Value-based care contracting is especially difficult for behavioral health providers, Taft Parsons III, chief psychiatric officer at CVS Health/Aetna, pointed out during a conference this week.

The post CVS Health Exec: Payers Need to Stop Making Behavioral Health Providers Jump Through Hoops In Order to Participate in Value-Based Care appeared first on MedCity News.

During a panel discussion at the Behavioral Health Tech conference, experts shared the promise psychedelic medicines hold for mental health and why employers may want to consider offering them as a workplace benefit.

The post 4 Things Employers Should Know About Psychedelic Medicines appeared first on MedCity News.

Building trust while simultaneously building products, selling, recruiting, and fundraising can feel impossible. But it’s required whether you have the time or not, and it doesn’t stop no matter how big you grow.

The post The Trust-Building Playbook: 5 Tips Every Digital Health Marketer Needs to Know appeared first on MedCity News.

By fostering collaboration and seamless data integration into healthcare systems, the industry is laying the groundwork for a future in which “personalized medicine” is so commonplace within clinical practice that we will just start calling it “medicine.”

The post Driving Genetic Testing Adoption and Improved Patient Care through Health Data Intelligence appeared first on MedCity News.

Whitney Haggerson — vice president of health equity and Medicaid at Providence — discussed the significance of her role, as well as how her health system is working to give all employees, regardless of title, the skills needed to help reduce health inequities.

The post Inside Providence’s Health Equity & Medicaid Strategy appeared first on MedCity News.

Access to care isn’t enough. Healthcare organizations need to build trust in order to reach underserved communities, experts said on a recent panel.

The post How Can Healthcare Organizations Earn Trust with Marginalized Communities? appeared first on MedCity News.

Top challenges impacting specialty pharmacy outcomes, and how health systems may achieve efficiencies and enhance performance for optimal outcomes.

The post An Integrated Approach to Optimizing Specialty Pharmacy and Accelerating Performance appeared first on MedCity News.

AbbVie schizophrenia drug candidate emraclidine failed to beat a placebo in two Phase 2 clinical trials. The drug, once projected to compete with Bristol Myers Squibb’s Cobenfy, is from AbbVie’s $8.7 billion acquisition of Cerevel Therapeutics.

The post AbbVie Drug Expected to Rival Bristol Myers’s New Schizophrenia Med Flunks Phase 2 Test appeared first on MedCity News.

During a recent panel, experts discussed the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program (MCPAP) for Moms and how it achieved scale.

The post How One Massachusetts Maternal Mental Health Program Scaled Across the Country appeared first on MedCity News.

Fort Health’s $5.5 million in funding was led by Twelve Below and Vanterra and included participation from Redesign Health, Blue Venture Fund and True Wealth Ventures.

The post Fort Health Secures $5.5M to Expand Access to Integrated Pediatric Mental Health Care appeared first on MedCity News.

Now is the time for health plans to step up and embrace the tools and strategies that will not only meet regulatory demands, but also drive innovation in care delivery. 

The post Where Medicare Advantage Goes From Here appeared first on MedCity News.

In 2018, opioid overdoses in the United States caused one death every 11 minutes, resulting in nearly 47,000 fatalities. The most effective treatments for opioid use disorder (OUD) are three medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA): methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone.

Few correctional facilities in the United States have treatment programs for individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD), despite clear evidence that certain medications reduce the risk of overdose and death. Even in facilities where treatment is available, the COVID-19 pandemic has complicated efforts to provide such care.

The Pew Charitable Trusts sent comments Jan. 4 to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) urging them to support the easy exchange of individuals’ health records through a pair of regulations.

Breaking COVID-19’s chain of transmission requires effective physical distancing, contact tracing and rapid analyses of demographic data to reveal illness clusters and populations at high risk, such as people older than 65, Latinos and Blacks.

