Health Affairs

While Representative Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) most recent Medicare premium support proposal will be hotly debated during this charged political season, the more durable issue is what it means for the real debate on Medicare that looms after the election.  Regardless of who wins this November, the country is faced with a massive deficit, driven in... Read the rest of this entry »

A new study by Avalere Health, presented at the recent meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, analyzed the pharmacy claims of 10,508 commercially-insured and Medicare patients who required oral therapy for cancer. The purpose of the study was to assess the effects of cost-sharing on the abandonment of these medications. The analysis showed... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note: The authors of the post below, Dan Mendelson and Tanisha Carino, also wrote an earlier post on the initial decision of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to undertake a national coverage review of the cancer drug Provenge. In one of its most anticipated national coverage decisions (NCD), issued on March 30,... Read the rest of this entry »

Recent press reports on Medicare’s decision to evaluate coverage policy for the new cancer therapy Provenge were highly critical of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and its role in examining the evidence behind FDA-approved products.  Let’s take a step back. In fact, this is exactly what CMS should be doing – carefully... Read the rest of this entry »

An oft-heard criticism of the new health care law is that its major provisions do not kick in until 2014, leaving little immediate benefit for most Americans, especially those struggling in this economy. However, the reality is that the Affordable Care Act is already helping millions of low-income seniors who have had tenuous coverage for... Read the rest of this entry »