Midweek Update

David Ermer–Congress, COVID-19, FDA, Medical / Rx research, Medicare, Obesity, Telehealth, U.S. Healthcare–

From Washington DC

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash
  • Fierce Healthcare tells us,
    • “U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Bill Cassidy want to reform how primary care providers get paid through Medicare, and they also want to hear from the healthcare industry about the best way to do it.
    • “Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, and Cassidy, a physician and Republican from Louisiana, introduced a bipartisan bill, the Pay PCPs Act, S. 4338, on Wednesday to better support and improve pay for high-quality primary care providers. 
    • “The legislation serves as a marker for future primary care legislation and is intended to solicit feedback on a number of important policy questions, the lawmakers said. * * *
    • “Whitehouse and Cassidy also issued a request for information for feedback on policy questions. Feedback can be submitted to physician_payment@cassidy.senate.govuntil July 15, 2024.”
  • Govexec informs us about a mark-up of federal employee telework bills at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee meeting today.
  • Barrons reports,
    • “Social Security recipients could receive a 3.2% raise next year, according to an estimate based on Wednesday’s inflation result. * * *
    • “The Social Security Administration will announce the actual COLA for 2025 in October, once inflation data from the third quarter are complete. The raise will be equal to the percentage gain in the average level of CPI-W for the third quarter of 2024 from the average for the same period in 2023.
    • “In their annual report, the Medicare Trustees estimated that the standard monthly Part B premium could rise to $185 next year, a 5.9% increase from this year’s $174.70. Part B premiums, which are automatically deducted from Social Security checks, are one of the fast-growing costs in retirement, [independent consultant Mary] Johnson says.
  • Plan Sponsor lets us know,
    • “The ERISA Advisory Council voted during a meeting Wednesday to focus its attention on issues related to welfare plan claims and appeals and qualified default investment alternatives. The council will study these issues and make recommendations to the Employee Benefit Security Administration later this year as per its mandate from the Department of Labor. * * *
    • “Members also considered a review of pension death audit service providers in light of the Central States and Special Financial Assistance controversy in which the Central States pension fund received $127 million in SFA funds for 3,479 dead participants. This error occurred because the plan did not have access to the Social Security death master file and the money was repaid. Since death audit providers also lack access to the DMF, there was concern among some members about how an auditor can certify a death audit at all.”
    • In the FEHBlog’s opinion, it is dumbfounding that pension and health benefit plans are not allowed access to the DMF.

