Weekend update

COVID treatment

Weekend update

David Ermer–CDC, Congress, COVID treatment, FDA, Medical / Rx research, Obesity, Telehealth, U.S. Healthcare–

From Washington, DC,

  • Roll Call adds,
    • Both the House and Senate come back from recess this week to begin a busy three-week period that’s expected to focus on Republicans’ budget reconciliation agenda, including extending and expanding tax cuts and tightening immigration policy.
    • The top items on the House agenda this week, meanwhile, will include more measures to overturn Biden administration rules. And the Senate will continue to vote on more of President Donald Trump’s nominations. The headliners this week are the nominees to lead the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration.
    • With a stopgap spending law now in effect through Sept. 30, the Republican majorities in both the House and Senate can fully turn their attention to their budget reconciliation agenda.
    • This work period on Capitol has just three weeks, followed by the traditional two-week recess that coincides with Easter and Passover. By then, House and Senate Republicans will want to make progress on resolving differences on how to execute the process that allows them to pass legislation without the risk of filibusters in the Senate.
  • Roll Call also gives us the 119th Congress in numbers, mid-March edition.
  • On Tuesday morning at 10 am, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will mark up the following batch of bills,
    • H.R. 1295, the Reorganizing Government Act of 2025; 2) H.R. 1210, the Protecting Taxpayers’ Wallet Act; 3) H.R. ___, the Preserving Presidential Management Authority Act; 4) H.R. 2174, the Paycheck Protection Act; 5) H.R. 2193, the FEHB Protection Act of 2025; 6) H.R. ___, the Federal Accountability Committee for Transparency (FACT) Act; 7) H.R. 2056, District of Columbia Federal Immigration Compliance Act; 8) H. Res. 187, Of inquiry requesting the President to transmit certain information to the House of Representatives referring to the termination, removal, placement on administrative leave, moved to another department of Federal employees and Inspectors General of agencies; 9) H. Res. 186, Of inquiry requesting the President to transmit certain documents to the House of Representatives relating to the conflicts of interest of Elon Musk and related information.
  • Healthcare Dive tells us,
    • “A postponed meeting of vaccine advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now scheduled to take place in April, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed.
    • “The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, had originally been scheduled to meet Feb. 26 to Feb. 28, but was unexpectedly delayed soon after Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime critic of U.S. vaccination policies, took office as health secretary. At that time, an HHS spokesperson said the rescheduling was to allow extra time for public comment.” * * *
    • “ACIP, which includes outside vaccine experts as well as federal health officials, will now convene on April 15 and April 16, Andrew Nixon, HHS’ director of communications, wrote in an email to BioPharma Dive.” 
    • “A notice posted Friday ahead of publication Monday in the federal register indicated that advisers will discuss the current measles outbreak, as well as vaccines for COVID-19, human papillomavirus, monkeypox, respiratory syncytial virus and other pathogens.”
  • The New York Times reports,
    • “Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s health secretary, on Saturday instructed leaders of the nonprofit he founded to take down a web page that mimicked the design of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s site but laid out a case that vaccines cause autism.
    • “The page had been published on a site apparently registered to the nonprofit, the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense. Mr. Kennedy’s action came after The New York Times inquired about the page and after news of it ricocheted across social media.
    • “The page was taken offline Saturday evening.” 
  • Pharmacy Practice News informs us,
    • “The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recently alerted healthcare providers to a concerning trend: hackers tapping into patient electronic health records (EHRs) to steal doctors’ DEA registration numbers. Armed with those numbers, the thieves have been able to generate tens of thousands of bogus prescriptions and sell them online, the agency explained in a YouTube video.
    • “Electronic prescription fraud is a real emerging trend that we’re seeing all across the country,” said Erin Hager, a DEA diversion investigator in the Phoenix-Tucson Tactical Division Squad. “What’s happening is … bad actors … who have been conducting prescription drug fraud are now utilizing the internet and electronic health record platforms to create electronic prescriptions that they can then send nationwide.”
    • “These activities can result in “a thousand fraudulent prescriptions using an unsuspecting doctor’s DEA number within a 14-hour time frame,” Ms. Hager said.”

