Peter Wehrwein, Managing Editor

On specialty drugs, the Prime acquisition and vertical integration

In this episode of "DC Roundtable," Peter Wehrwein, managing editor of Managed Healthcare Executive, spoke with Patrick Cooney, president of The Federal Group, a lobbying and strategic planning firm in Washington, D.C., about recent developments in Washington concerning PBMs.

Digital versions are coming on strong and this week the FDA cleared Eko Health’s algorithim-enhanced version that uses ECGs to screen for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction.

As we bring back Managed Healthcare Executive's "Meet the Board" podcast series, MHE welcomes its newest Editorial Advisory Board member Greg Baker, CEO of AffirmedRx.

Greg Baker, CEO of AffirmedRx, describes his early career, shares some of his critical opinions about the pharmacy benefit management (PBM) industry and how, in his view, his company is offering a better alternative.

Research underscores concerns that cost-sharing policies may contribute healthcare disparities.

People with higher incomes and those in health plans with health savings accounts benefit more than others, according to research results published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The research also showed no increase in insulin use,

In this second part of a two-part podcast episode, Managed Healthcare Executive's Managing Editor Peter Wehrwein spoke with Ceci Connolly and Margaret "Meg" Murray about Medicare Advantage utilization and challenges, highlighting proposed CMS payment cuts and prior authorization issues.

High-deductible health plans are supposed to make patients smarter shoppers for healthcare services. But result reported in JAMA Network Open today add to the evidence that people with chronic conditions such as diabetes may put off care when deductibles are high, increasing the risk of complications and worsening of the disease.

In this first part of a two-part podcast episode, Managed Healthcare Executive's Managing Editor Peter Wehrwein kicks off our new podcast series "DC Roundtable," with guests Margaret "Meg" Murray, CEO of the Association of Community Affiliated Plans, and member of MHE's Editorial Advisory Board, and Ceci Connolly, president and CEO of the Alliance of Community Health Plans, for a discussion on healthcare policy issues.

Madrigal Pharmaceuticals is pricing Rezdiffra (resmetirom) at wholesale acquisition price of $47,400 per year.

The Incyte drug is headed for assessment in a phase 3 trial.

The 92-year-old "Star Trek" star said the skin cancer was treated surgically and with immunotherapy. It was apparently the first time he had discussed his melanoma in public.

Scabies, arsenic exposure and psychogenic pruritus are among the possibilities discussed in a poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology.

No safety signals emerged during the 26-month open label study of Vyjuvek (beremagene geperpavec), a topical gel approved as a treatment for dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa.

A "hit-it-hard, hit-it-early" strategy might eventually cure plaque psoriasis, said Andrew Blauvelt, M.D., MBA. Blauvelt presented promising data from his small study of high-dose Skyrizi (risankizumab), but the doses were not a cure and the disease "trickles back" albeit slowly, he said.

They range from skin conditions associated with sexually transmitted infections to acne to hair loss and removal for the alignment of appearance to gender identity.

Body dysmorphia that focuses on self-perceptions of the face has been dubbed "Zoom dysmorphia" because of its association with the video conferencing platforms.

University of Chicago researchers documented the relative lack of pharmacies in the city's low-income neighborhoods and the higher price of lotions, creams and liquid body soaps recommended by the National Eczema Foundation.

A content analysis of 75 TikTok videos showed that most have positive information about the oral acne medication, which was previously sold under the brand name Accutane. But larger majority (77%) of the videos have negative information about isotretinoin, and a large percentage of those videos give the positive effects only a passing mention, if any at all.

There was no mention in President Joseph Biden's Statue of the Union Address about PBM reform, which has garnered a lot of interest from patient advocates and Congress over the last year.

The annual meeting will run through Tuesday.

Simmering tensions in the pharmacy benefit management (PBM) industry have turned into fault lines. The PBMs challenging the "big three" have formed a trade association. Purchaser coalitions want change. The head of the industry's trade group says inherent marketplace friction has spilled over into political friction.

The company has confirmed that group representing itself as ALPHV/Blackcat, a ransomware-as-service criminal group known to cybersecurity experts, is behind the cyberattack on the pharmacy claims processor owned by UnitedHealth.

Vision symptoms resolved within a month, the specialists said in their report in JAMA Ophthalmology, but they say that retina specialists need to be aware that ths side effect from Vabysmo (faricimab) is more common that data from clinical trials would indicate.

How health plans and self-insured employers coped with the huge number of prescriptions for weight loss. It started with off-label Ozempic (semaglutide) and now there’s FDA-approved Wegovy (semaglutide) and Zepbound (tirzepatide).

The deliberate disconnection of Change Healthcare to ring fence a cyberattack entered its seventh day today. Prescribers are finding ways to get pharmacy claims processed, and UnitedHealth Group says disruption to the dispensing of prescriptions has been minimal. But independent pharmacies want more information and protection from financial consequences from pharmacy benefit managers.

Participation in the program will not be a prerequisite for GLP-1 prescriptions.

Researchers say the open-label extension of their study suggests the response to Xolair (omalizumab) will be a durable, but an accompanying editorial says that “protection will most likely disappear” after treatment is stopped.