Managed Care Cast

Today we are bringing you part 2 of a 2-part sponsored podcast series discussing treatment goals in insterstitial lung disease (ILD). The discussion was moderated by Ryan Haumschild, PharmD, director of Pharmacy Services at Emory Healthcare and Winship Cancer Institute. The conversation for today’s podcast includes an in-depth review of treatment landscape of systemic sclerosis ILD as well as a di...

discusses why the program is needed, the goals of the program, and some of the reasons why children and adolescents are struggling. We also discuss 988, an upgrade to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number coming July 16, 2022. The number will connect individuals with trained counselors, and, if needed, send specially trained responders with the aim of reducing armed law enforcement inter...

Today we’re highlighting a discussion with a panel of experts in interstitial lung disease moderated by Ryan Haumschild, PharmD, director of Pharmacy Services at Emory Healthcare and Winship Cancer Institute. The topics of conversation for today’s podcast include treatment goals in patients with ILD and a review of treatment paradigms and standard of care therapies.

On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we speak with Georges C. Benjamin, MD, executive director of the American Public Health Association, on the core takeaways of his keynote session at AHIP 2022 on public health policy and other solutions to promote equitable health and well-being.

In January of this year, entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban launched a direct-to-consumer pharmacy called the Cost Plus Drug Company, promising savings by eliminating middlemen and charging cost plus 15% and a pharmacy fee. What if Medicare could do the same? On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we speak with a researcher who coauthored a study out this week that looked at the sav...

On the After Hours section of Medical World News, we like to show you what scientists, researchers, health care providers, and others are doing in their spare time to relax and recharge. On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we’re highlighting a hobby from a biosimilar expert who says he can make whisky more accessible and affordable through—you guessed it—his own biosimilar whisky. Sarfaraz K. Ni...

The pandemic highlighted deep partisan divisions in the United States over public health measures. Disputes over masking and beliefs about science and vaccines that prevent severe illness and death from infection with SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes COVID-19, affected nearly every area of life. That rancor impacted death rates in counties that voted Republican in the 2020 presidential election, a...

Income inequality is a hot topic in politics today, and while the rising role of social determinants of health is being recognized in care delivery and research, a new study published in Social Science & Medicine aimed to determine to what extent income gaps are associated with Americans’ declining health. On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we speak with Hui Zheng, PhD, an associate professor i...

Cholangiocarcinoma—or biliary duct cancer—affects about 8000 US patients a year. On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we bring you an excerpt of an interview with Jesper B. Andersen, PhD, associate professor and group leader at the University of Copenhagen and the Biotech Research and Innovation center at the Department of Health. There have been 3 FDA drug approvals for drugs that treat cholangi...

On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we speak with Tham Le, PhD, MPH, and Linda Wastila, PhD, MSPH, lead and senior authors, respectively, of “Patterns of Opioid Use in Commercially Insured Patients With Cancer,” which was published in the May issue of The American Journal of Managed Care®. They took up their investigation after finding that most previous similar studies of opioid use focused on...

Drug overdose deaths are skyrocketing, with more than 100,000 people dying in 2021, according to the CDC. Obtaining treatment for substance use disorders (SUDs) has never been easy, and this month in Health Affairs, a recent paper examined trends in the use of treatment services to see what, if anything, changed from 2010 to 2019. Despite an increase in insurance coverage over much of that time pe...

On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we speak with Dr Joanne Armstrong, vice president and chief medical officer for Women’s Health and Genomics at CVS Health, on the distinct pathophysiology of cardiovascular disease in women, applicability of current screening and care delivery guidelines for heart health in regards to minority populations, and how her own health experiences have influenced her...

April is Parkinson’s Disease Awareness month, and on this episode of Managed Care Cast, we take a look at the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI), a study from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF). The multicenter, international study aims to end Parkinson disease, which is expected to double worldwide by 2040, to more than 14 million people. The study is inv...

In 2018, the FDA approved a record 66 novel drugs. Among them were cancer treatments, orphan drugs for rare diseases, drugs under expedited review, and biosimilars. However, access to each of these drugs for patients covered by different health plans was not uniform. On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we speak with Ari D. Panzer, BS, a master of public policy candidate at Duke University, and l...

Entering its 51st year, the American Kidney Fund has made it its mission to help all patients affected by chronic kidney disease (CKD), which is the fastest-growing noncontagious disease in the United States: from those at risk for chronic kidney disease through patients requiring dialysis and/or transplant. First and foremost is uncovering the primary cause of their kidney failure. Unfortunately,...

It’s well known the state of maternal morbidity and mortality in the United States is subpar. From stark racial disparities in maternal deaths to a severe shortage of midwives and doulas, birthing people in the United States face unique challenges not seen in other high-income countries. Plus, the recent increase in legislation aimed at curbing abortion access throughout the nation may serve to ex...

National Public Health Week, the annual initiative from the American Public Health Association, falls within the first full week of April. On this episode of Managed Care Cast, to mark the conclusion of National Public Health Week this year, which ran from April 4-10, we speak with Perry N. Halkitis, PhD, MS, MPH, dean of the Rutgers School of Public Health, who is also a public health psychologis...

In January 2022, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Meharry Medical College, and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine announced the receipt of a $12.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop the Southeast Collaborative for Innovative and Equitable Solutions to Chronic Disease Disparities. The center’s work aims to reduce disparities seen in the southeast Uni...

An unprecedented level of detail and robustness around interoperability standards is on its way, and on this episode of Managed Care Cast, we speak with Donald Rucker, MD, the former National Coordinator for Health Information Technology in HHS, about what the opportunities and responsibilities for payers are. The change is precipitated by 2020 rulemaking regarding the 21st Century Cures Act requi...

Within Virginia, one of 13 states that fall within the Appalachian region of the United States, the current overall poverty rate is 10.6%, giving the state a 10th place ranking on a list of the top 10 states with the lowest poverty rates. However, the average poverty rate of the southwest corner of the state, which includes the 6 counties of Buchanan, Dickenson, Russell, Lee, Scott, and Wise, is d...

CMS first implemented the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus, or CPC+, Initiative in January 2017. The medical home model is a large-scale redesign effort meant to improve primary care through payer reform and care delivery transformation. However, an interim data analysis of the initiative’s first 3 years among Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries did not demonstrate improvements in either care co...

Sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts (SOGICE), more commonly known as conversion therapy, is a discredited practice opposed by a number of medical, mental health, and human rights organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Yet annually, the practice’s harms lead to estimated direct and indirect costs of...

On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we speak with Tim Gronniger, the CEO of Caravan Health, about what to look for as accountable care organizations (ACOs) and policy makers try to encourage more providers to join value-based care arrangements.

Since 1999, nearly 841,000 Americans have died of drug overdoses, according to data from the CDC, while opioids serve as the main driver of these deaths. Synthetic opioids account for 73% of opioid-involved overdose deaths. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the opioid epidemic as individuals encountered disruptions in routine treatment, alongside steep increases in depression and anxiety rates. On...

Human papillomavirus, or HPV, is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States and causes the majority of cervical cancer cases in the country. But screening for HPV can catch the virus early and potentially prevent it from developing into cervical cancer. In addition, safe and effective vaccines against HPV exist, essentially making cervical cancer a preventable disease. How...