From the public health and medical research front,

  • The New York Times reports, “Dementia May Not Always Be the Threat It Is Now. Here’s Why. The number of cases will increase, but the rates seem to be declining with every birth cohort that reaches advanced ages, researchers said.”
    • Eric Stallard, an actuary and co-director of the Biodemography of Aging Research Unit at Duke University, read the [recent dementia] study and thought the team “seemed very competent at their analysis” of individual risk.
    • But when it came to the projection that cases would double, which assumed that the incidence of dementia would remain stable over the next 40 years, “I don’t believe it,” Mr. Stallard said.
    • “The notion that the number of people with dementia will double over the next 25, 30 or 35 years due to the aging of baby boomers is widespread, it’s pervasive — and it’s wrong,” he added.
    • “He and two other Duke researchers recently published a commentary in JAMA pointing out that the age-specific prevalence of dementia in this country had steadily declined for 40 years.
    • “If your risks are lower than your parents’ risks and this trend continues, you won’t see the doubling or tripling of dementia that’s been projected,” said Dr. Murali Doraiswamy, director of the Neurocognitive Disorders Program at Duke and a co-author of the JAMA article.
    • “To be clear, experts agree that the number of people with dementia will climb in coming decades, simply because the disorder rises so steeply with age and the number of older adults in the United States will increase.
    • “But Mr. Stallard estimates that the increase will be more like 10 to 25 percent by 2050. “It will still be a significant challenge for the health system in the U.S.,” he said.”
  • The University of Minnesota CIDRAP lets us know,
    • Another study is raising questions about whether compliance with a federally mandated hospital protocol aimed at improving sepsis care and management is associated with better outcomes.
    • The study, published this week in JAMA Network Open, found that sepsis patients who received care that was noncompliant with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock Management Bundle (SEP-1) tended to be older, have more comorbidities, and have more complex clinical presentation than those who received compliant care. When those factors were accounted for, SEP-1 compliance was no longer associated with improved mortality.
    • The study comes on the heels of a systematic review and meta-analysis, published last month in the Annals of Internal Medicine, that found no evidence that SEP-1 compliance was associated with improved mortality.
  • and
    • “People who started taking the antiviral drug ensitrelvir within 72 hours after a household member tested positive for COVID-19 were significantly less likely to be infected, according to results from an international phase 3 clinical trial presented last week at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in San Francisco.
    • “Made by Japanese pharmaceutical firm Shionogi, ensitrelvir is approved in Japan for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19.  * * *
    • “In addition to vaccination, post-exposure prophylaxis with timely use of an oral antiviral would be a valuable way to help prevent COVID-19 illness in people who have been exposed, especially people at high risk for severe disease,” Frederick Hayden, MD, a University of Virginia School of Medicine professor emeritus who helped design the trial and presented the findings, said in a university news release.
    • “This is the first clinical trial of an oral antiviral drug to show significant protection against COVID-19 [infection],” he added. “If approved by the [US] Food and Drug Administration for this purpose, it would be an important addition to current preventive strategies.”
  • A Wall Street Journal reporter tells us “A Year After I Stopped Taking a [GLP-1} Weight-Loss Drug, I’ve Lost 20 More Pounds. I’m one of the millions of people trying to keep the weight off without taking expensive drugs like Mounjaro or Ozempic for life. It wasn’t easy, but I found ways.”
    • “My first mistake in stopping the medicine [after reaching his target weight in five months] was that I didn’t wean myself off it more slowly. I stopped cold turkey, and my hunger pangs and food noise came back with a vengeance. Some doctors and researchers have begun to recommend stopping more gradually, as well as taking appetite suppressants like phentermine to ease the transition. This has helped reduce weight regain in some patients.
    • “My second mistake was not having a structured nutrition plan at the ready. The medicine had helped winnow my bad habits down to a number I could actually manage, from perhaps 25 or 30 entrenched eating behaviors (really!) down to more like five or six (I still can’t shake my addiction to impulsive runs to the 7-Eleven, for example). But even a few bad habits—when they meet with what feels like insatiable hunger—can do a lot of damage.
    • “After a few months, I found a highly structured nutrition program, one with expert coaching that focused on a low-carb diet. While the transition was difficult, it eventually helped me bring my cravings under control. 
    • “Virta Health, a startup I turned to for a few months, has users test their blood daily. The results, which measure glucose levels and another indicator of dietary compliance, are beamed through an app to a nutrition coach. Being aware that someone was watching—and would know if I had cheated—was immensely helpful as I sought to improve my nutrition and manage hunger.
    • “Without wading into the nutrition wars over the keto or Atkins or Mediterranean diet or any other, I’ve found that I have generally been far less hungry when I’ve eaten more protein, fiber and healthy fats. Meanwhile, drastically limiting carbohydrates has had another benefit: forcing me to eat more vegetables. Gobs and gobs of them.” 

