The American journal of managed care
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The COVID-19 pandemic affected care delivery nationwide for all patients, influencing cost and utilization for patients both with and without COVID-19. Our first analysis assessed changes in utilization for patients with sepsis without COVID-19 prior to vs during the pandemic. Our second analysis assessed cost and utilization changes during the pandemic for patients with sepsis or pneumonia both with and without COVID-19. ⋯ COVID-19 has affected care patterns for all patients. Patients without COVID-19 postponed care and used lower-acuity care settings, whereas patients with COVID-19 were more costly and utilized postacute care at a higher rate. These analyses inform future care coordination initiatives, given the ongoing pandemic.
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To examine the organizational characteristics associated with telemedicine services provided by mental health care organizations before and after onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. ⋯ Telemedicine availability in mental health facilities has expanded post COVID-19 pandemic, but telemedicine provision has been uneven across organizational and state-level factors. Expansion of regional investments and payment parity might be necessary to ensure equitable provision of telemedicine.
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Immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) is an autoimmune disease that is the most common cause of glomerulonephritis. In IgAN, the glomeruli are impaired by deposits of IgA-complexes in the kidney, which leads to the progression of chronic kidney disease, often resulting in end-stage renal disease requiring dialysis or kidney transplantation. ⋯ Supportive therapy is the mainstay of treatment, but there have also been recent advances with targeted therapies that may provide additional therapeutic options to meet treatment goals. Managed care professionals are well positioned to design clinical programs and pathways to promote earlier diagnosis, better efficacy and safety monitoring, and timely access to targeted therapies to slow progression, reduce kidney damage, and delay or prevent end-stage renal disease.
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With the rapid decline in average sales price of reference pegfilgrastim products due to biosimilar competition, health care institutions and payers may grapple with coverage of Neulasta Onpro.
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AbbVie's adalimumab (Humira) is the top-selling pharmaceutical in the world. Due to concerns about government health program spending on Humira, the US House Committee on Oversight and Accountability opened an investigation in 2019 to investigate AbbVie's pricing and marketing practices. ⋯ These strategies are not unique to AbbVie and shed light on pharmaceutical market dynamics that may be hindering a competitive market. Policy reform and legal initiatives may help reduce anticompetitive behaviors by pharmaceutical manufacturers and increase access to competitive therapeutic options such as biosimilars.