05 Jan 2019

IT’S A LITTLE-KNOWN SECRET THAT PATIENTS CAN GET THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS DIRECTLY FROM A DRUGMAKER

      By Sarah Jane Tribble   Kip Burgess was relieved last year when pharmaceutical giant Amgen overnighted him a $2,976 check to help pay for his go-to arthritis drug, Enbrel. The 36-year-old psychologist had run into an increasingly common problem: The copay coupon sent by Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Amgen

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02 Jan 2019

IMPROVING WISELY: COLLABORATION HELPS IDENTIFY, CUT HEALTHCARE WASTE

By Vanessa Salvia In the elegant Presidential Ballroom of the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville, Martin “Marty” Makary, MD, addressed American College of Phlebology’s 32nd Annual Congress attendees eager to hear his message about how the program Improving Wisely is helping to reduce waste in healthcare. More than 1,200 registrants,

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31 Dec 2018

BOSTON SCIENTIFIC LINES UP FINANCING FOR ITS $4B BTG ACQUISITION

Now that everyone has said yes, Boston Scientific has gone to the banks to sign a number of new lending agreements, including a large credit facility it could use to finance its $4.2 billion acquisition offer for British medical device maker BTG plc. The information, which came from recently posted

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30 Dec 2018

BOSTON SCIENTIFIC ACQUIRING BTG

Boston Scientific has reached an agreement on the terms of a recommended offer to acquire BTG plc., a United Kingdom-based company that develops and commercializes products used in minimally-invasive procedures, targeting vascular diseases and cancer, as well as acute care pharmaceuticals. Under the terms of the transaction, holders of BTG’s

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14 Dec 2018

VOLUNTARY MACRA CODES MAY DETERMINE WHAT DOCTORS ARE PAID

New patient relationship categories and codes are one of the most important provisions of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), according to a piece in the New England Journal of Medicine. In January 2018, the billing-code modifiers, which allow clinicians to report their relationship to a patient at a

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11 Dec 2018

INSURANCE OBSTACLES TO TREATMENT BAFFLE PATIENTS SUFFERING FROM VENOUS REFLUX

    “My veins are covered by insurance, right? But, the XYZ Insurance Co. representative said my varicose veins are a covered benefit on my insurance plan.”    By James White, MD How many times have these words been uttered by potential patients upon arrival to our vein clinics? Yet,

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11 Dec 2018

VEIN911 CEO FORMS MANAGEMENT SERVICE FOR INDEPENDENT PRACTICES

    The CEO of Vein911 Vein Treatment Centers, 21-year cancer survivor and healthcare industry veteran Chris Pittman, MD, has launched Health Performance Specialists (HPS), a national Management Services Organization for independent physicians. HPS helps independent physicians compete, succeed and thrive in today’s medical practice environment. The organization is designed to disrupt current healthcare

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21 Nov 2018

BOSTON SCIENTIFIC ACQUIRING BTG

    Boston Scientific has reached an agreement on the terms of a recommended offer to acquire BTG plc., a United Kingdom-based company that develops and commercializes products used in minimally-invasive procedures, targeting vascular diseases and cancer, as well as acute care pharmaceuticals. Under the terms of the transaction, holders

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08 Nov 2018

VIVA 2018: BTG SENTRY BIOCONVERTIBLE IVC FILTER STUDY SHOWS FLAWLESS PERFORMANCE

  BTG plc highlighted the presentation of the two-year results for the SENTRY Trial at the Vascular Interventional Advances (VIVA) conference in Las Vegas. The prospective, multicenter trial of the BTG Sentry, the world’s first bioconvertible IVC filter, found that in addition to providing protection against pulmonary embolism (PE) during the

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06 Nov 2018

CMS RELEASES FINAL 2019 PHYSICIAN FEE SCHEDULE NOV. 1

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the final 2019 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) and the Quality Payment Program (QPP) rule Nov. 1. According to CMS officials, the final rule modernizes Medicare payment policies to promote access to virtual care, saving Medicare beneficiaries time and money while improving

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