The American journal of managed care
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An Asthma Medication Ratio (AMR) of ≥0.50 has gained recognition as a metric related to improved asthma outcomes. The goals of this study were to evaluate asthma outcomes in relation to this threshold in Hispanic children with high-risk asthma and to compare the effectiveness of the Breathmobile (BM) program with usual care (UC), utilizing the AMR-related emergency department utilization (ED) rate. ⋯ View achievement of the AMR ≥0.50 as an informative metric in program evaluation and for healthcare organizations to measure the quality of care provided to high-risk patients with asthma.
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Although we know that healthcare costs are concentrated among a small number of patients, we know much less about the concentration of these costs among providers or markets. This is important because it could help us to understand why some patients are higher-cost compared with others and enable us to develop interventions to reduce costs for these patients. ⋯ High-cost beneficiaries are only modestly concentrated in specific hospitals and healthcare markets.
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Thrombosis is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Arterial and venous thromboses are implicated in the pathogenesis of major disorders, including myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, and venous thromboembolism. Over the past decade, direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) (eg, direct thrombin inhibitor and factor Xa [FXa] inhibitors) have been adopted as alternatives to warfarin due to their clinical advantages and efficacy for the treatment of thrombosis. ⋯ Unlike warfarin, effective strategies to manage these bleeds are limited. There is an unmet need for reversal agents for use in the management of patients who receive FXa inhibitors and experience life-threatening bleeding or need emergency surgery. Andexanet alfa and ciraparantag are being evaluated as potential antidotes for both direct and indirect FXa inhibitors.
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To determine whether a treating oncologist's characteristics are associated with variation in use of chemotherapy for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (aNSCLC) at the end of life. ⋯ Patients receiving care for aNSCLC in small independent oncology practices are more likely to receive chemotherapy in the last 30 days of life.