And that means full scope of practice as primary care providers. Medical societies hate the idea and think that nurse practitioners need to be tethered securely to a physician office in order to ensure top-notch care. Nurse practitioners counter that they can help shore up primary care.
The pay-for-value movement could justify rewarding—and punishing—doctors based on quality scores. Problem: Hardly anyone likes the current ways quality is measured, especially physicians. Few believe that Medicare’s Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) will clear things up. In fact, it might cause more confusion.
Develop a formulary that rules out wasteful medications.
Bereft of his own connections, President Trump recruited from conservative think tanks to fill health care positions in his administration. Many of them have Koch brother connections, and their agendas often run counter to Trump campaign rhetoric—and his impulses.
With accumulators, the value of any copay assistance cards or coupons does not count toward out-of-pocket medicine costs that are applied toward deductibles. It’s a cost-shifting tool that’s facing pushback from patients, providers, and others saying that accumulators will hurt public health.
The United States spends more—close to double—on health care per capita than other rich countries. By many measures, we’re not getting a good return on those trillions of dollars.
Next month, the Sanofi and Regeneron product is expected to become the fourth monoclonal antibody approved as a treatment for severe asthma.
For some, it might be more convenient—and it’s less costly. Why don’t more patients give peritoneal dialysis a try?
Give away healthy breakfasts and dinners to people with diabetes and it will help them control their disease.
Integrated care models can foster the kind of collaboration that’s needed to treat complex, multifaceted problems like chronic pain. They are among our best hopes for an alternative to the overuse of prescription painkillers that has caused so much suffering and early death.
Partnerships between hospital systems and retailers offer telehealth kiosks. Hospitals hope to find loyal patients, and the retailers see a chance to boost sales.
Three quarters of the original ACOs that remain in the MSSP are still in Track 1. The Trump administration is tired of waiting for them to take on two-sided risk.
Quality clinical practice for the management of diabetic patients should include screening for nephropathy. Reliance on a prescription alone should not be considered evidence of effective screening for such patients when that drug is used for other clinical indications.
Democrats are running on Medicare for All—or extending the seniors’ program to the merely middle-aged—or resurrecting a ‘public option’. Republicans say Medicare expansion would mean government intrusion and inefficiency. But politics aside, how would these Medicare expansions work?
It is often an on-again, off-again disease, distressing partly because it is so unpredictable. It may defy the conventional wisdom about adherence and early treatment. And escalating prices have undercut cost-effectiveness arguments for the drugs that can keep it in check. Multiple sclerosis is a managed care nightmare.
