News

Not many CEOs would wish for a massive upheaval in their industries. Georganne Chapin, president and CEO of Hudson Health Plan (HHP), minces no words when she says the United States should transition to universal coverage, and HHP, a not-for-profit managed-care Medicaid plan that covers 60,000 members in New York state, should evolve to play a new role.

NATIONAL REPORTS-The San Francisco health access plan raises challenges for MCOs, say industry experts.

Gut instinct always used to tell me that America would never go for universal healthcare coverage. In the back of my mind, I kept picturing either a healthcare free-for-all with everyone and their uncle running to the doctor for every little paper cut, or just as bad, everyone and their uncle waiting in line for months to receive their ration of healthcare. You might have envisioned those alarming circumstances, too.

A salmeterol/fluticasone combination (SFC) surpassed a formoterol/budesonide combination (FBC) in reducing the rate of moderate-to-severe exacerbations in patients with persistent asthma, according to a study published by the journal Respiratory Medicine.

Potassium-sparing diuretics reduced the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD) by >70% in patients aged >64 years while other antihypertensive (AH) medications, including all diuretics, beta blockers, and dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers, were linked with somewhat smaller decreases in Alzheimer's risk.

An observational case-control study of 1,384 adults presenting with coronary disease for the first time found that patients who presented with acute myocardial infarction (MI) received statins and beta blockers less often than patients who presented with stable exertional angina.

Bupropion extended-release tablets

Ambrisentan, a propanoic acid type-A selective endothelin receptor antagonist, improved exercise capacity and delayed clinical worsening in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in phase 3 clinical trial results presented at the annual international conference of the American Thoracic Society in San Diego, Calif.

The anticonvulsant lacosamide is effective in relieving diabetic neuropathy and produces increased pain reduction with continued treatment for 22 months, according to phase 3 study results presented during the 25th Annual Scientific Meeting of APS in San Antonio, Texas. "This is a promising treatment that maintains a long-term effect," said Tibor Hidvegi, MD, Medical Department, Petz Hospital, Gyor, Hungary.

Valsartan is associated with a reduction in the levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), the inflammatory marker that is highly predictive of adverse cardiovascular outcomes, independent of its blood pressure-lowering effect, said Paul M. Ridker, MD, MPH, lead investigator of a trial presented at the 21st annual meeting of ASH.

The investigative agent aliskiren, the first orally active renin inhibitor, is an effective antihypertensive agent as monotherapy and in combination with hydrochlorothiazide, reported investigators at the 21st annual scientific meeting of ASH.

Phase 3 clinical trials demonstrated that the once-daily, highly selective beta blocker nebivolol lowers blood pressure in a dose-dependent manner and is well tolerated at all doses, according to presenters at the 21st annual scientific meeting of the American Society of Hypertension (ASH), in New York, NY.

FDA has announced further steps it plans to take to target the sales of counterfeit medications. The agency also rolled out a joint campaign with the Institute of Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) to discourage the use of confusing abbreviations that can potentially cause medication errors.

A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study of the ketolide telithromycin administered orally over a 10-day period to 278 asthma patients demonstrated a reduction in asthma symptoms, but did not show a significant treatment effect on patients' morning peak expiratory flow.

Focused on a diverse number of areas in the study of gastrointestinal health, Digestive Disease Week (DDW) 2006 in Los Angeles, Calif, yielded important information about the pharmacologic treatment of certain GI cancers and Crohn's disease.

Abatacept (Orencia, Bristol-Myers Squibb) is the first T-lymphocyte co-stimulation modulator to be approved by FDA. The agent is indicated for use in patients with moderate-to-severe, active rheumatoid arthritis who have not had an adequate response to methotrexate, tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors, or other disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs).

A number of clinical approaches are utilized in managing insomnia. Indiplon (Pfizer) is a selective non-benzodiazepine sedative hypnotic under consideration by FDA for the treatment of insomnia. Like other agents in its class, indiplon binds selectively to the GABA-A receptors in the brain, promoting sleep.

Colestipol for oral suspension, 5 g/packet or scoopful (equiv to Colestid)

Approvable designations

FDA approved prednisolone orally disintegrating tablets (Orapred ODT, BioMarin/Alliant) for acute exacerbations of asthma as well as for persistent, severe asthma and for inflammation associated with certain conditions. It is the first orally disintegrating tablet formulation of prednisolone available in the United States.

A review of agents in late-stage development for the treatment of depression (July 2006).

Appropriate benefit design-copay structures and tiers-is an important factor in providing members and patients with access to treatment that is affordable. Meanwhile, cost sharing with consumers continues to increase because of pressures on maintaining competitive premium costs and the lack of innovative means to manage utilization, say experts.

Pay for performance (P4P) is touted as the magic bullet du jour for our healthcare cost concerns. In mid-2005, CMS released its "Quality Roadmap" aimed at delivering "the right care for every person every time." Consistent with this initiative, CMS has published quality measurements and information directed toward the beneficiary, the provider and, ultimately, the purchaser audiences.

In the past two years, not-for-profit hospitals have faced increasing scrutiny from a variety of sources. Lawsuits alleging unfair billing practices for the uninsured, congressional hearings regarding hospitals' tax-exempt status, federal and state legislative policies regulating hospitals' provision of charity care and front-page articles in major newspapers outlining overly aggressive efforts to collect payments from uninsured patients have all conspired to put this healthcare sector on red alert.

Drug Manufacturers have introduced vaccines for meningococcal disease, shingles, pertussis, rotavirus, and cervical cancer, meanwhile even more vaccines are in the development pipeline. While each represents a major step forward for public health, the advances present an assortment of challenges from payment rates for physicians to moral issues for parents.

The era of rising healthcare costs created a new discipline in the business world. Large employers such as industrial giant General Electric (GE) wanted to know why healthcare costs were disproportionately eroding profits, how to spend wisely, how to design worker benefits that made sense and how to reduce waste. In the early 1990s, self-funded GE was spending $800 million annually on healthcare, so a cost reduction of just 5% would equal $40 million, or the equivalent of 800 jobs.

In a unanimous decision (Sereboff v. Mid-Atlantic Med. Svcs.) released on May 15, 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court permitted a health insurer to enforce a reimbursement provision against a participant. The plan had paid approximately $75,000 for the treatment of injuries suffered by the participant, Marlene Sereboff, and her spouse, who subsequently received $750,000 pursuant to a third-party tort settlement. The health plan provided that a participant who is injured by another person and receives benefits under the plan for such injuries must reimburse the plan from any amount recovered, without reduction, for failure to receive the full damages claimed. When the participant refused to comply with this reimbursement provision, the insurer obtained an injunction requiring the Sereboffs to set aside sufficient funds from the settlement, pending a final ruling in the case.

NATIONAL REPORTS-Medical tourism is a fast-growing movement in which American consumers are choosing to travel outside the country for a variety of healthcare procedures and treatments.