Prescription drugs too costly? Changing Medicare health plans could save money

Kristian Stensland, M.D., M.S., M.P.H., assistant professor of urology, is leading a team of U-M Rogel Cancer Center and IHPI researchers who want to make people more broadly aware of Part D open enrollment and the free Medicare Plan Finder tool that makes comparing costs easier.

In a recent study that used the plan finder to evaluate the cost of two drugs commonly prescribed for prostate cancer, the team found that patients could potentially save $9,000 a year by comparing plans. Despite such significant cost differences, fewer than 30% of patients report comparing drug plan pricing.  

This work was funded by the Rogel Cancer Center and the Institute for Healthcare Policy & Innovation, through the Policy Sprints Program.

Spotlight on Alzheimer's & Dementia Research

Research by IHPI experts examines the health services landscape for people with Alzheimer's Disease and related dementias:

New $81M NIH grant will help U.S. answer urgent need for better dementia care

A research team led by Donovan Maust, M.D., M.S., received a five-year, $81 million funding award to improve the understanding of the healthcare workforce that serves people with dementia and to produce data for clinicians, researchers, policymakers, and others to use. READ MORE

Characteristics of Emergency Department Visits Among Older Adults with Dementia 

A new brief from a Center to Accelerate Population Research in Alzheimer’s team led by Lauren Gerlach, D.O., M.Sc., finds that among over 20 million annual ED visits by U.S. older adults, 1.4 million were by patients with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. READ MORE

Dementia’s Financial & Family Impact: New Study Shows Outsize Toll

People diagnosed with dementia saw their out-of-pocket spending for health care more than double, and their net worth decline by more than 60%, within the first eight years of being diagnosed, a new study by HwaJung Choi, Ph.D., M.A., and colleagues finds. READ MORE

Minding Memory Podcast: People Living with Dementia and Exposure to Natural Disasters

Sue Anne Bell, Ph.D., FNP-BC, discusses her work examining how healthcare disruption due to a disaster can affect the population of older adults living with dementia. LISTEN TO THE EPISODE

U-M receives CDC grant to establish center to help fight disease outbreaks, protect public health

U-M is among 13 institutions that will receive funding from the CDC to be part of a national network of centers focused on predicting and responding to future disease outbreaks. Established by a $17.5 million grant, the new Michigan Public Health Integrated Center for Outbreak Analytics & Modeling will be led by associate professors of epidemiology Marisa Eisenberg, Ph.D., M.S., and Emily Martin, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Saint wins national VA Health Services Research award

Sanjay Saint, M.D., M.P.H., M.A.C.P., has earned the 2022 Veterans Affairs Under Secretary’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Health Services Research─ the highest national honor for a VA health services researcher. For more than two decades, Saint has been a pioneer in generating new knowledge to help prevent hospital-acquired infections and translating that knowledge to improve the health of Veterans and the nation. 

Older Adults' Views on Cancer Screening Guidelines

The majority of adults age 50−80 (62%) disagree that guidelines for stopping cancer-detecting tests, such as colonoscopies, should be based on life expectancy, according to new findings from the U-M National Poll on Healthy Aging.