News

National insurers are betting on new tech tools to click with members

A fraction of consumers who could be buying plans actually did

Understand the culturally-embedded tendency to be reluctant to seek medical treatment

About 17 million consumers will be eligible for subsidies in exchanges

Blue Shield of California ACOs report 3% trend

Critical care patients have higher HAI rates

Sudden change requires plans to weigh financial impact

Confused members might opt for the worst choice under ACA

Be mindful of data breaches with cloud-based systems

FDA has eased restrictions on patient access to the controversial diabetes drug rosiglitazone (Avandia, GlaxoSmithKline). The agency made its determination after an FDA Advisory Committee reviewed the drug in June 2013 and voted to lift its restrictions, and new information was released indicating that the drug carries no heightened cardiovascular risk.

Payment cuts to Medicare Advantage prompt plans to narrow their networks.

Network selection is one tool plans are using to overcome cost pressures

FDA is warning healthcare professionals of the rare but serious risk of heart attack and death with use of cardiac nuclear stress test agents regadenoson (Lexiscan) and adenosine (Adenoscan).

FDA has requested label and packaging changes for certain over-the-counter (OTC) topical antiseptic products to decrease the risk of infections from these products, which in rare cases have resulted in deaths.

UnitedHealthcare and other plans are dropping network providers

Plans are looking to lock in only high value providers

The following states are allowing local insurers the option to continue non-grandfathered plans through 2014.

FDA has approved luliconazole (Luzu Cream, 1%, Valeant Pharmaceuticals) for the 1-week, once-daily treatment of interdigital tinea pedis, tinea cruris, and tinea corporis, caused by the organisms Trichophyton rubrum and Epidermophyton floccosum, in patients aged 18 years and older.

Excessive analgesics use can contribute to the chronic headache associated with concussion in some adolescent patients and discontinuing these drugs can improve symptoms, according to researchers at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Child Neurology Society, in Austin, Texas.

Women using oral contraceptive for 3 years or more may be at risk for developing glaucoma and should be screened for the eye disease if they have additional risk factors, according to researchers at the American Academy of Ophthalmology annual meeting in New Orleans.

Proposal to allow individuals with non-grandfathered plans to keep their policies through 2014 has left insurers in highly variable situations.

Today, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina filed the paperwork to extend non-grandfathered plans through 2014.

Operational and economic consequences of extending non-grandfathered plans must be considered.

Lurasidone HCl (Latuda) reduces depressive symptoms in adult patients with bipolar depression as monotherapy and adjunctive therapy to lithium or valproate. This flexibility is important given the multiple unmet needs of patients with bipolar depression, according to 2 phase 3 studies published recently in The American Journal of Psychiatry.

FDA has approved ibrutinib (Imbruvica, Pharmacyclics and Janssen) to treat patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), a rare and aggressive type of blood cancer. It is the second drug with breakthrough therapy designation to receive FDA approval.

Karen Ignagni says extensions will destabilize the market

Statin therapy is now recommended for approximately 33 million Americans who don’t have cardiovascular disease (CVD), but have an estimated 10-year CV risk of 7.5% or higher. These individuals also have LDL cholesterol between 70 mg/dL and 189 mg/dL, according to new guidelines issued Nov. 12 by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association.

Hepatitis C discussion with Eliav Barr, MD, vice president, infectious disease project and pipeline lead at Merck Research Laboratories in West Point, Pa.