SMA Informatics 

The 2015 Impact Report encompasses 25 CMS programs and nearly 700 quality measures from 2006 to 2013 and employs nine key research questions.  A Technical Expert Panel (TEP) of quality measurement leaders from across the healthcare industry and a Federal Assessment Steering Committee (FASC), consisting of stakeholders from CMS and other U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies, were convened to provide input into the report.

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2015 National Impact Assessment Report
2015 National Impact Assessment Appendices

It’s a problem once thought to be intractable, and yet pregnancy and birth rates for black and Latina teens have dropped precipitously in the past two decades—at a much faster clip than that of white teens.

Despite this, black and Latina girls are more than twice as likely as white girls to become pregnant before they leave adolescence.

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Just as an estimated 3.9 million Americans are reaching 65 years old this year1, an Accenture survey shows there is growing demand among tech-savvy seniors (67 percent) who want to access healthcare services from home, but the majority (66 percent) are worried today’s technology isn’t sufficient to do so.

“Just as seniors are turning to digital tools for banking, shopping, entertainment and communications, they also expect to handle certain aspects of their healthcare services online,” said Kaveh Safavi M.D., global managing director of Accenture’s health business. “What this means for healthcare systems is that they need to consider the role that digital technology can play in making healthcare more convenient for patients of all ages at every touch point.”

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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has reported that millions of seniors and people with disabilities on Medicare have saved billions of dollars on prescription drugs and had improved benefits in 2014 under the Affordable Care Act. Seniors and people with disabilities saved an average of $941 per beneficiary last year. The use of preventive services has also increased among people with Medicare.

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The price of Gilead Sciences' breakthrough drug Sovaldi has drawn all of the attention this year. By pricing it at $85,000 for a 12-week course, Gilead Sciences ($GILD) has been pilloried by politicians, payers and providers. But as EvaluatePharma points out, at that price Sovaldi barely makes it into the top 20 most expensive drugs, number 19 to be exact, just above Novartis' ($NVS) Gleevec and just below GlaxoSmithKline's ($GSK) Mekinist.

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