In June, the FDA approved aducanumab (Aduhelm) to treat patients with Alzheimer’s disease using the agency’s accelerated approval pathway, despite significant concerns about the evidence regarding the drug’s safety and effectiveness. …
Category: Policy
Prior authorization reform for health care coverage takes center stage
One of the leading reasons for provider frustration is prior authorizations. The insurance companies initially created prior authorization (prior auth) to keep down the cost of care when a service fee was the primary payment method for payers. However,…
Diagnosis: malformation of a health care system
In recent years, we have seen a magnificent increase in the accuracy of medical diagnoses. As the most compelling example, l propose the diagnosis provided by our country’s top clinicians with regard to what ails our health care system. Seasoned vetera…
We’ve had a single-payer health system all along
It’s one of the largest integrated health care systems in the United States. It takes care of over nine million patients in 170 hospitals within nearly every state. Its patients are on average, older, sicker, and more disadvantaged than the rest of the…
Declining Vaccine Efficacy—Particularly Among Older Individuals—Prompting Pfizer’s Emergency Booster Request, Former FDA Chief Says
Dr. Scott Gottlieb says the United States “probably missed the window” to provide the follow-up doses before a summer wave of infections.
Behavioral health providers face challenges in value-based care
Value-based care (VBC) continues to be a popular expression across the health care landscape, but the challenges and opportunities it offers are quite different across specialties. Behavioral health (BH) providers are an important case in point. The op…
Delta Variant Could Push U.S. Covid Immunity To 85%, Says Former FDA Head
Though it “could be a little worse,” the physician predicted Covid will effectively act as a “second circulating flu” this winter.
COVID-19 can be an opportunity to eliminate low-value health care
The COVID-19 pandemic has stretched health care systems across Canada beyond capacity. Surges of COVID-19 have strained available beds, exhausted health care workers and resources. Some regional and provincial health systems delayed all non-essential p…
Digital health equity is an emerging gap in health
Digital health equity is a new crisis that connects urban and rural health and impacts unique and diverse populations. Based on the World Health Organization, “health equity is defined as the absence of unfair and avoidable or remediable differences in…
People with addiction belong in clinics — not jails
“Doc, I can’t believe it. I can’t believe I’m here right now.” Though in his mid-60s, my patient had the wide-eyed bewilderment more familiar of a child. He was late for our first visit together — but he was there and agai…
