Five Ways Oncology Has Become More Personalized

Vanderbilt’s Stacie Dusetzina and colleagues explain how the ‘copay adjustment’ programs work in this week’s JAMA Internal Medicine and also shed light on third strategy used by insurers and pharmaceutical benefit managers, the alternative payment program.

In this month’s episode of the "What's On Your Mind podcast," Peter Wehrwein, managing editor of MHE connects with the now Chief Clinical Officer of OptumRx Integrated Pharmacies, David Calabrese. In this conversation, David touches on his transition in January as OptumRx’s former chief pharmacy officer and market president of health plans and PBMs to his new role as Chief Clinical Officer where he now focuses more on things such as specialty pharmacy to home delivery — with an overall goal of creating whole-patient care. Throughout the conversation, Calabrese also touched on the market’s hot topic of insulin prices and behavioral health services within the OptumRx community, among other topics.

Kelsey Lang, principal of Avalere, breaks down the three provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, which was discussed today at the annual Asembia Specialty Pharmacy Summit in Las Vegas.

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.

Daybue (trofinetide) is the first treatment for Rett syndrome. The pivotal trial for treatment for a lifelong condition was only 12 weeks long.

Aside most of the 311 respondents to the 2023 Annual Managed Healthcare Executive Pharmacy Survey favoring PBMs, two-thirds indicated they favor restrictions on rebates and discounts so PBMs won’t favor drugs with high discounts. A similar proportion favor transparency rules that would require disclosure of rebates and discounts.