Nudging Clinicians Toward Higher-Value Cancer Care
In a new study published in JAMA Oncology, my colleagues and I find that behavioral nudges can promote high-value, evidence-based prescribing of specialty drugs in cancer care. For patients with breast, lung, and prostate cancer with bone metastases, clinicians face a decision between two therapies of comparable effectiveness but dramatically different cost.
Medicaid Expansion’s Effects on Patients with Newly Diagnosed, Common Screenable Cancers
In our study of nearly a million patients with newly diagnosed breast, colon, or lung cancer, the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion was associated with a decreased rate of uninsurance and a shift toward earlier-stage cancer diagnosis. Despite concerns that coverage expansions would result in longer wait times for treatment, my colleagues and I found no evidence that Medicaid expansion worsened access to timely cancer-directed therapies.