The American journal of managed care
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In response to study findings showing the risk of cardiovascular adverse events associated with testosterone therapy, the FDA issued safety warnings in 2014 and modified testosterone labeling in March 2015 to indicate the increased risk of stroke and heart attack. It is unknown whether there were changes in testosterone marketing practices by pharmaceutical companies following the FDA label warning. Both primary care physicians (PCPs) and non-PCPs prescribe testosterone and are targeted by pharmaceutical marketing representatives to encourage testosterone prescribing. ⋯ After the black box warning, off-label testosterone advertisements stopped. This reduction in advertising could have made it more attractive for pharmaceutical companies to increase their marketing spending targeting non-PCPs and physicians in urban areas. Understanding responses of pharmaceutical companies to FDA guidelines is important and can help inform future guideline initiatives.
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To study the association between Medicare's wage index adjustment and the differential use of labor-intensive surgical procedures and medical device-intensive minimally invasive clinical procedures across the United States. ⋯ Consistent with our framework and hypothesis, our results highlight the importance of adjusting Medicare hospital inpatient payments for device-intensive procedures. Absent such adjustment, access to appropriate interventions may be reduced in areas with low wage index, and lower reimbursement, when driven by wage index adjustment, may influence the treatment approach selected.
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Observational Study
Association of 340B contract pharmacy growth with county-level characteristics.
To estimate the association of 340B contract pharmacy growth between 2009 and 2019 with county-level characteristics, including availability of health care providers, health care spending, population, and socioeconomic characteristics. ⋯ Our results add systematic evidence of a difference in how the 2 main types of 340B participants-hospitals and safety-net clinics-use the 340B program. Policy proposals to reform 340B should consider reforms for safety-net clinics and hospitals separately.
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Three different out-of-pocket (OOP) maximums in Medicare Part D have been proposed: $2000 by the House of Representatives, $3100 by the Senate Finance Committee, and the beginning of catastrophic coverage by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. However, little is known about how beneficiaries would be affected. ⋯ As currently drafted, proposed OOP maximums would reduce OOP spending for a small population of Part D beneficiaries, with savings concentrated among beneficiaries with the very highest costs who are taking specialty medications.
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Empiric segmentation is a rapidly growing, learning health system approach that uses large health care system data sets to identify groups of high-risk patients who may benefit from similar interventions. We aimed to review studies that used data-driven approaches to segment high-risk patient populations and describe how their designs and findings can inform health care leaders who are interested in applying similar techniques to their patient populations. ⋯ Empiric segmentation can yield clinically relevant groups of patients with complex medical needs. Segmentation results are context dependent, suggesting the need for careful design and interpretation of segmentation models to ensure that results can inform clinical care and program design in the target setting.