In vitro diagnostics (IVDs) play an indispensable role in modern medicine. Health care providers routinely rely on these tests—which analyze samples such as blood or saliva—to help diagnose conditions and guide potentially life-altering treatment decisions. In 2017, for example, clinicians ordered blood tests during about 45% of emergency room visits in the United States, according to the Centers...

Between 1999 and 2014, opioid use disorder (OUD) among pregnant women more than quadrupled, risking the health of the women—before and after giving birth—and their infants. As states grapple with COVID-19’s exacerbation of the opioid crisis, several are taking innovative steps to address the needs of high-risk groups, including low-income, postpartum patients with OUD.

The Pew Charitable Trusts today commended Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D), state Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R), and Lee Chatfield (R)—whose term as state House Speaker ended last month—for passing and signing a bipartisan package of bills aimed at protecting public safety while reducing the number of people in county jails.

Sales of medically important antibiotics for use in food-producing animals increased 3% in 2019, according to recent data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This is the second year in a row that the quantities of antibiotics sold for animal use have risen, underscoring the need for further FDA action to ensure judicious use of these lifesaving drugs.

2020 was a difficult year for dental providers as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the country. When stay-at-home orders went into effect in the spring, dental offices closed their doors to all but emergency patients.

Technology has revolutionized the way people live their lives. Individuals can use smartphones to access their bank account, shop from almost any store, and connect with friends and family around the globe. In fact, these personal devices have tethered communities together during the coronavirus pandemic, allowing many people to maintain much of their lives remotely.

After four years of negotiations, European lawmakers agreed on June 15 on a new EU Medical Devices Regulation (MDR). The MDR is the equivalent to the FDA’s CDRH regulations in the United States and essentially specifies the applicable rules when importing medical devices into Europe, which is the world’s second-largest device market. Rules relate, for...… Continue Reading

Pharmaceutical and biotech companies breathed a sigh of relief Monday when the Federal Circuit unanimously ruled in a precedential opinion that the mere sale of manufacturing services to create embodiments of a patented product is not a “commercial sale” of the invention that triggers the on-sale bar of 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) (pre-AIA).[1]  The en banc opinion...… Continue Reading

Hospitals across the U.S. have significantly restricted the use of pain medications containing narcotics. This shift comes amid […]

Jardiance is a popular drug used to treat type 2 diabetes and help reduce cardiovascular risk. DTC campaigns […]

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced a 2.9% cut to Medicare physician payments for […]

We’ve all seen Medicare Advantage (MA) plans become a significant player in the healthcare industry. Yet, with the […]

This new program offers two immersive program levels, industry-recognized credentials, classroom instruction, around-the-clock access to SAS software and course materials, and more.

This paper provides recommendations for circumventing memory problems and reducing execution times for your mixed-modeling analyses, as well as showing the new HPMIXED procedure can be beneficial for certain situations, as with large sparse mixed models.

This paper provides an example that shows you how to use multiple RANDOM statements in PROC NLMIXED to fit nested nonlinear mixed models, and it provides details about the computation that is involved in fitting these models.

Johnson & Johnson must pay US$15 million (S$19.6 million) to a Connecticut man who alleges that he developed mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer, as a result of using the company's talc powder for decades, a jury found on Tuesday (Oct 15). Plaintiff Evan Plotkin sued the company in 2021 soon after his diagnosis, saying he was sickened by inhaling J&J's baby powder. The jury in Fairfield County, Connecticut Superior Court also found that the company should pay additional punitive damages, which will be determined later by the judge overseeing the case. "Evan Plotkin and his trial team are thrilled that a jury once again decided to hold Johnson & Johnson accountable for their marketing and sale of a baby powder product that they knew contained asbestos," Ben Braly, a lawyer for Plotkin, said in an email. Erik Haas, J&J's worldwide vice president of litigation, said in a statement that the company would appeal "erroneous" rulings by the trial judge that kept the jury from hearing critical facts about the case.

