Congress is out of town this coming week following the Presidents’ Day holiday.
Healthcare Dive provides a helpful review of large publicly traded health insurer fourth quarter 2019 financial results. “Every major payer reported an uptick in their medical cost ratios and many boasted of increased enrollment.”
The FEHBlog admires Kaiser Health News for its sensible approach to reporting on the COVID-19 epidemic in China. The Wall Street Journal’s numbers column yesterday provided interesting insights into calculating the contagion factor of diseases, known as R naught, and in particular COVID-19. Kaiser Health News points out that
It’s not surprising that mortality rates [# of deaths / # of infections] for the coronavirus [COVID-19} vary dramatically, based on where diagnoses were made, Schaffner said. For example, a report Monday from the Imperial College of London found a mortality rate of 18% for cases detected in Hubei, where only patients with unusual pneumonia or severe breathing problems were being tested for the virus. Outside China, health officials test anyone with a cough and fever who has visited Hubei — a much larger number — producing a mortality rate of 1.2% to 5.6%.
In personnel news
- The Federal Times reports that U.S. Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director Margaret Weichert will return to the private sector [in mid-March] to work as the managing director of commercial practice for Accenture. Deputy Director Weichert contemporaneously served as acting OPM director for around 18 months of her 30 months at OMB.
- Fierce Healthcare reports on leadership changes at Cigna’s Express Scripts prescription benefit manager unit.
- Drugstore News reports on leadership changes at CVS Health’s Caremark prescription benefit manager unit.
Good luck to them all.