Estimated Savings From Extending Prescription Drug Inflationary Rebates To All Commercial Plans.

The inflationary rebate provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 require pharmaceutical manufacturers to pay money back to Medicare if they raise prices faster than the rate of inflation. Opportunities now exist for Congress and the states to extend inflationary rebates to commercial plans. We demonstrate the potential savings from applying inflationary rebates to prescriptions filled in commercial plans by simulating savings under several policy design options.

Design of the (FRESH) study: leveraging systems science to work with independently-owned restaurants to increase access to and promotion of healthful foods.

Background: High dietary quality can protect against diet-related chronic diseases. In the United States, racial and ethnic minorities and those with lower incomes consistently exhibit lower dietary quality. Independently-owned restaurants are a common prepared food source in minority low-income communities, but there are significant knowledge gaps on how to work with these restaurants to offer healthy food, due to underlying and dynamic complexities associated with providing healthy food options.

Factors and Perceptions Associated with Post-Pandemic Food Sourcing and Dietary Patterns among Urban Corner Store Customers in Baltimore, Maryland.

Objective: Diet-related disease is rising, disproportionately affecting minority communities in which small food retail stores swamp supermarkets. Barriers to healthy food access were exacerbated by the pandemic. We examined the following: (1) individual- and household-level factors in a sample of Baltimore community members who regularly shop at corner stores and (2) how these factors are associated with indicators of dietary quality.

Suggesting global insights to local challenges: expanding financing of rehabilitation services in low and middle-income countries.

Purpose: Following the rapid transition to non-communicable diseases, increases in injury, and subsequent disability, the world-especially low and middle-income countries (LMICs)-remains ill-equipped for increased demand for rehabilitative services and assistive technology. This scoping review explores rehabilitation financing models used throughout the world and identifies "state of the art" rehabilitation financing strategies to identify opportunities and challenges to expand financing of rehabilitation.

Material And Methods: We searched peer-reviewed and grey literature for articles containing information on rehabilitation financing in both LMICs and high-income countries.

Is economic growth enough to propel rehabilitation expenditures? An empirical analysis of country panel data and policy implications.

Purpose: Rehabilitation is a set of services designed to increase functioning and improve wellbeing across the life course. Despite being a core part of Universal Health Coverage, rehabilitation services often receive limited public expenditure, especially in lower income countries. This leads to limited service availability and high out of pocket payments for populations in need of care.

Design of an innovative digital application to facilitate access to healthy foods in low-income urban settings.

Background: Under-resourced urban minority communities in the United States are characterized by food environments with low access to healthy foods, high food insecurity, and high rates of diet-related chronic disease. In Baltimore, Maryland, low access to healthy food largely results from a distribution gap between small food sources (retailers) and their suppliers. Digital interventions have the potential to address this gap, while keeping costs low.

Exploring the Influence of Health Insurance Plans on Biosimilar Adoption Rates.

Background: We conducted a study to investigate the role of health insurance plans on biosimilar adoption among commercially insured patients in the USA. Flexible and rigid health plans may exhibit differing biosimilar coverage due to variations in cost considerations, formulary design, and provider networks.

Objective: To identify the characteristics of switchers and biosimilar initiators for six biologic-biosimilar pairs.

Improving COVID-19 vaccine uptake: a message co-design process for a national mHealth intervention in Colombia.

Background: COVID-19 vaccination is a global priority. Latin American countries have some of the highest COVID-19 death rates worldwide with vaccination hampered by a variety of reasons, including mis- and disinformation, vaccine hesitancy, and vaccine supply constraints. Addressing vaccine hesitancy through effective messages has been found to help increase vaccine uptake.

Examining Opportunities to Increase Savings From Medicare Price Negotiations.

Importance: Allowing the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to negotiate prescription drug prices for Medicare may improve drug affordability.

Objective: To estimate savings from Medicare price negotiation under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and examine opportunities to increase savings.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cross-sectional, population-based study used data from 2020 Medicare prescription drug claims.

The associations of continuity of care with inpatient, outpatient, and total medical care costs among older adults with urinary incontinence.

Introduction: Urinary incontinence is a significant health problem with considerable social and economic consequences among older adults. The objective of this study was to investigate the financial impact of continuity of care (CoC) among older urinary incontinence patients in South Korea.

Methods: We used the NHIS-Senior cohort patient data between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2010.

Strengthening HIV and HIV co-morbidity care in low- and middle-income countries: insights from behavioural economics to improve healthcare worker behaviour.

Introduction: Despite advances in HIV and HIV co-morbidity service delivery, substantial challenges remain in translating evidence-based interventions into routine practice to bring optimal care and prevention to all populations. While barriers to successful implementation are often multifactorial, healthcare worker behaviour is critical for on-the-ground and in-clinic service delivery. Implementation science offers a systematic approach to understanding service delivery, including approaches to overcoming delivery gaps.