From the public health and medical research front,

  • The Wall Street Journal reports,
    • “The U.S. saw a slight decline in the number of new overdose deaths last year, marking a rare improvement in a still-raging national fentanyl crisis, preliminary federal data show. 
    • “There were about 107,500 overdose deaths in 2023, down 3% from the year before and the first decline in five years, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One factor was fewer deaths pegged to opioids including the nation’s deadliest drug, the potent synthetic fentanyl, the CDC’s preliminary numbers show. 
    • “It’s the direction we want to be going,” said Mary Sylla, director of overdose prevention policy and strategy at the National Harm Reduction Coalition, which advocates for measures such as easy-to-access medicine to reverse overdoses.
    • “I just hope we can continue the trend, and I hope we double-down on the evidence-based interventions that save peoples’ lives,” Sylla said.”
    • FEHBlog note — Amen to that.
  • The Centers for Disease Control announced,
    • “Approximately 4,000 unintentional drowning deaths occur annually in the United States, and demographic disparities exist.
    • “Compared with unintentional drowning death rates in 2019 (pre–COVID-19 pandemic), rates were significantly higher during 2020, 2021, and 2022, with highest rates among children aged 1–4 years, non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native persons, and non-Hispanic Black or African American persons. National survey data revealed that 55% of U.S. adults have never taken a swimming lesson, and swimming lesson participation differed by demographic characteristics.
    • “The U.S. National Water Safety Action Plan provides recommendations for drowning prevention actions, including increasing access to basic swimming and water safety skills training for all persons, which could reduce disparities in unintentional drowning deaths.”
    • FEHBlog observation — Focus on training children aged 1-4 years.
  • MedPage Today notes,
    • “Patients hospitalized with COVID-19 were more likely to die than those hospitalized with influenza during the fall and winter of 2023-2024, according to an analysis of Veterans Affairs data.
    • “Among over 11,000 patients hospitalized for either illness during this past fall and winter, 5.7% of patients with COVID-19 died within 30 days of admission versus 4.24% of patients with influenza, reported Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, of the VA St. Louis Health Care System, and colleagues.
    • “After adjusting for variables, the risk of death in people hospitalized for COVID-19 was 35% higher (adjusted HR 1.35, 95% CI 1.10-1.66), the authors detailed in a research letter in JAMA.”
  • Cardiovascular Business adds,
    • “Heart failure (HF) patients who received a COVID-19 vaccine are significantly less likely to be hospitalized for HF symptoms or die for any reason, according to new data presented at Heart Failure 2024, a scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). 
    • “The analysis included data from more than 651,000 adult Korean residents with HF. The average patient age was 69.5 years old, and 50% were men. Approximately 83% of patients were fully vaccinated against COVID-19, meaning they received two or more doses of an approved vaccine. 
    • “The study’s authors compared 73,559 vaccinated patients with 73,559 unvaccinated patients, matching them 1:1 according to age, sex, comorbidities and other relevant patient attributes. The median follow-up period was six months. 
    • “Overall, COVID-19 vaccination was associated with an 82% lower risk of all-cause mortality, 47% lower risk of hospitalization for HF and 13% lower risk of testing positive for COVID-19. Vaccinated patients also had lower rates of stroke, heart attack, myocarditis/pericarditis and venous thromboembolism during that six-month period.”  
  • Beckers Hospital Review points out,
    • “Ozempic, Mounjaro and other GLP-1s do not increase the risk of surgical complications, according to research published May 14 in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. 
    • “Nearly a year after the American Society of Anesthesiologists recommended patients skip a dose of their GLP-1s — which are medications approved for Type 2 diabetes and weight loss — because of regurgitation and aspiration risks, a review of 130 million patient records found no increased risk. 
    • “GLP-1s can delay gastric emptying, which can minimize the effect of normal fasting rules before elective surgeries. Soon after the ASA published the guidance, surgery departments across the U.S. updated their preoperative care processes to align with the guideline.” 
  • The Washington Post reports,
    • “The Food and Drug Administration this week moved to expand screening for potentially lethal cervical cancer by allowing women to collect test samples themselves, a move that reproductive health advocates view as crucial to stamping out the preventable disease.
    • “For the first time, women will be able to gather samples for testing in private rooms inside offices of primary-care doctors, at urgent-care clinics and even pharmacies — an advance that could presage home testing.
    • “Advocates hope the method will make it easier for women of color and those living in rural and underserved communities to screen for human papillomavirus — HPV — which can lead to a cancer that afflicts 11,000 each year. It comes as the National Cancer Institute has ramped up study of self-collection, partnering with 25 medical schools and cancer centers across the country to gauge use of collecting vaginal samples at home and at health-care facilities. * * *
    • “The collection method was greenlit for the previously approved HPV test Onclarity, manufactured by BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company). The test is expected to be available in summer and will be part of a study of self-collection, the company said in a news release Wednesday.
    • “Roche also received sign off for the self-collection method for its cobas HPV Test, and has been collaborating with the NCI’s study, the company said in a news release. * * *
    • “This literally just opens up another option for a different demographic of people that might not feel comfortable, that might not have access [and] may not have time” to get tested otherwise, said Irene O. Aninye, chief science officer for the Society for Women’s Health Research, a group focused on advancing women’s health and promoting research.”
  • STAT News relates,
    • “Eisai and Biogen said today that they’ve filed an application with the FDA to sell their Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi through an autoinjector for maintenance dosing. That means patients would first go through an initiation phase with the current regimen of IV infusions, but then transition into weekly injections for maintenance.
    • “If approved, this would be a significantly more convenient option for patients, since infusions require patients once every two weeks to travel to a medical facility and receive the infusion for an hour.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Beckers Hospital Review reports,
    • “Chicago-based CommonSpirit is pushing for change in the dynamics of payer-provider relationships and is “taking a firm stance on contract renewals so payers absorb a share of inflation,” management said in financial documents published May 15. 
    • “The 142-hospital system said one of the most critical levers for health systems to maintain financial stability is to receive the revenue and cash flow they are entitled to for services provided. 
    • “The news comes shortly after CommonSpirit split with Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Colorado. The breakup, which affects commercial and Medicare Advantage members, means 11 of CommonSpirit’s hospitals and more than 40,000 of its patients in the state are now out of network with the insurer. 
    • “It was never our intent to leave the Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield network, only to work together in good faith toward a balanced agreement,” CommonSpirit said in a statement on its website. 
    • “The system said that it is willing to continue working toward a new agreement with Anthem but its previous proposals “failed to offer terms that fairly reimburse for services provided to its members, and equitably cover the burden to get reimbursed timely and accurately.”
  • Per Fierce Healthcare,
    • “Uber Health will begin rolling out a new solution designed for caregivers this summer, the company announced at its annual product event Wednesday. 
    • “Uber Caregiver will allow individuals to add a caregiver to their Uber profile. That caregiver can then see and spend that person’s health benefits on eligible services, request rides to doctors’ appointments or order groceries. The caregiver will get real-time updates along the way and have access to a chat feature to communicate with the Uber driver as needed.
    • “Individuals will need to use the Uber app to participate. Uber also offers a way for those who need help to request a ride by calling 1-833-USE-UBER from a phone with texting capabilities. The phone line also supports some health benefits cards.”
  • and
    • “Digital maternal health company Babyscripts announced a partnership Tuesday with Lyft Healthcare to offer sponsored rides for people who are pregnant or postpartum and face barriers to transportation.
    • “Though Babyscripts is a digital-first, tele-maternal health company, it acknowledges that pregnant individuals also need in-person care. 
    • “Access is one of the biggest challenges to maternal health and infant health—and a patient’s outcomes can come down to whether or not they go to their doctor appointments,” Anish Sebastian, CEO and co-founder of Babyscripts, said in a statement.”