NEW YORK – Moves by major US fast-food chains to temporarily scrub fresh onions off their menus on Oct 24, after the vegetable was named as the likely source of an E. coli outbreak at McDonald’s, laid bare the recurring nightmare for restaurants: Produce is a bigger problem for restaurants to keep free of contamination than beef. Onions are likely the culprit in the McDonald’s E. coli outbreak across the Midwest and some Western states that has sickened 49 people and killed one, the US Department of Agriculture said late on Oct 23. The company pulled the Quarter Pounder off its menu at one-fifth of its 14,000 US restaurants. In past years, beef patties dominated the dockets of food-borne-illness lawyers, before US federal health regulators cracked down on beef contamination after an E. coli outbreak linked to Jack in the Box burgers hospitalised more than 170 people across states and killed four. As a result, beef-related outbreaks became much rarer, experts say.

Michelle Yeoh had never heard of Wicked before she was asked to join the cast of the movie-musical. The Oscar-winning actress plays Madame Morrible in the new film version of the hit stage show, which is based around characters first seen on screen in 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz. She's confessed she knew nothing about the popular musical before she was approached by director Jon M. Chu about joining the cast. According to The Hollywood Reporter, she said: "At that point, I had no clue what he was talking about because I had not seen Wicked the musical before. I knew Wizard of Oz, who doesn't, but not Wicked because I hadn't been going to the theatres and was not doing what I love which is watching musicals for quite a while, I hate to say." The new movie stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda during their time at Shiz University in the Land of Oz with Michelle's character Madame Morrible serving as the school's headmistress. Michelle went on to say: "So I read it [the script] and called Jon back and said, 'This is a musical and she sings'. And he said, 'Oh easy, you'll have fun, you're up for the challenge.'

Monday blues were non-existent at the Singapore Indoor Stadium yesterday (Nov 11) as fans of Blackpink's Lisa strolled into the venue in their Y2K-style outfits inspired by the Thai singer's Rockstar music video. Singapore was the first stop for the 27-year-old's first solo fan-meet tour and needless to say, the excitement could be felt, and heard. Once the lights turned off and Lisa appeared, the screams were deafening. The show started with a bang, fittingly with her self-titled hit song Lalisa. Usually at fan-meets of K-pop idols, the special effects are kept to a minimum unlike concerts. PHOTO: UnUsUaL Entertainment But at Lisa's, the performances were elevated with bursts of pyrotechnics and visual effects. After the first song, she sat down for a few interactive segments. During Welcome Lisa, she tried local delicacies like kaya toast and chicken rice.

The quest for realism in Thai drama The Empress of Ayodhaya went too far when a cat was reportedly drugged in a poisoning scene. In episode five of the show, the character Indravedi (Fern Nopjira Lerkkajornnamkul) suspects her drink has been drugged, so she asks nanny Thongdee (Ja Molywon Phantara) to test it out on the black feline. The cat can be seen convulsing and retching, and the camera moves to show Indravedi looking concerned, while Thongdee declares that it is dead. The scene caused public outrage with fears that the cat had actually been killed, and calls to ban the period drama were trending on X. On Nov 7, a now-deleted X account reportedly belonging to Ja posted: "The cat didn't actually die. We put it under anaesthesia, but while filming, the cat retched and seized." She and Fern initially thought the cat had actually died while filming and their faces "turned pale", she added.

South Korean actor Song Jae-rim died yesterday (Nov 12) at the age of 39. The Seongdong Police Station in Seoul confirmed that he was found deceased in his apartment at around 12.30pm. According to media reports, a friend whom he was supposed to meet for lunch had visited his home and reported the death. A two-page letter was reportedly found at the scene but the cause of death has not been confirmed. A police official, however, stated that there are "no signs of foul play". His wake was held at Yeouido St. Mary’s Hospital Funeral Hall at 5.30pm yesterday. His funeral will be held tomorrow at Seoul City Crematorium. Jae-rim gained popularity after starring in the 2012 drama The Moon Embracing the Sun and the 2014 reality series We Got Married. This year, he starred in two dramas — My Military Valentine and Queen Woo. Following news of his death, comedian Hong Seok-cheon and other celebrities posted tributes to Jae-rim on social media.

