News

As employers search for ways to reduce rising healthcare costs and improve employee productivity, more companies are implementing wellness programs in an attempt to improve employees' health and reduce their own insurance costs. There are a number of different options employers may consider when deciding to institute a wellness program, including offering smoking cessation and weight loss programs, fitness classes, and in some cases, penalizing certain behavior. Employers must be careful, however, to ensure that these programs do not violate certain federal and state laws as they carry certain inherent legal risks.

Pressure is mounting on Capitol Hill once again to ax payments to Medicare Advantage plans. The legislators need to save $10 billion in order to rescind a planned cut in Medicare rates for physicians by year-end. Conveniently, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that equalizing payments between MA plans and fee-for-service Medicare will save $50 billion over five years. If Congress wants to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and keep physicians happy, "excessive" MA rates are the prime target.

Dallas-Recently released results of a consumer survey show that a majority of Americans believe more emphasis on preventive medicine is a solution to the increasingly evident problems of the nation's healthcare system.

As the abundance of cliches would indicate, incentives are a powerful force. Health incentives, however, are becoming more sophisticated, and stakeholders need to adopt programs that work.

National Reports-The handful of health plans that represent the largest number of enrollees are publicly traded and therefore likely to have reported salaries and bonuses at the high end of the scale. However the majority of HMO chief executives are not part of these plans, industry experts say.

Washington, D.C.-In the latest salvo against private health plans, Congressional leaders claim that the Medicare Part D drug benefit raised costs for taxpayers and seniors some $15 billion this year due to higher administrative and sales costs and lower rebates from drug companies.

Actor George Clooney was hospitalized recently after a minor motorcycle accident. He cracked a rib, but that wasn't the worst of it. Star-struck hospital employees who weren't involved in his care accessed his medical record, no doubt hoping to find some celebrity gossip.

Patients with early-stage pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and those with either inoperable chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) or inoperable or post-pulmonary endarterectomy pulmonary hypertension can benefit from treatment with bosentan, according to study results presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2007 in Vienna, Austria.

Thrombolytic therapy with reteplase/abciximab before percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) (facilitated PCI) has no effect on post-myocardial infarction (MI) complications, including death, but the treatment significantly increases the risk of bleeding compared with primary PCI performed with in-lab abciximab in patients with ST-elevation MI, according to the results of the Facilitated Intervention with Enhanced Reperfusion Speed to Stop Events (FINESSE) study.

In a multicenter, multinational, randomized controlled study, a fixed-dose combination of perindopril/ indapamide was associated with a reduced risk of death and vascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes, many of whom were already taking antihypertensive drugs.

The 2007 Congress of the European Society of Cardiology attracted nearly 30,000 attendees to Vienna, Austria, from September 1 to 5, 2007. The congress offered details of the latest research in various fields of cardiology

Maraviroc is the first CCR5 antagonist approved for the treatment of HIV-1 infection. The use of maraviroc is associated with significant decreases in HIV viral load and increases in CD4 counts in antiretroviral treatment-experienced patients with CCR5-tropic virus when used as an add-on to optimized antiretroviral treatment. In clinical trials, patients with dual- or mixed-tropic virus (which can infect cells using CXCR4 and/or CCR5 receptors) who were treated with maraviroc demonstrated no difference in HIV viral load compared with patients who received placebo. A recent study compared maraviroc plus lamivudine/zidovudine with efavirenz plus lamivudine/zidovudine; maraviroc did not demonstrate noninferiority when undetectable virus was defined as <50 copies/mL; however, maraviroc did meet noninferiority criteria when undetectable virus was defined as <400 copies/mL. Maraviroc is not recommended for patients with CXCR4-tropic, dual-tropic, or mixed-tropic virus; for antiretroviral-naive patients; or for..

An extensive systematic review published in the Annals of Internal Medicine demonstrated that older oral drugs for type 2 diabetes are just as, if not more, effective than newer agents for gylcemic control, lipid control, and other intermediate end points.

Angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) have been demonstrated to reduce morbidity and/or mortality in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF), acute myocardial infarction (AMI), type 2 diabetes, and hypertension. Although as a class ARBs share a common mechanism of action, potency among the agents varies. Higher-potency ARBs (candesartan, irbesartan, olmesartan, and telmisartan) may demonstrate improved 24-hour blood pressure control, suggesting that these agents may have superior clinical event reduction potential versus lower-potency agents (eprosartan, losartan, and valsartan). We conducted a meta-analysis of randomized, controlled trials that evaluated the effect of ARBs on clinical outcomes. A systematic literature search of MEDLINE from 1966 through December 2006 was conducted using specific search terms. Studies that met the following criteria were included: randomized; not angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor-controlled; incorporation of monotherapy with ARBs in 1 or more of the treatment..

First-time generic approvals: Carvedilol tablets; famciclovir tablets

The latest FDA action (through October 2007) related to valrubicin (Valstar), pancrelipase (Creon), raltegravir (Isentress), mifamurtide (L-MTP-PE, formerly Junovan), recombinant human antithrombin (Atryn), picoplatin, T4N5 liposome lotion (Dimericine), oral azacitidine, ANX-510 (CoFactor), vincristine (Marqibo), sorafenib (Nexavar), bendamustine (Treanda), MB07133, ALS-357, and MGCD0103

FDA has approved a new indication for risperdal. The drug is now indicated for the treatment of schizophrenia in adolescents aged 13 to 17 years and for the short-term treatment of acute manic or mixed episodes associated with bipolar I disorder in children and adolescents aged 10 to 17 years.

FDA has approved Somatuline Depot, an analog of natural somatostatin, for the treatment of acromegaly

What if MCO payers could measure providers' costs and outcomes in a single top-down program? What if they could standardize regulations, and immediately test their effectiveness? What if payers could actually help facilities and providers strike a balance between business efficiency and quality patient care-without shutting anyone down?

Today's standard of care has morphed from comprehensive to catastrophic care. As the number of uninsured Americans has increased, so has the percentage of emergency room cases that aren't emergencies. As many as one-half of ER patients are there for routine treatment because they have nowhere else to go.

Consumers tend to seek the best combination of price, features and quality when shopping for medical services, just as in other market transactions. Today, employers are relying on health plans to fill the value-information void with Web-based decision support tools.

The benefits of Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) are obvious, and have been for decades. And what better time than now, well into the Information Age, for HIEs to realize their full potential using real-time electronic communications over the Internet? As grant money to fund HIE startups and a national health information network begins to dry up, sustainability has become paramount.

Clinical depression is a major problem in the United States, affecting an estimated 5% to 10% of all adults. Costs for medical care and lost productivity related to depression are estimated at more than $40 billion per year.

As patients take more ownership of their disease management regimens, hospitals are beginning to re-evaluate their processes-clinically, administratively and culturally.

National reports-Marketing and distribution of health insurance products continue to evolve, as does the movement toward creating flexible, innovative products to attract new members.

Managed Healthcare Executive recently surveyed readers and gathered your predictions for some of managed care's biggest issues in 2008, including drug safety, technology integration and competition. Answers from the more than 500 respondents indicate that an increasing number of you are uncertain about what the next year will bring, but you remain optimistic about your opportunities and your core capabilities. Comprehensive indicators suggest that the industry is becoming more granular, that is, more customized and more focused on one-off strategies, further stratified populations and differentiation in the market. Preparing for another year of regulatory changes, political influence and industry self-governance will clearly call for greater collaboration, which is another recurring theme throughout this Special Report. We've also included in-depth analysis from an authoritative panel of experts to help you forecast the turning points for 2008.

Disease management-or, what we have known as disease management-stands at a crossroads, as changing demands in the marketplace and a growing emphasis on wellness and prevention recast our thinking on chronic care. Can DM survive?

Health plans are looking for a more integrated approach to managing specialty therapies so they can effectively and efficiently manage the quality of care for the member, as well as the cost to the plan sponsor, say industry experts.

There are as many as 75 million Americans who are either uninsured or underinsured, and the rate will continue to grow. Access to healthcare for all Americans was a hot topic during the early years of the Clinton administration, and has resurfaced recently in anticipation of the 2008 presidential election.

There has been a lot of good news about the Medicare drug benefit lately. Surveys show a substantial increase in coverage, particularly among low-income seniors. Costs are less than expected; employers continue to offer retiree benefits; major insurers are sticking with the program; and product coverage remains fairly broad. Beneficiaries seem generally satisfied with the program, and the much-feared "donut hole" appears less lethal than anticipated.