Briana Contreras

Briana Contreras

Briana Contreras is an editor at Managed Healthcare Executive, where she covers the clinical, business and policy developments that matter to payers and health plan leaders, with an additional focus in multiple clinical spaces. Her reporting spans from new cancer therapies and clinical trial data to drug affordability and biosimilars, pharmacy benefit management (PBM) and health plan operations, giving healthcare executives clear context on how new evidence can affect coverage and care decisions.

Experience:

Before joining MHE in 2019, Briana was a reporter at The Morning Journal in Lorain, Ohio, west of Cleveland, where she covered local government, community news and the issues affecting residents across Lorain and Erie counties. She reported on city council, downtown redevelopment, library and school projects, local business, nonprofits and breaking news in Elyria, Lorain and nearby communities.

Education:

Briana graduated from Cleveland State University with a B.A. in Journalism and Promotional Communication.

Articles by Briana Contreras

In this final video of a three-part video series, Oncologist and Vice President of Medical Affairs at Quest Diagnostics, Dr. Yuri Fesko, shares a key takeaway from Quest's recent Health Trends Survey. Results reveal how cancer diagnosis numbers are still lagging to pre-pandemic levels of 11%. Fesko adds that bringing cancer screenings to the community can increase diagnosis numbers, leading to care sooner.

AMCP CEO Susan A. Cantrell spoke with Managed Healthcare Executive® about Preapproval Information Exchange (PIE) Act of 2022, which would allow drug manufacturers to share information about a drug with payers before the drug is approved. Cantrell says passage of the PIE Act would speed up patient access to new medications.

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.

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.

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.

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.