Multi-purpose cash transfers and health among vulnerable Syrian refugees in Jordan: A prospective cohort study.

Cash assistance has rapidly expanded in the Syrian refugee response in Jordan and global humanitarian programming, yet little is known about the effect of multipurpose cash transfers (MPC) on health in humanitarian contexts. A prospective cohort study was conducted from May 2018 through July 2019 to evaluate the effectiveness of MPC in improving access to healthcare and health expenditures by Syrian refugees in Jordan. Households receiving MPCs (US$113-219 monthly) were compared to control households not receiving MPCs using difference-in-difference analyses.

Accelerated approval drug labels often lack information for clinical decision-making.

Study Objective: We evaluated US Food and Drug Administration labels for drugs approved under the accelerated approval pathway and whether these labels contained in sufficient information regarding their accelerated approval.

Design: Retrospective, observational, cohort study.

Data Source: Label information for drugs with an accelerated approved indication were ascertained from two online platforms: Drugs@FDA and FDA Drug Label Repository.

Effect of Ultra-High Pressure Homogenization (UHPH) and Conventional Thermal Pasteurization on the Volatile Composition of Tiger Nut Beverage.

Tiger nut beverages are non-alcoholic products that are characterized by their pale color and soft flavor. Conventional heat treatments are widely used in the food industry, although heated products are often damaging to their overall quality. Ultra-high pressure homogenization UHPH) is an emerging technology that extends the shelf-life of foods while maintaining most of their characteristics.

The price paradox of biosimilar-like long-acting insulin.

Objectives: To describe the uptake and out-of-pocket (OOP) costs of Basaglar, the first long-acting insulin biosimilar, in a commercially insured population in the United States.

Study Design: Retrospective analysis of commercial pharmacy claims and pharmacy co-payment offsets.

Methods: We assessed Basaglar uptake by examining trends in the composition of the long-acting insulin market in the United States from 2014 to 2018.

The Baltimore Urban Food Distribution (BUD) App: Study Protocol to Assess the Feasibility of a Food Systems Intervention.

Low-income urban communities in the United States commonly lack ready access to healthy foods. This is due in part to a food distribution system that favors the provision of high-fat, high-sugar, high-sodium processed foods to small retail food stores, and impedes their healthier alternatives, such as fresh produce. The Baltimore Urban food Distribution (BUD) study is a multilevel, multicomponent systems intervention that aims to improve healthy food access in low-income neighborhoods of Baltimore, Maryland.

Trajectories of prices in generic drug markets: what can we infer from looking at trajectories rather than average prices?

Background: Well-functioning competitive markets are key to controlling generic drug prices. This is important since over 90% of all drugs sold in the US are generics. Recently, there have been examples of large price increases in the generic market.

Medicare Spending on Drugs With Accelerated Approval.

Background: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration provides accelerated approval to drugs on the basis of surrogate end points deemed to be "reasonably likely" to predict clinical benefit.

A Novel Score for mHealth Apps to Predict and Prevent Mortality: Further Validation and Adaptation to the US Population Using the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Data Set.

Background: The C-Score, which is an individual health score, is based on a predictive model validated in the UK and US populations. It was designed to serve as an individualized point-in-time health assessment tool that could be integrated into clinical counseling or consumer-facing digital health tools to encourage lifestyle modifications that reduce the risk of premature death.

Objective: Our study aimed to conduct an external validation of the C-Score in the US population and expand the original score to improve its predictive capabilities in the US population.

Misinformation in nutrition through the case of coconut oil: An online before-and-after study.

Background And Aims: Despite recent scientific evidence indicating absence of cardiometabolic benefit resulting from coconut oil intake, its consumption has increased in recent years, which can be attributed to a promotion of its use on social networks. We evaluated the patterns, reasons and beliefs related to coconut oil consumption and its perceived benefits in an online survey of a population in southern Brazil.

Methods And Results: We conducted a before-and-after study using an 11-item online questionnaire that evaluated coconut oil consumption.

Cost-Effectiveness of the COVID-19 Test, Trace and Isolate Program in Colombia.

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Test-Trace-Isolate (TTI) programs have been recommended as a risk mitigation strategy. However, many governments have hesitated to implement them due to their costs. This study aims to estimate the cost-effectiveness of implementing a national TTI program to reduce the number of severe and fatal cases of COVID-19 in Colombia.

Design of financial incentive interventions to improve lifestyle behaviors and health outcomes: A systematic review.

: Financial incentives may improve the initiation and engagement of behaviour change that reduce the negative outcomes associated with non-communicable diseases. There is still a paucity in guidelines or recommendations that help define key aspects of incentive-oriented interventions, including the type of incentive (e.g.