Research

Over half of Medicare beneficiaries in stand-alone Part D plans kept their coverage without comparing plans during the last enrollment period, and many reported not knowing how to switch plans.

More recent cohorts aging into Medicare seek significantly more counseling and psychotherapy than prior cohorts, suggesting that plans must prepare to accommodate the needs of new Medicare entrants.

States with naloxone access laws permitting pharmacists to dispense to consumers experienced substantially greater naloxone dispensing after Narcan’s introduction.

Expected monthly out-of-pocket costs for a typical enrollee were about 18-24% lower in Medicare Advantage in recent years, which likely helped fuel the program’s enrollment surge.

With more robust data, and better ways to approximate the undocumented population, health systems will be better equipped to identify root causes health disparities and deploy interventions to improve the health of undocumented communities.

Although previous legislation technically closed the Part D coverage gap, patients still faced mid-year out-of-pocket increases. The Inflation Reduction Act’s standard benefit design eliminates the coverage gap in 2025.

Disputes were dominated by just a few health plans and private equity-backed providers, making it hard to determine if IDR awards reflect the overall market for out-of-network care.

Patients receiving higher doses of buprenorphine were less likely to later require emergency department services or an inpatient hospital stay, researchers found.

The urban-rural gap in life expectancy and health quality for men nearing retirement age has widened over two decades.

Rebalancing the healthcare system to favor prevention and cures can potentially reduce the long-term burden of chronic diseases.