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • The Wall Street Journal reports,
    • “The Longevity Business Is Booming—and Its Scientists Are Clashing. The antiaging movement has raced ahead amid fierce debates; critics of a grandfather of the field, Leonard Guarente, include former protégés and rivals.”
  • and
    • “Doctors Are Just as Frustrated as You by Our Messed-Up Healthcare System. Trust between doctors and patients is fraying, but there are ways to mend it.”
      • “One of doctors’ biggest gripes: largely corporate institutions that effectively set patient quotas and require extensive documentation. One physician said he and other doctors are allowed 15 minutes with patients; exceeding that leads to poor performance reviews and “being out of compliance.”
      • “These doctors think patients lose trust because they don’t understand who or what is in control. “Physicians have lost autonomy,” says Dr. Corinne Rao, an internal medicine physician and hospitalist. “Their decisions are subject to the financial interests of their employer.” 
      • “Doctors also say that trust—and respect—go both ways. “It’s like a marriage,” says Dr.  James Schouten, a family physician. Each side has to give 100%. Implying that a loss of trust is entirely the doctor’s fault, he says, suggests the patient has no role in establishing or maintaining trust.
      • “They do, he and others say.”

Monday Report

David Ermer–Congress, COVID treatment, FDA, Medical / Rx research, Mental health care, OPM, Rx coverage, U.S. Healthcare–
Photo by Sven Read on Unsplash

From Washington, DC

  • The Hill reminds us,
    • “The calendar will officially turn to March this week, putting Congress in the same month as the looming March 14 government shutdown deadline. Despite that date fast-approaching, however, lawmakers in both parties have still not struck a deal to keep the lights on in Washington past the middle of next month — raising the possibility of a shutdown.”
  • Federal News Network notes,
  • HUB International discusses the Labor Department and CMS 2023 Mental Health Parity Compliance reports.
    • While not an exclusive or comprehensive list of all possible violations, the [article’s] list provides some guidance on the types of issues the Departments view as violations (particularly on the NQTL side). Employers should review their plan designs for any potential MHPAEA violations based on the [article’s] enforcement data and work with their providers to rectify any noncompliant design elements.
  • The Labor Department’s Inspector General released a report on Mental Health Parity Enforcement encouraging more resources be given to the enforcers. The FEHBlog believes that this additional cost can be avoided by simplifying the Mental Health Parity rule.
  • The HHS Inspector General reports “Medicare Part D Spending for 10 Selected Diabetes Drugs [including GLP-1 drugs] Totaled $35.8 Billion in 2023, an Increase of 364 Percent From 2019.”
  • MedPage Today tells us,
    • “The FDA approved adaptive deep brain stimulation (DBS) technology (BrainSense adaptive DBS and BrainSense electrode identifier) for people with Parkinson’s disease, Medtronic announced Monday.
    • “Like other DBS devices, the newly approved technology uses a surgically implanted neurostimulator to transmit electrical signals. The adaptive feature adjusts therapy based on a patient’s neural activity in real time, reducing the need to manually adjust stimulation.
    • “Adaptive deep brain stimulation will help revolutionize the approach to therapeutic treatment for patients with Parkinson’s disease,” said Helen Bronte-Stewart MD, MSE, of Stanford University School of Medicine in California, in a statement. “The transformative personalized care we can achieve through automatic adjustment greatly benefits patients receiving therapy that adapts to their evolving needs.”

