Articles
The Price Will Be Right—How to Help Patients and Providers Benefit from the New CMS Transparency Rule (2/19, Jeffrey T. Kullgren, MD, MS, MPH and A. Mark Fendrick, MD, JAMA Health Forum) comments “...The continued movement away from fee-for-service reimbursement to quality-driven, alternative payment models supports interventions that seek to enhance access to, and affordability of, clinically indicated services. Greater price transparency could help providers reach targets that are often rewarded in these models. For example, information about the total and out-of-pocket prices of services could assist providers in achieving incentives through the CMS Merit-based Incentive Payment System.” Full
Pain Relief Device Uses Real-World Evidence to Gain Clearance, Expanding Options for Kids (2/22, Stacey Paris McCutcheon, Stanford Medicine: Scope) reports “...‘This was one of the first-ever uses of real-world evidence to achieve regulatory clearance for a pediatric population,’ said [pediatric surgeon James Wall, MD]. ‘It's an approach that holds huge promise as an accessible regulatory pathway that maintains high standards of safety and efficacy for patients. Our hope is that more device manufacturers follow suit, which will make more new technologies available to pediatric patients.’” Full
Study Shows Real-World Effectiveness of Moderna and Pfizer/BioNtech Vaccines (2/21, Sally Robertson, B.Sc., News Medical) reports “Researchers in the United States have conducted a study demonstrating the real-world effectiveness of the recently approved Moderna and Pfizer/BioNtech vaccines at protecting against infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – the agent that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The team – from Nference in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota –says the findings are on par with the results reported in large phase 3 randomized clinical trials.” Full
The Promise of Precision Medicine (2/22, Richard O’Kennedy, PMLiVE) comments “...Precision medicine holds huge potential, but we still have a long way to go before we’ll see it integrated into healthcare around the world. One of the challenges that needs to be tackled as a priority is proving the value of precision medicine. It has the potential to be more cost- effective in the long term. Treating people when they are unwell is expensive – and with an ageing population at hand, future healthcare systems are likely to be put under even more pressure.” Full