Value-Based Insurance Design: Current Evidence and Future Directions.

Value-based insurance design (VBID) is an approach to designing insurance to align the use of health care services with some notion of value. While there is substantial federal interest in VBID and a growing body of evidence of its effects among populations covered by employer-sponsored plans, much of the focus has been on VBIDs that solely reduce cost sharing for certain treatments. The minority of VBIDs that have identified and increased cost sharing for low-value treatments have produced some promising results.

"You Really Do Have to Know the Local Context": IRB Administrators and Researchers on the Implications of the NIH Single IRB Mandate for Multisite Genomic Studies.

In 2016, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a new policy requiring single institutional review board (sIRB) review for multisite studies.

Changes in Self-Reported Health and Psychosocial Outcomes in Older Adults Enrolled in Sedentary Behavior Intervention Study.

Purpose: To estimate changes in self-reported health and psychosocial factors associated with a 12-week sedentary behavior intervention for older adults.

Design: Exploratory secondary analysis of pilot randomized controlled trial.

Setting: Kaiser Permanente Washington.

Balancing Hope and Risk Among Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Patients with Late-Stage Cancer: A Qualitative Interview Study.

Purpose: Previous studies have called for further research to explore adolescent and young adult (AYA) decision-making in the context of advanced cancer to understand the perspectives of this understudied population. We conducted a qualitative study with patients and providers to better understand the decision-making experience of AYA patients with advanced stages of cancer.

Methods: Semistructured qualitative telephone interviews were conducted from April 2016 to October 2016.

Outreach and Reminders to Improve Human Papillomavirus Vaccination in an Integrated Primary Care System.

This study evaluated the impact of health system-based outreach and reminders on human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine series initiation and completion. Parents of 10 to 12 year olds (n = 1805) were randomized to receive either (1) an outreach letter and brochure recommending HPV vaccination followed by automated HPV vaccine reminders or (2) usual care. We interviewed a subset of 50 parents to assess program acceptability.

Using Performance-Based Risk-Sharing Arrangements to Address Uncertainty in Indication-Based Pricing.

Background: The rise in pharmaceutical expenditures in recent years has increased health care payer interest in ensuring good value for the money. Indication-based pricing (IBP) sets separate, indication-specific prices paid to the manufacturer according to the expected efficacy of a drug in each of its indications. IBP allows payers to consistently pay for value across indications.

Paying for Cures: How Can We Afford It? Managed Care Pharmacy Stakeholder Perceptions of Policy Options to Address Affordability of Prescription Drugs.

Background: High-priced medications with curative potential, such as the newer hepatitis C therapies, have contributed to the recent growth in pharmaceutical expenditure. Despite the obvious benefits, health care decision makers are just beginning to grapple with questions of how to value and pay for curative therapies that may feature large upfront cost, followed by health benefits that are reaped over a patient's lifespan. Alternative policy options have been proposed to promote high value and financially sustainable use of these therapies.

Pilot Study of Therapy Dog Visits for Inpatient Youth With Cancer.

This study assessed the feasibility of studying animal-assisted activities (AAA) in inpatient pediatric oncology and collected preliminary data on potential benefits of AAA for this population. Patients at a large pediatric hospital were identified using electronic medical records and approached with physician approval. Patients completed surveys before and after a therapy dog visit in their private hospital room.

Longitudinal Trends in Vaccine Hesitancy in a Cohort of Mothers Surveyed in Washington State, 2013-2015.

Parents who refuse or delay vaccines because of vaccine hesitancy place children at increased risk for vaccine-preventable disease. How parental vaccine hesitancy changes as their children age is not known. In 2015, we conducted a follow-up survey of 237 mothers enrolled in a 2-arm clinic-level cluster randomized trial (n = 488) in Washington State that was completed in 2013.

The Immunity Community: A Community Engagement Strategy for Reducing Vaccine Hesitancy.

Parental concerns about vaccine safety have grown in the United States and abroad, resulting in delayed or skipped immunizations (often called "vaccine hesitancy"). To address vaccine hesitancy in Washington State, a public-private partnership of health organizations implemented and evaluated a 3-year community intervention, called the "Immunity Community." The intervention mobilized parents who value immunization and provided them with tools to engage in positive dialogue about immunizations in their communities.