About health insurance
New Study: Quality Performance Is Up Across the Board for Medicaid Managed Care Plans:
An analysis by The Menges Group for AHIP finds that Medicaid managed care plans improved their performance in 26 of 30 key quality metrics between 2014 and 2018. Major takeaways:
“Medicaid managed care plans improved their performance on 26 out of 30 (87%) key HEDIS® and CAHPS® quality measures* between 2014 and 2018. The improvements covered a broad range of measures–from providing comprehensive diabetes care to controlling high blood pressure.
77% of Medicaid managed care enrollees in 2018 were members of NCQA-accredited health plans, up from 71% in 2015. Accreditation by the NCQA signifies a high level of quality.
24 states recognize the value of ongoing quality improvement in their managed care programs by incentivizing Medicaid managed care plans to meet or exceed quality targets. The number indicates the value states place on Medicaid managed care plans and the quality they provide.”
Judge invalidates Michigan Medicaid work requirements: “A federal judge on Wednesday invalidated work requirements for hundreds of thousands of Medicaid recipients in Michigan, one of two states where rules had been in effect after court challenges elsewhere.”
About pharma
Changes in List Prices, Net Prices, and Discounts for Branded Drugs in the US, 2007-2018:This article is part of a related set in this issue of JAMA (see yesterday’s posting). “In this analysis of branded drugs in the US from 2007 to 2018, mean increases in list and net prices were substantial, although discounts offset an estimated 62% of list price increases with substantial variation across classes.” See the Results section for specifics.
Governor signs bill letting New Mexico import wholesale drugs from Canada: The proposal was previously reported here and now is law. Again, the state needs a federal waiver to be “legal” and the plan pre-supposes adequate surplus drugs are available in Canada.
Facebook has a prescription: More pharmaceutical ads: This article is a reminder of how social media gather information and target potential pharma customers.
About the public’s health
Geographic Association Between Incidence of Acute Appendicitis and Socioeconomic Status: The research findings “challenge the conventional view that AA [acute appendicitis] occurs randomly and has no predisposing characteristics beyond age/sex; higher socioeconomic status is associated with lower incidence of both AA and PA [perforated appendicitis].
Medical Masks: This article is an illustrated medical information piece about different types of masks to prevent spread of illness to others and the wearer.
Congress releases $8.3B coronavirus funding package. Here's what's in it: The House passed the funding and it is expected to pass the Senate soon. The details of allocation are in the article.
Associations of habitual fish oil supplementation with cardiovascular outcomes and all cause mortality: evidence from a large population based cohort study: Here is the “latest” on this ongoing debate about the benefit of fish oil: “Habitual use of fish oil seems to be associated with a lower risk of all cause and CVD mortality and to provide a marginal benefit against CVD events among the general population.”
Humana Launches Innovative Value-Based Program to Address Social Determinants of Health: “Humana’s new program aims to address key factors in particular: Food insecurity (inconsistent access to nutritious food), social isolation (lack of interaction with other people), loneliness (feeling of being alone), and housing instability (lack of stable housing). The model offers providers tools and resources to identify and address those social determinants, and will provide compensation for enhanced care coordination centered on three program components — patient screenings; documentation of assessment findings; and connecting the patient to appropriate resources.”
2020’s Most Overweight and Obese Cities in the U.S.: Interesting distribution. Should social marketing to fight this problem be geographically targeted as opposed to using resources on a national campaign?
About healthcare quality
Patient Experience Captured by Quality-of-Life [QoL]Measurement in Oncology Clinical Trials: “This study found that most clinical trials assessed QoL during the treatment or intervention and often during a given amount of follow-up but infrequently assessed QoL on disease progression and rarely followed QoL until the end of the patient’s life. Most studies reporting QoL until the end of life reported worse QoL outcomes for the intervention group than the control group. Future research and policy recommendations should consider not just short-term QoL outcomes but QoL outcomes throughout the patient’s cancer care.”
About healthcare professionals
More Than 290,000 Nurse Practitioners Licensed in the United States: Some good news on numbers: “As of December 2019, a record of more than 290,000 NPs (estimated) are licensed to practice in the United States. This number jumped from an estimated 270,000 NPs in January 2019.”