigna’s Express Scripts will now manage Centene’s pharmacy benefit services to make prescription medications more accessible and affordable for customers. The multi-year partnership is slated to officially begin Jan. 1, 2024.

Three more cities join the 100-plus others that have endorsed the Medicare for All legislation. City Councils in Denver, Colorado, Gainesville, Florida, and Kent, Ohio passed the resolution in support of the universal program that ends for-profit healthcare.

Managing Editor of Managed Healthcare Executive, Peter Wehrwein, speaks with President of Value Evolutions and MHE Editorial Advisory Board Member, Doug Chaet, FACHE, about value-based care's current standing and CMS value-based trends vs commercial payer trends. Chaet also addressed the status of select payment models like bundled and episodic, and more.

The antiviral agent, Molnupiravir, is likely to decrease the chances of hospitalization and death related to COVID-19 by 30%.

Managing Editor of Managed Healthcare Executive, Peter Wehrwein, speaks with President of Value Evolutions and MHE Editorial Advisory Board Member, Doug Chaet, FACHE, about value-based care's current standing and CMS value-based trends vs commercial payer trends.

Chester "Bernie" Good, senior medical director for the Center for Value Based Pharmacy Initiatives at UPMC Health Plan, gets in depth on value-based contracts and shares the results of the 2019 contract between UPMC and AstraZeneca for Brilinta. Good addressed value-based contracts last week at AMCP Nexus 2022 conference in National Harbor, Maryland.

Yuqian Liu, Pharm.D., and Michelle Booth, Pharm.D., of Magellan Rx Management, discuss the background and consequences of step therapy in Medicare Part B in an interview prior to their session at the AMCP Nexus 2022 meeting in National Harbor, Maryland.

It was recently announced Walgreens is giving $500,000 each to Florida Disaster Fund and American Red Cross Hurricane Fund to support relief efforts.

Russell, senior vice president of government markets at Priority Health, a health plan in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is one of 10 winners in this year's Emerging Industry Leaders series.

Mechanic, director of telehealth and medical director at Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, is one of 10 winners in this year's Emerging Industry Leaders series.

Khatua, chief physician executive at Northshore Edward-Elmhurst Health, a health system based in Evanston, Illinois, is one of 10 winners in this year's Emerging Industry Leaders series.

Hu, president of Connected Networks at WellSky, a care coordination network headquartered in Boston, is one of 10 winners in this year's Emerging Industry Leaders series.

While phototherapy has been shown to have a positive effect on vitiligo as it works to reduce or prevent the destruction of skin cells, treatment done in the hospital can be long-term and require a number of visits.

Herrera, chief executive officer and co-founder of Yuvo Health, a technology-enabled administrative and managed-care solution for federally qualified health centers based in New York City, is one of 10 winners in this year's Emerging Industry Leaders series.

Gayles, chief health officer of Hazel Health, a pediatric physical and mental telehealth provider for K-12 schools, headquartered in San Francisco, is one of 10 winners in this year's Emerging Industry Leaders series.

LaFeir Fry, vice president of innovation operations at the Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pennsylvania, a regional healthcare provider and health plan, is one of 10 winners in this year's Emerging Industry Leaders series.

Davidson, vice president, employee health medical operations, at Memorial Hermann Health System, in Houston is one of 10 winners in this year's Emerging Industry Leaders series.

Data was collected by researchers to understand the underlying mechanisms and for continuous surveillance of long-term impacts of COVID-19 on Alzheimer’s disease.

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.