News

With technology seemingly taking over the healthcare field, managed care organizations are thinking of innovative ways to reach out to consumers.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts has seen a rapid uptake of its new quality-based reimbursement structure

Forty-nine states have begun the activity necessary to have health insurance exchanges operational by 2014.

When major provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act take place in 2014, MCOs will face new limits on premium rates in the individual and small-group markets.

Value is king. But in today's healthcare environment, value relies on refined quality measurements and innovative payment models.

Flexibility in response to market pressures has made PPOs the most popular type of managed care organization model.

Many states have to enact legislation authorizing the establishment of an exchange

FDA has approved ipilimumab (Yervoy, Bristol-Myers Squibb) to treat patients with late-stage (metastatic) melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer.

FDA has approved an expanded age indication for Zoster Vaccine Live, (Zostavax, Merck) for the prevention of herpes zoster, commonly known as shingles, in adults ages 50 years and older.

The use of angiotensin-receptor blockers alone are not associated with increased odds of cancer or cancer-related death, according to a meta-analysis published in a recent edition of Lancet Oncology.

FDA and the European Medicines Agency have launched a new pilot program that will allow parallel evaluation of relevant development and manufacturing data components, known as Quality by Design, of new drug marketing applications that are submitted to both agencies.

Dabigatran etexilate mesylate (Pradaxa, Boehringer Ingelheim) capsules have received tier 2 formulary status with 2 key pharmacy benefit managers.

FDA released a safety communication to update prescribers and patients about the ongoing review of insulin glargine (Lantus) that was initiated in July 2009.

A substantial portion of antiretroviral-naïve patients are infected with transmitted drug-resistant HIV with one or more drug-resistant mutations, and they are much more likely to experience treatment failure, according to research published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Patients with psoriatic arthritis undergoing their first treatment with tumor necrosis factor-? inhibitor showed a high adherence to therapy and a good response, according to a recent Danish study published in Arthritis & Rheumatism.

Many patients, especially those with limited literacy, do not consolidate prescription medication regimens efficiently, which could lead to nonadherence, according to a recent study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The willingness of the elderly to take medication for primary cardiovascular disease prevention is relatively insensitive to its benefit but highly sensitive to its adverse effects, according to a recent study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The Indiana Health Information Exchange (IHIE) announced that its Quality Health First Program has enrolled more than 1,500 physicians in more than 50 communities

CareFirst, Inc., Owings Mills, Md., is launching a new Primary Care Medical Home (PCMH) program that takes aim at the chronically ill.

Open Health Market, a request for proposal (RFP) generation tool designed to allow employers of self-funded health plans to solicit and compare proposals directly from medical providers, is ready to launch.

XLHealth, a Baltimore-based provider of health plan solutions for Medicare beneficiaries with special needs, announced the enrollment of its 100,000th member, and it sees room for more growth despite expected Medicare Advantage cuts

FDA has approved a change to the prescribing information for ambrisentan 5-mg and 10-mg tablets (Letairis, Gilead Sciences) once-daily treatment to improve exercise ability and delay clinical worsening in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH, WHO Group 1) and predominantly WHO Functional Class II-III symptoms.

The risk of certain birth defects is higher in women given opioid analgesics such as hydrocodone during pregnancy, according to a new study.

FDA recently announced its plans to remove certain unapproved prescription medicines used to treat cough, cold, and allergy symptoms.

Children aged 6 to 23 months who receive trivalent inactivated flu vaccine concurrently with the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine are at increased risk of febrile seizures, according to researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

The angiogenesis inhibitor bevacizumab, used with chemotherapy or biological therapy, carries an increased risk of treatment-related death in cancer patients compared with chemotherapy alone, a new study shows.

The anticancer drug bevacizumab could help prevent babies with retinopathy of prematurity from becoming blind, reports a new study from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Medical School.

FDA has updated the pregnancy section of drug labels for the entire class of antipsychotic medications to provide more information about the potential risk of extrapyramidal signs and withdrawal symptoms in newborns whose mothers take antipsychotics during the third trimester of pregnancy.

FDA's Pulmonary-Allergy Drugs Advisory Committee voted to approve Novartis' QAB149 (indacaterol) 75 µg as a once-daily long-term maintenance bronchodilator treatment of airflow obstruction in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, including chronic bronchitis and/or emphysema, PR Newswire reported.

The American College of Physicians recently issued 3 recommendations for use of intensive insulin therapy for the management of glycemic control in hospitalized patients.