From the judicial front,

  • Per Govexec,
    • “An independent federal oversight agency has deemed at least some of President Trump’s mass firings of probationary period employees unlawful, creating a pathway for those employees to regain their jobs. 
    • “The Office of Special Counsel, the agency responsible for investigating illegal actions taken against federal employees, issued its decision for six employees, each at different agencies. While the decision was technically limited in scope, it could have immediate impact on all terminated staff at those six agencies and could set a wide-ranging precedent across government. It has not been made public and was provided to Government Executive by a source within the government. OSC, which did not provide the document to Government Executive, verified its authenticity. 
    • “OSC has turned the case over to the quasi-judicial Merit Systems Protection Board for enforcement of its findings and is so far requesting a 45-day stay on the firing decisions. The agency said it will use that time to further investigate the dismissals and determine the best way to mitigate the consequences from the apparent unlawful actions. 
    • “MSPB has three business days to issue a decision on the stay request. If it does not act by that deadline, the stay will go into effect.”
  • It’s worth adding that the Scotusblog explains
    • “The Supreme Court on Friday [February 21] left in place for now an order by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., that instructed President Donald Trump to temporarily reinstate the head of an independent federal agency [the Office of Special Counsel] tasked with protecting whistleblowers from retaliation. The justices did not act on a request from the Trump administration to block the order by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, which had restored Hampton Dellinger as head of the Office of Special Counsel for 14 days, beginning on Feb. 12. Instead, the justices explained in a brief order, they put the government’s request on hold until Jackson’s order expires on Feb. 26.”
  • Per Healthcare Dive,
    • “Express Scripts, Caremark and Optum Rx are turning to an appeals court to try to reverse a legal setback in their ongoing feud with the Federal Trade Commission.
    • “The PBMs said on Friday they will ask the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals to halt the agency’s suit against them for allegedly inflating the cost of insulin, three days after a Missouri district judge ruled the FTC’s case could move forward.
    • “The PBMs — known as the “Big Three” for their outsized control of the U.S. prescription drug market — also asked the district judge again for an injunction halting the FTC’s suit pending their appeal. Express Scripts, Caremark and Optum Rx intend to ask the 8th Circuit for an injunction in one week unless the district court complies.”

