News

Recent data found that extreme heat is projected to lead to a significantly higher burden of excess cardiovascular deaths in the United States by midcentury (2036–2065), with elderly adults and non-Hispanic Black adults being most affected.

Per member spending in private insurance is expected to grow at 6.8% annually due to both utilization and increases in price.

Many carriers reported feelings of concern, anxiousness, and guilt for passing the X-linked inherited retinal disease to their children—and 78% of respondents in a new study believe that carriers should have access to gene therapy options.

The self-administered nasal spray may increase vaccination rates.

Capsid assembly modulators (CAM) work by assembling flawed hepatitis B capsids and preventing the formation of new infectious viruses.

The idea of software creating and delivering content to patients and plan members would have been unthinkable in the recent past. Now it is becoming essential to a good customer experience for patients.

In new data, 60% of the patients with early stage Alzheimer’s disease and who have low levels of the protein tau achieved cognitive improvement when treated with Leqembi.

The growth of digital twin technology — paired with the transition towards personalized medicine — has left many healthcare industry professionals evaluating the potential of a “patient twin.”

Results of a randomized trial reported in The Lancet Digital Health suggest a role for internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy, but many of the study volunteers were left with symptoms that would classify them as having major depressive disorder.

The drug has been engineered using a proprietary glycopegylated technology that is designed to increase its overall half-life.

CRISPR gene-editing therapy is predicted to cost about $1 million dollars per person which is considerably more expensive than keeping a patient on ART for the rest of their life.

Mental health disorders impact the lives of almost 1 in every 4 people who are living with HIV/AIDS here in the United States.

The Minnesota-based pharmacy benefit manager says a program that resulted in patients switching from two incretin therapy prescriptions to one yielded $7,500 in savings per patient and a total of $3.5 million.

In a platinum award winning poster presented at the AMCP Nexus 2023 conference in Orlando, “Specialty drug use varies by race and wage among employees with employer-sponsored health insurance,” authors expressed that spending on specialty medications for autoimmune conditions has increased in recent years, raising affordability concerns for employers.

The FDA’s decision to allow at-home dosing of intransal foralumab for patients with multiple sclerosis is likely to improve patient compliance to treatment and health outcomes, according to a recent release statement.

To add precision to the nomenclature and nosology and remove stigma, experts are moving to rename nonalcoholic fatty liver disease as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease.

Research continues to develop new therapies for rare cancers and to provide options that allow for fewer toxicities. At the same, however, more new drugs are launching with high price tags.

Adopting evolving computer system tools like artificial intelligence and machine learning in managed care pharmacies have resulted in efficiency when addressing the challenges they are faced with, according to Jessica Hatton, PharmD, BCACP, associate vice president of Pharmacy at CareSource and Nick Trego, PharmD, senior vice president of Clinical Analytics and Client Services at HealthPlan Data Solutions, Inc.

The program yielded savings of $25,000 per patient in its pilot phase but is not expected to produce savings as a routine offering because reimbursement for home infusion was matched to reimbursement at a facility. Horizon executive Timothy O’Shea, Pharm.D., M.S., says cost savings were a “secondary outcome” of the program and noted the high patient satisfaction.

Just over 160 patients have participated in the insurer's oncology home infusion program since it started in late 2020. Patient satisfaction is high, according to Horizon officials, who are looking to expand the program with other providers in its market and to include more drugs that patients could be treated with at home.

The increase is close to inflation and wage growth but much steeper than the atypically small increase in 2022.

Patients were more likely to stick with buprenorphine for 90 days, suggesting the value of virtual care. But researchers also found disparities in access.

Jessica Hatton, PharmD, BCACP, associate vice president of Pharmacy at CareSource caught up with MHE to discuss value assessment tools and their use in the managed care pharmacy space. This topic and more were addressed by Hatton during her presentation today in Orlando at the AMCP Nexus 2023 conference.

The results of a recent feasibility study on the outpatient administration of cell therapies is creating growing interest in whether home-based management may be possible in the future.

In a session presented at the AMCP Nexus 2023 conference in Orlando, Adam Colborn, JD, director of Government Relations at AMCP, discussed how the recent ERISA preemption rule influenced employer pharmacy benefits, and also highlighted a policy that hasn't received much attention in the managed care pharmacy space: California's CalRx Biosimilar Insulin Initiative.