From Capitol Hill, Roll Call reports that
The Senate passed a temporary debt limit increase along party lines Thursday evening, a move that would give the Treasury Department at least a couple of months before it once again bumps up against its legal borrowing cap.
The 50-48 vote sent the bill to the House, where that chamber will need to clear the measure before it heads to President Joe Biden. That vote, likely next week, could be tricky given GOP opposition to the short-term patch and Democrats in that chamber barely backing a longer suspension of the debt limit late last month.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House’s principal deputy press secretary, said Biden “looks forward to signing” the debt limit measure after it clears.
The Senate amended the House bill, which passed 219-212, replacing a longer debt ceiling suspension with a $480 billion increase in Treasury’s borrowing cap designed to last into early December, though it may go a little longer.
The current continuing appropriations resolution is set to expire relatively contemporaneously on December 3, 2021.
From the Federal Benefits Open Season front, federal benefits consultant Tammy Flanagan has posted her first GovExec column on this year’s Open Season while GEHA, the second largest plan in the FEHB, has posted information on its 2022 benefits.
From the Delta variant front, Healthcare Dive informs us that
Pfizer and BioNTech have officially asked U.S. regulators for emergency clearance of their coronavirus vaccine in children between 5 and 11 years old, making the developers the first to seek authorization for younger kids.
Thursday’s announcement, which Pfizer made on Twitter, comes nine days after the companies said they had started submitting data to the Food and Drug Administration in support of their application, which, if authorized, could make more than 28 million children in the U.S. eligible for vaccination.
The FDA has already scheduled an Oct. 26 advisory panel to discuss the vaccine’s potential authorization in children, more and more of whom have been infected and hospitalized as the delta variant spread and the school year began. Clearance is reportedly expected in November, though the evaluation could be complicated by turnover within the agency’s vaccine review office.
From the healthcare business front —
Healthcare Dive tells us that
Total revenue of hospital M&A so far this year dipped only slightly from last year despite the number of deals being nearly cut in half, according to a Wednesday report from Kaufman Hall.
The average seller size of $659 million was well above year-to-date average going back to 2015, the earliest year featured in the report. This year’s third quarter included the Intermountain Health merger with SCL Health to create an $11 billion system and HCA’s buy of five Steward Health hospitals in Utah.
Hospitals are increasing looking outside traditional care delivery methods to diversify business models by pursuing stakes in home health, virtual care and post-acute services. They are also identifying strategic partnership with payers, physicians groups and other adjacent sectors, Kaufman Hall said.
United Healthcare’s subsidiary Optum announced a collaboration with SSM Health, a Catholic health system in the Midwest.
Together, the organizations will work to improve the overall well-being of individuals and communities – while addressing the complex social and economic factors affecting each person’s health.
SSM Health and Optum will partner across certain functions – including inpatient care management, digital transformation and revenue cycle management – to improve health outcomes and patients’ health care experiences. The organizations also will collaborate to redefine the consumer health care journey through the design and development of a seamless digital experience to simplify patient access to the care and services they need.
“Creating a new ecosystem of care requires bringing together the best and the brightest to collaborate for the common good,” said Laura S. Kaiser, FACHE, president and chief executive officer, SSM Health. “The commitment of UnitedHealth Group and Optum to improving health care experiences and outcomes for everyone aligns well with SSM Health’s Mission to ensure all people have access to high-quality, compassionate and affordable care. We are excited to partner with them to achieve our vision of transforming health care in America – and address the health equity gap for the most vulnerable in society.”
To help advance health equity, UnitedHealth Group and SSM Health will jointly invest in vital community health programs to ensure the disadvantaged and vulnerable have equal access to quality health care services. These efforts will focus on closing the health equity gap and critical health priorities in the communities SSM Health serves throughout the Midwest.
Medcity News reports that
Primary and urgent care provider Carbon Health is expanding its service offerings with a new acquisition.
The San Francisco-based company has bought Alertive Healthcare, a remote patient monitoring provider, for an undisclosed sum. Alertive Healthcare provides a suite of RPM tools across a range of specialties, including primary care, cardiology, neurology and nephrology. * * *
Carbon Health launched in 2015 and has raised upwards of $522 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. Its goal is to become the “Starbucks of healthcare.”
As of August, Carbon Health operated 83 clinics across 12 states following its acquisition of Tucson, Arizona-based Southern Arizona Urgent Care and Sacramento, California-based Med7 Urgent Care.
From the telehealth front, Healthcare Dive reports that
Teladoc Health on Wednesday announced it is making its virtual primary care pilot broadly available to commercial health plans, employers and other benefits sponsors nationwide.
The Primary360 service, which the New York-based telemedicine giant has been piloting for the past few years, is currently being used by several large companies, and will be available through CVS Health-owned payer Aetna early next year, Teladoc said in a release.
The vendor hopes Primary360 will serve as an access point to the primary care system while enticing patients to its other services like specialty care and mental health to boost business.
From the miscellany department, Healthcare Dive interviewed the CEO of Morgan Health.
The mission of J.P. Morgan’s new healthcare venture is to innovate employer-sponsored healthcare, not just for the investment bank’s massive employee base but eventually for all 150 million Americans receiving coverage through their job. But it’s a lofty goal for the small business unit, called Morgan Health, launched late May, and there are many skeptics of efforts from major employers looking to disrupt the deep-rooted and complex healthcare industry.
Check it out.