A Pennsylvania pharmacy-based intervention program could help patients and insurers alike save money and live healthier lives, according to a study published in the August issue of Health Affairs.

Beyond five years, CABG was more cost effective than PCI using drug-eluting stents (DES-PCI) for treating patients with complex coronary artery disease (CAD), according to a study published online Aug. 1 in Circulation. 

Centers may be able to trim thousands of dollars off the cost of a transfemoral transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedure without compromising care using a minimalist approach, according to a recently published study. Only experienced facilities should adopt this strategy, though, the lead author told Cardiovascular Business.

A report from the Institute of Medicine that recommended redistributing funding for medical graduate education drew the ire of some professional societies and associations in a story by NPR.

Failing to adjust measures such as Medicare’s readmissions reduction program for sociodemographic factors will put already financially stressed safety net hospitals at risk and worsen healthcare disparities, according to an editorial published online July 22 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

“There is no more wasteful entity in medicine than a rushed doctor,” writes cardiologist Sandeep Jauhur, MD, in an opinion piece in the New York Times. Jauhur, director of the heart failure program at the North Shore-Long Island Health System in New York, explains how cutting physician pay leads to more downstream costs.

Medicare and private insurers take note: Home blood pressure (BP) monitoring for hypertension is cost effective. So cover it, the American Heart Association (AHA) advocates. 

Follow-up of incidental findings of pulmonary nodules (PN) during coronary CT angiography (CCTA) reduces deaths from lung cancer but at the price of increased downstream testing, making the practice of dubious value, researchers reported online July 11 in Circulation.