Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Here they are: Human-centric by design. The development and use of AI technologies align with ethical and human-centric values. Risk-based approach. The development and use of AI technologies follow a risk-based approach with proportionate validation, risk mitigation, and oversight based on the context of use and determined model risk. Adherence to standards. AI technologies adhere…
From CMS yesterday: On January 27, 2026, CMS announced the selection of the below list of 15 drugs payable under Medicare Part B and/or covered under Medicare Part D for the third cycle of negotiations (initial price applicability year 2028), based on total expenditures for drugs payable under Part B and/or covered under Part D…
President Trump unveiled “The Great Healthcare Plan” on January 15, 2026, calling on Congress to reduce prescription drug prices, lower insurance premiums, and increase healthcare price transparency. The plan proposes four main components: codifying Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) drug pricing agreements that the administration has negotiated with 16 pharmaceutical manufacturers, targeting prices at the lowest international levels;…
Life science options for commercialization success. There were fewer births in China in 2025 than in 1776. The end of vaccine development? “Medicare Part D led to a slower increase in AMR-related inpatient discharges” Is mobility the missing quality measure?
That is the topic of an Evidence Base article out today titled “Reflecting on 2025, looking to 2026: Experts outline what to expect for drug pricing and market access“. In the article, a variety of experts reflect on how 2025 reshaped the global drug pricing and market access landscape as well as predict what to…
How will HEOR leaders respond to recent policy changes? A survey from Tufts and the Center for the Evaluation of Value and Risk in Health (CEVR) provides the answer. About 2/3 of the n=57 respondents were Head of their HEOR department and the remaining 1/3 had some other senior level HEOR role. Whereas 29.8% of…
That is according to the 2024 national health expenditure data published in Health Affairs last week (Hartman et al. 2026). Here is the abstract: Health care spending in the US reached $5.3 trillion and increased 7.2 percent in 2024, similar to growth of 7.4 percent in 2023, as increased demand for health care influenced this two-year trend. As…
The Economist reports that many life science companies are betting big on AI to help with drug development. Why? If AI can increase their likelihood new molecules become successful drugs, the cost of drug development will fall. AI-designed molecules show an 80-90% success rate in early-stage safety trials, compared with a historical average of just…
That is the finding from Daysal et al. (2025). We reproduce the results from an RCT showing the life-saving benefits of radiotherapy. We show radiation therapy also has economic returns: Ten years after diagnosis, treatment increases employment by 37 percent and earnings by 45 percent. Previous work has documented a substantial employment drop after a…
That is the tile of my recent paper in the Journal of Medical Economics with co-authors Kyi-Sin Than, Sanjana Muthukrishnan, Jincy Paulose, Ver Bilano and Nicholas Kuypers. The abstract is below: ObjectiveParoxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) is a rare and debilitating hematological disease with significant economic burden. Despite the availability of multiple therapies, there is a…