From the Capitol Hill front, Roll Call reports that
The Senate looks set to clear a House-passed a temporary spending bill Thursday night that would keep the lights on at federal agencies through Feb. 18, buying 11 more weeks to try to resolve partisan disputes over funding levels and policy riders that have stalled progress on fiscal 2022 appropriations.
The stopgap measure passed the House on a 221-212 vote earlier in the evening. The Senate timeline cleared up once it became apparent a group of GOP conservatives would get an up-or-down vote on an amendment to bar funding to implement a new private sector vaccine mandate.
“I think we’re gonna get our amendment at a 50-vote threshold,” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., told reporters after the House vote.
A Senate GOP leadership aide said the vote would occur in that chamber Thursday evening. With three absences on the Republican side, senators expected Marshall’s amendment to be defeated, which would set up a vote on clearing the stopgap bill for President Joe Biden’s signature ahead of a midnight Friday deadline to avert a partial government shutdown.
So as the FEHBlog expect, no government shutdown which is good news.
From the Delta variant front —
STAT News informs us that
Health officials on Thursday reported the country’s second Covid-19 infection from the Omicron variant in a Minnesota resident who notably did not travel internationally recently, unlike the first case.
The case in Minnesota is an adult male who had been vaccinated and, in early November, received a booster shot. He lives in Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, state health officials said. He developed mild symptoms on Nov. 22, was tested on Nov. 24, and no longer has symptoms.
The man had been in New York City in the days leading up to feeling sick and attended the Anime NYC 2021 convention at the Javits Center from Nov. 19 to Nov. 21. Minnesota health officials are collaborating with New York City authorities and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on their case investigation.
Bloomberg adds
In some of the first data to come back on the omicron variant of the coronavirus, researchers in South Africa, where it was first identified, say the mutation is spreading faster than the delta strain. There also seems to be a greater risk of reinfection—where previously infected people get the virus again. Three times higher, in fact. But scientists also said hospitalizations in South Africa remain muted, a sign that may be attributable in part to vaccinations. Shabir Madhi, a vaccinologist at the University of the Witwatersrand, said he’s “optimistic that in this resurgence, while the total number of cases will probably be greater, hospitalizations and deaths will be lower.” —David E. Rovella
The Wall Street Journal reports that
Early laboratory studies suggest that a Covid-19 antibody treatment developed byGlaxoSmithKline GSK 0.24% PLC and Vir Biotechnology Inc. VIR -2.19% is effective against the Omicron variant, the companies said, setting it apart from similar therapies that appear to work less well against the highly mutated strain.
The companies said Thursday that they had tested the drug, called sotrovimab, against certain individual mutations found in Omicron, which has now been detected in at least 24 countries, including the U.S. Glaxo and Vir said the findings were preliminary and they would need to test the treatment against the whole of the mutated spike protein found in the variant to confirm the result. The companies published the preliminary research, which hasn’t yet been peer reviewed.
From the White House, the President announced a bevy of new COVID control measures today. Of particular interest to health plans is the following one:
Providing health plan coverage of no-cost rapid, over-the-counter (OTC) COVID-19 tests: To expand access and affordability of at-home COVID-19 tests, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and the Treasury will issue guidance by January 15th to clarify that individuals who purchase OTC COVID-19 diagnostic tests will be able to seek reimbursement from their group health plan or health insurance issuer and have insurance cover the cost during the public health emergency. Workplace screening would remain consistent with current guidance.
That workplace guidance currently requires the employer to fund the cost of testing, e.g., in programs that require vaccinations or weekly testing / masking. However, I think that once this Pandora’s box is open, employers will be telling their employees to pick up a test at the local pharmacy if they need to be tested. What’s stopping them? Healthcare Dive explains that the mandate will remove the market incentive currently on manufacturers to lower costs.
The plan is a potential boon for medtech companies that produce at-home tests. With insurers on the hook for payment, it may drive up demand, particularly among those who were sensitive to prices before. Abbott, BD and Quidel are big players in the at-home testing space.
Furthermore the FEHBlog doesn’t see the sense in taking this step before the Food and Drug Administration give emergency use authorization to Merck and Pfizer COVID pills to treat COVID at its onset.
From the COVID vaccine mandate front, Beckers Hospital Review reports that
HHS is appealing a federal court’s decision to temporarily block the start of its vaccination mandate for healthcare workers, according to Bloomberg Law.
U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty in Louisiana granted a preliminary injunction Nov. 30 halting the vaccination rule for healthcare workers until legal challenges are resolved. * * *
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and other defendants filed an appeal Dec. 1. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit will hear the appeal.
From the pharmacy front —
Healthcare Dive informs us that
CVS Health and Microsoft are forming a strategic alliance to co-develop products around the areas of personalized care and digital health, the two companies announced Thursday.
CVS said it plans to use Microsoft’s computing capabilities to deliver more customized health recommendations when and where consumers need them as the retail pharmacy giant continues to focus on digitally enabled and consumer-centric health services. The two will also look for new ways to leverage technology and machine learning to automate CVS operations and reduce waste.
Fierce Healthcare tells us that
CVS Pharmacy is expanding an in-app feature for visually impaired patients, which reads prescription information out loud, to all of its nearly 10,000 U.S. locations.
The solution, called Spoken Rx, was designed in collaboration with the American Council of the Blind. Patients enrolled in the program can scan the labels on their prescription containers and have their information, including the medication’s name and directions for use, read out loud to them in either English or Spanish.
* * * The feature is free to all patients who enroll. CVS can provide a standalone speaker device to read prescription labels if the patient doesn’t have a smartphone.
CVS also offers ScripTalk on its website, which allows patients who get their medications delivered to their homes to have their prescriptions read aloud through the separate ScripTalk app. The pharmacy giant first made the service available in 2014.
The company has options for braille and large-print prescription labels through their online pharmacy too.