LONDON — Britain is to debate whether to legalise assisted dying for the terminally ill, potentially paving the way for the law to change. Below is a list of countries which allow people to choose to end their lives or are considering doing so.  Switzerland Switzerland legalised assisted dying in 1942 on the condition the motive is not selfish, making it the first country in the world to permit the practice. Doctors can prescribe drugs and administer them or had them over for self-administration. A number of Swiss organisations such as Dignitas offer their services to foreign nationals.   United States Medical aid in dying, also known as physician assisted dying is legal in 10 states: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Washington, plus the District of Columbia. Oregon was the first state to legalise it under a law which came into effect in 1997. It allows mentally competent patients who are terminally ill and with less than six months to live to ask for life-ending medication. People from outside Oregon may travel to the state to take advantage of the law. 

WASHINGTON — US President-elect Donald Trump said on Nov 12 that Elon Musk and former Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency. Musk and Ramaswamy "will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies", Trump said in a statement. Trump said their work would conclude by July 4, 2026, adding that a smaller and more efficient government would be a "gift" to the country on the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Businessman and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy attends Donald Trump's campaign event sponsored by conservative group Turning Point Action, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, Oct 24, 2024. PHOTO: Reuters file The appointments reward two Trump supporters from the private sector.

The Public Service has expressed its commitment to implementing flexible work arrangements (FWAs) for its employees, taking into account the workforce's changing needs. In a written answer to a Parliamentary question posed by Choa Chu Kang GRC MP Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim on Monday (Nov 11), Minister-in-charge of the Public Service Chan Chun Sing said the Government recognises the growing need for FWAs, given Singapore's demographic changes and its ever-changing demands on Singaporeans. Zhulkarnain had asked whether the Civil Service will continue to support flexible working arrangements despite some companies in the private sector requiring employees to work from the office five days a week. Grab Singapore, for example, said it will enforce its five-day return-to-office mandate starting Dec 2, reported CNA. Referencing the Tripartite Guidelines on FWA Requests (TG-FWAR), which will be enforced starting Dec 1, Chan stressed the importance of such arrangements in supporting working caregivers, encouraging workforce re-entry, sustaining labour force participation, and attracting and retaining talent.

The Community Disputes Resolution Tribunals (CDRT) will be able to mandate mental health treatment for those who cause unreasonable interferences in the community if a bill to amend the Community Disputes Resolution Act (CDRA) goes through.  The bill was proposed in Parliament by Minister for Community, Culture and Youth Edwin Tong on Tuesday (Nov 12). The CDRT currently hears disputes under CDRA between neighbours involving acts of unreasonable interference with the enjoyment or use of places of residence. Under the bill, the tribunal will be able to issue Mandatory Treatment Orders (MTO) should there be a belief that the acts of disturbance stem from an underlying psychiatric condition. "In those cases, the issue therefore is not just a disamenity one," Minister Tong said. "Hence, the MTO is intended to address the root cause of certain acts that a resident may engage in." Tong added that their priority remains in persuading the resident to go for treatment voluntarily, and that the CDRT-issued MTO is a measure of last resort. There are also criteria that must be met for the MTO to be issued.

As a group of friends circled a hearse, chants were heard. Then, they stopped and bowed to the portrait displayed at the front of the vehicle. This was not a typical Buddhist funeral, but rather the unconventional birthday celebration of a funeral director, reported Shin Min Daily News. According to the Chinese evening daily, a video circulating online showed the friends chanting a birthday song. The hearse's interior had been decorated with balloons and a birthday banner, with the man even laying inside for photos. The clip garnered criticism from netizens, with some deeming it overboard and disrespectful to the funeral industry. In an interview with Shin Min, director of Xin An Funeral Services Chen Weisong (transliteration) explained that he had celebrated his birthday at the company's premises with his friends and family last week. Halfway through the performances by singers, his employees and business partners had surprised him with the birthday-themed hearse bearing his portrait. Chen told 8world he was not angry and did not think it was taboo. "I was too embarrassed to turn down their gesture," he said. 

