From Washington, DC,

• The Department of Health and Human Services announced,
  • “Take Action for Adolescents: A Call to Action for Adolescent Health and Well-Being a new effort to promote collaboration and spur action to improve the health and well-being of adolescents across the U.S.
  • “Young people today are facing significant challenges to their health and well-being,” said Admiral Rachel Levine, M.D., Assistant Secretary for Health. “We are committed to working closely with our allies and partners across the country to support improvements in adolescent health and well-being.”
  • “It is critical that we take action for adolescents now,” said Jessica Swafford Marcella, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs. “This new Call to Action and accompanying toolkit will inspire collaborative efforts across youth-serving sectors to build a healthier future for America’s young people.”
  • “Take Action for Adolescents outlines a vision, key principles, eight goals, and a set of initial action steps. It is research-based and was developed with extensive input from adult and youth allies and partners, including nationally recognized adolescent health experts. It is accompanied by a Take Action Toolkit with tips and resources to spur collaboration in states and communities.” * * *
  • The Office of Population Affairs’ Take Action for Adolescents webpage features a suite of resources that are easy to download and share.

• The Food and Drug Administration announced approving
  • “Wezlana (ustekinumab-auub) as a biosimilar to and interchangeable with Stelara (ustekinumab) for multiple inflammatory diseases. Wezlana, like Stelara, is approved to treat the following indications: 
    • “Adult patients with:
      • moderate to severe plaque psoriasis who are candidates for phototherapy or systemic therapy;
      • active psoriatic arthritis;
      • moderately to severely active Crohn’s disease; and
      • moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis.
    • “Pediatric patients 6 years of age and older with:
      • moderate to severe plaque psoriasis who are candidates for phototherapy or systemic therapy; and 
      • active psoriatic arthritis.
  • “Health care professionals should review the prescribing information in the labeling for detailed information about the approved uses.”

• Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employee Benefit Security Lisa Gomez announced a proposed rule to improve retirement benefit security under ERISA.

From the public health front,

• The Wall Street Journal reports,
  • “There’s some good news about flu season this year. Doctors and scientists don’t expect the worst. 
  • “The flu season in the Southern Hemisphere, where the cold-weather illness period wraps up as we head into ours, often serves as a harbinger of what’s to come for us. There, cases picked up a little earlier than usual in some countries but didn’t result in an especially large number of hospitalizations and deaths, say public health experts and doctors.
  • “Also encouraging: The components in this year’s flu vaccine are a good match to the predominant strain so far.” 

• U.S. News and World Report tells us,
  • “COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S. remained relatively steady week over week following five weeks of larger declines, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
  • “The U.S. tallied about 16,200 new hospitalizations of people with COVID-19 over the seven days ending Oct. 21, according to provisional data – only 40 hospitalizations less than the total for the previous week and effectively pausing a downward trend that began after hospitalizations totaled close to 21,000 during the week ending Sept. 9. Hospitalizations dipped to a low point of approximately 6,300 in late June before starting to trend back up.
  • “Relative to population, data points to 4.9 new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people for the week through Oct. 21. Among states and territories, Montana saw the highest rate over the week at 10 per 100,000. West Virginia (8.3), the District of Columbia (8.1), and Colorado (7.6) had the next-highest rates. Compared with the week prior, Mississippi had the highest percentage increase in its COVID-19 hospitalization rate at 45%, followed by Kansas(41%), Indiana (40%) and Iowa (32%).
  • “Among patients visiting a subset of emergency departments, data indicates 1.3% were diagnosed with COVID-19 nationally – a rate down about 5% from the week before. New Mexico(3.1%), Colorado (2.4%) and Arizona (2.3%) saw the highest rates.”

• MedPage Today informs us that
  • The CDC released new recommendations for hepatitis C virus (HCV) screening among perinatally exposed infants and children.
  • The four new recommendations are detailed in the MMWR Recommendations and Reports.

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

• Per Healthcare Dive,
  • “Tenet Healthcare beat Wall Street expectations on revenue in the third quarter due to cost control measures and sustained revenue growth at its facilities. 
  • “The for-profit operator’s ambulatory care and hospital segments both experienced volume growth, with both divisions’ earnings coming in “well above” Tenet’s expectations, said CFO Dan Cancelmi during a call with investors on Monday.
  • “Executives raised the lower end of Tenet’s full-year revenue guidance. The operator now expects to capture between $20.3 billion and $20.5 billion this year.”

• Per Fierce Pharma,
  • “For Pfizer, several years of pandemic megaprofits have soured as overstocked COVID-19 drugs and vaccines take a major toll on the drug behemoth’s financials.
  • “In the third quarter of 2023, Pfizer recorded $5.6 billion in coronavirus-related inventory write-offs and other charges, plus a $4.2 billion revenue reversal tied to the planned return of some 7.9 million Paxlovid doses from the U.S. government.
  • “Concerning the inventory write-offs, $4.7 billion of the sum is tied to Pfizer’s antiviral Paxlovid, with the remaining $900 million stemming from the company’s BioNTech-partnered mRNA vaccine Comirnaty, Pfizer said Tuesday.”
• Here’s a link to Pfizer’s third-quarter report.

• Beckers Payer Issues informs us,
  • Employers are looking to deductible-free health plans as employees report increasing concerns about the cost of healthcare, according to Mercer’s 2023-2024 “Inside Employees’ Minds” survey. 
  • The survey, published Oct. 30, interviewed 4,505 full-time employees in the United States, working for organizations with more than 250 employees. 
  • In 2023, 15% of organizations are offering some employees no-cost health plans, and 18% are using salary-based contributions. 
  • Around 4 in 10 employers offer a medical plan with low or no deductible. 
  • Plans with no deductibles are growing in popularity — UnitedHealthcare’s fastest-growing commercial plans have no annual deductibles, COO Dirk McMahon told investors Oct. 30. 
  • “UnitedHealthcare members in these offerings are receiving more preventive care, while paying about 50% less out of pocket, compared to people enrolled in traditional offerings, and their employers can reduce the total cost of care with an average savings of 11%,” Mr. McMahon said. 
  • According to Mercer’s survey, 79% of workers making between $60,000 and $100,000 each year say they can afford the healthcare their family needs without hardship, compared to 51% of workers making less than $30,000 annually. 
  • See the full report here. 

• Beckers Health IT identifies 121 unicorns (companies with at least a one billion dollar valuation) operating in the healthcare space.

• KFF tells us what to watch for in the eleventh Affordable Care Act open enrollment period, which begins tomorrow. Here’s an interesting tidbit from that article:
  • Private health plans must permit young adults the option of remaining covered as a dependent under their parent’s policy until they turn age 26. Starting in 2024, though, federal Marketplace health plans will officially not be allowed to terminate coverage for young adult dependents mid-year on their 26th birthday. Instead, they will have to continue the dependent coverage through the end of the calendar year. The federal Marketplace has already been keeping these individuals on the plan until the end of the year, and then automatically enrolling them in their own exchange coverage the following year, but this rule codifies that practice.