From Capitol Hill, Roll Call reports that “The House passed a catchall budget package Tuesday [along party lines] that’s intended to avoid a partial government shutdown and debt limit crisis, but it seems likely to come back for a do-over once the Senate works its will.” The Republicans are objecting to combining the debt limit increase with the stop gap measure because “Treasury has said Congress needs to act sometime next month; Wrightson ICAP, a private investment advisory firm, said this week the drop-dead deadline was likely Oct. 25 or 26.”
Here’s a stunner for you from the Roll Call article:
The bill includes language to temporarily extend how fentanyl — a highly potent opioid — is classified. Fentanyl is responsible for a lion’s share of drug overdose deaths, which have been on the rise during the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill would extend fentanyl’s status as a so-called “Schedule 1” drug until Jan. 28, 2022. Under current law, the drug would lose its status as a drug with a high risk for abuse on Oct. 22.
From the Delta variant front —
- According to the American Hospital Association, “Johnson & Johnson today said its phase 3 trial data confirms its vaccine’s durability and provided evidence of a second, booster shot’s effectiveness against COVID-19. The drug maker said that, over the course of its ongoing phase 3 trial, it found no evidence of the vaccine’s reduced effectiveness, which J&J said is 79% for preventing COVID-19-related infections and 81% for preventing COVID-19-related hospitalizations. J&J furthermore found that a booster shot administered 56 days after an initial dose provided 100% protection against severe/critical COVID-19 for at least 14 days post-final vaccination and 94% protection against symptomatic (moderate to severe/critical) COVID-19 in the U.S. Additionally, boosters resulted in antibody levels four to six times higher than those netted from a single dose.”
- David Leonhardt in the New York Times understandably criticized federal agencies for dropping the ball on production of rapid COVID tests. “Other countries are awash in Covid tests. The U.S. is not.”
Stefanie Friedhoff, a professor at Brown University’s School of Public Health, recently returned from a visit to Germany and wrote on Twitter about the many benefits of rapid testing that she had seen. A friend’s husband has Parkinson’s disease, and the friend leaves a batch of tests in her hallway for people to take before they enter the home. The day care center where Friedhoff’s sister works has stayed open throughout the pandemic, because the staff and children take frequent tests.
“Imagine what ubiquitous cheap testing could do in the U.S.,” Friedhoff wrote. “It is incomprehensible how the U.S. has failed on testing.”
- The FEHBlog recalls writing last year at this time about the importance of a vaccine, rapid testing, and a treatment for recently symptomatic people in order to bring the pandemic to a close. We should be grateful for the vaccines but we wouldn’t be in this much of a fix if we also had rapid testing and earlier treatment options.
The American Hospital Association also reports that
U.S. hospitals will lose an estimated $54 billion in net income this year, even after federal relief funds, as higher labor and other expenses and sicker patients impact their financial health during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report by Kaufman, Hall & Associates released today by the AHA. More than a third of hospitals are expected to end 2021 with negative margins.
“With cases and hospitalizations at elevated levels again due to the rapid spread of the Delta variant, physicians, nurses and other hospital caregivers and personnel are working tirelessly to care for COVID-19 patients and all others who need care,” said AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack. “At the same time, hospitals are experiencing profound headwinds that will continue throughout the rest of 2021.”
From the Rx front
- PhRMA released it annual industry profile today.
- Medcity News reports that “The FDA has approved the first biosimilar that references the blockbuster Roche drug Lucentis. The Biogen and Samsung BioLogics joint venture that developed the biologic product have approval to treat three eye conditions that lead to vision loss.” Bravo.
From the tidbits department
- MedPage Today informs us that
Infants who seemed headed for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) had milder symptoms as toddlers if their caregivers were subject to a social communication intervention when infants were just 1 year of age, a randomized clinical trial found.
Infants whose families participated in the intervention exhibited significantly milder ASD symptoms 12 months later compared to those in the control group. They also had lower odds of being diagnosed with ASD by an independent clinician at age 3 years (6.7% vs 20.5%, OR 0.18, 95% CI 0.00-0.68), according to the study group led by Andrew Whitehouse, PhD, of the University of Western Australia.
- The Federal Times reports that
Non-career employees at the U.S. Postal Service are significantly more likely to get injured on the job and leave their positions than employees with a permanent status, according to a Sept. 16 Government Accountability Office report.
Employees without permanent status at USPS receive lower pay and fewer benefits than their career counterparts, often under the assumption that they will have a path to a career position in the future. But according to GAO, those non-career employees, of which there are more than 200,000 across the U.S., had 50 percent higher rates of injury than career positions and reported the incidents to the Federal Employees’ Compensation Program 43 percent more often.
- Fierce Healthcare tells us that
Humana leads the industry on customer experience scores and is the only major national payer to land above the industry average, according to a new report from analysts at Forrester.
Forrester polled members of 17 of the largest health plans in the country and found an industry average score of 70.2 on a 100-point scale, which the organization categorizes as an “OK” rating. In 2020, payers averaged 67.5 points, according to the report.
At the top of the list, Humana earned a 74.8 score, dethroning 2020’s top health plan, Florida Blue, which fell to fourth place with a 71.9. Kaiser Permanente’s health plan landed in the second-place slot with a 73.8 score, and Highmark placed third, earning a 72.9.
Rounding out the top five is Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, which rose from a 10th-place ranking in 2020’s report, Forrester found.
Congrats, Humana and the other high scorers.