In July 2024, internet personality Bobby Saputra posted a video of himself living it up at what appeared to be the star-studded, ultra-lavish wedding of Radhika Merchant and Anant Ambani, the youngest child of Indian billionaire and Asia's richest man, Mukesh Ambani. The video featured clips of Saputra dancing, feasting and soaking up the "completely crazy" celebrations. He gushes in the voiceover: "It was like watching a Bollywood production." The video quickly went viral, racking up 6.6 million views on Instagram, 5.1 million on TikTok, and another 2.2 million on YouTube. Thousands left comments, including some celebrities who claimed they spotted him there. Except… he never set foot in the party. As it turns out, he had pieced together clips from a wedding he attended a few months prior — complete with him in full Indian attire, dancing with friends — and spliced in shots from the Ambani wedding that he found online. The result? Social media magic.

LAHORE — Pakistan's Punjab province banned most outdoor activities and ordered shops, markets and malls in some areas to close early from Monday (Nov 11) to curb illnesses caused by intense air pollution. The province has closed educational institutions and public spaces like parks and zoos until Nov. 17 in places including Lahore, the world's most polluted city in terms of air quality, according to Swiss group IQAir's live ratings. The districts of Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad and Gujranwala have seen an unprecedented rise in patients with respiratory diseases, eye and throat irritation, and pink eye disease, the Punjab government said in an order issued late on Sunday. The new restrictions will also remain in force until Nov. 17. "The spread of conjunctivitis/ pink eye disease due to bacterial or viral infection, smoke, dust or chemical exposure is posing a serious and imminent threat to public health," the Punjab government said.

CANBERRA — China is putting ever-greater pressure on the Philippines to cede its sovereign rights in the South China Sea, Secretary of National Defence Gilberto Teodoro said on Nov 12 after a meeting with his Australian counterpart in Canberra. "What we see is an increasing demand by Beijing for us to concede our sovereign rights in the area," he said, adding that the Philippines was a "victim of Chinese aggression". China and the Philippines have sparred repeatedly this year over disputed areas of the South China Sea, including the Scarborough Shoal, one of Asia's most contested features. Teodoro's meeting with his Australian counterpart Richard Marles, their fifth since August 2023, reflects growing security ties between the countries, both of whom have expressed concern about Chinese activity in areas of the South China Sea claimed by the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations. The two nations signed a strategic partnership in September 2023 and held their first joint sea and air patrols in the South China Sea several months later. The Philippines also joined war games in Australia this year for the first time.

Dec 5, 2023

David W. Kearn argues that deployment of nuclear weapons cannot rectify a perceived imbalance in conventional forces in the western Pacific.

Dec 15, 2023

Mariana Budjeryn writes: War never stops at the border, especially on a continent like Europe. The European Union absorbed millions of Ukrainian war refugees and poured billions of euros into Ukraine's defenses and economic survival. The war permanently reshaped Europe: its demographics, political economy, and energy architecture are shifting in ways that will have irreversible long-term consequences. All of this is because in a very real sense Ukraine already is inextricably woven into the fabric of Europe: Ukraine’s pain is Europe’s pain and Ukraine’s gain will inevitably be Europe's gain, too.

Aug 1, 2023

Using the private journals of commission secretaries Henry Marie Brackenridge and Dr. William Baldwin, as well as Captain Sinclair, this chapter will explore the establishment of American naval identity through its diplomatic experiences in South America. It will also exhibit the role of the U.S. Navy in a proto framework of the Monroe Doctrine.

Shahbaz noted that Zardari appealed to the PML-N to avoid mentioning allegations that former Chief Justice Hamid Dogar had arranged preferential treatment for his daughter's school admission

‘If Mumbai attack suspects arrested in Pakistan are freed, India is at fault'