From the public health and medical research front,

  • The Washington Post reports,
    • “Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States and accounted for 941,652 deaths in 2022, according to a report published by the American Heart Association.
    • “In the United States in 2022, heart disease and stroke killed more people than all forms of cancer and accidental deaths. Coronary heart disease was the leading cause of death attributable to cardiovascular disease (39.5 percent), followed by stroke (17.6 percent), other cardiovascular diseases (17 percent), hypertensive diseases (14 percent), heart failure (9.3 percent) and diseases of the arteries (2.6 percent), the AHA said. More people died of cardiovascular causes in 2022 than 2021, when there were 931,578 cardiovascular deaths, according to the report.
    • “The report also notes that between 2017 and 2020, nearly half of U.S. adults (48.6 percent) had some form of cardiovascular disease. According to the AHA, 59 percent of non-Hispanic Black women and 58.9 percent of non-Hispanic Black men had cardiovascular disease.
    • “Advances in clinical diagnosis and treatment have lessened the burden of heart disease over time, but more needs to be done to treat major risk factors, including obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes, said Keith Churchwell, a physician and clinical professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine who serves as volunteer president of the American Heart Association.”
  • The American Medical Association lets us know “what doctors wish patients knew about cancer screening and prevention.”
  • Healio informs us,
    • “Paxlovid may not decrease the risk for hospitalization or death in older adults vaccinated against COVID-19 as much as previously thought, according to research published in JAMA.
    • “Since the strongest predictor of severe COVID-19 is advanced age, it has been crucial to obtain evidence on whether the results of the Pfizer trials” — which showed Paxlovid reduced COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in unvaccinated adults — “generalized to older and vaccinated populations,” John Mafi, MD, MPH, associate professor-in-residence of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, said in a press release.
    • “At best, Mafi and colleagues wrote, Paxlovid could reduce COVID-19-related hospitalization by 1.3 percentage points, or 4 times less than the 5.5 percentage-point risk reduction reported in Pfizer’s original trial among unvaccinated adults.
    • “Our study effectively rules out the notion that Paxlovid causes large reductions in hospitalization in vaccinated older adults,” Mafi said. “While we cannot rule out a small reduction in COVID-19 hospitalization, our results indicate that, at best, Paxlovid’s potential effect on COVID-19 hospitalization among vaccinated older adults is four times weaker than the effect originally reported in Pfizer’s 2022 clinical trial.”
  • Consumer Reports< writing in the Washington Post, explores “How to keep your bones strong. Worried about osteoporosis? Here are the tests, moves, meds and foods you need to know about.”
  • The Wall Street Journal reports,
    • Frozen shakes served in hospitals and nursing homes have been recalled after being linked to a deadly outbreak of listeria, resulting in 12 deaths and sickening at least 38 people in 21 states.
    • The shakes, sold under the brands Lyons ReadyCare and Sysco Imperial, were made in the same facility in Fort Wayne, Ind., and have been recalled by both companies.
    • Listeria can cause serious illness, especially in newborns, older people, and those with weakened immune systems, and can survive on surfaces for long periods.
  • and
    • “Red-light therapy, a treatment involving exposure to low levels of red or near-infrared light, is gaining popularity for its purported benefits in weight loss, antiaging and mood balance.
    • “While some research shows promise in areas like dermatology and mood disorders, more evidence is needed to confirm its broader health benefits.
    • “Consumers should be cautious when purchasing red-light therapy devices, as there are no established standards for wavelength, intensity and length of treatment, and some products may not be effective or safe.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • The American Hospital Association News fills us in on its ongoing rural healthcare leadership conference.
  • Per BioPharma Dive,
    • “Summit Therapeutics and Pfizer on Monday said they will test an experimental Summit immunotherapy with Pfizer’s antibody drug conjugates in trials evaluating two of the sector’s most closely watched types of cancer medicines.
    • “Pfizer will oversee the clinical trials, which will involve Summit’s ivonescimab and multiple different Pfizer ADCs against certain solid tumors. The two companies will retain commercialization rights to their respective products, Summit said.
    • “According to Summit, the deal “will allow us to quickly advance beyond our promising late-stage development plan,” which already includes multiple studies in lung cancer. The companies didn’t provide specifics, but said the trials will begin in the middle of the year and aim to find “potentially landscape-changing combinations.”
  • Beckers Payer Issues relates,
    • Bon Secours Mercy Health and Cigna Healthcare will be out of network across eight Virginia hospitals [listed in the article] on April 1.
    • Almost all of Cigna’s business with Bon Secours is through employer-sponsored plans that are self-funded. If Bon Secours Mercy Health leaves our network, OAP and PPO members will be affected.
  • Beckers Hospital Review discusses “the twofold challenge of an older population — and how systems are adapting.”
    • “In less than a decade, older Americans are projected to outnumber children for the first time in U.S. history, sparking conversations about the need for age-friendly healthcare. 
    • “At the same time, declining birth rates and longer life expectancies — half of babies born in 2020 are expected to live past 100 years — pose potential workforce challenges.
    • “Becker’s connected with four health system leaders [in this article] to explore the challenges this demographic shift presents and how they are preparing to address it.”

Tuesday Report

David Ermer–CDC, Congress, COVID treatment, FDA, Medical / Rx research, Mental health care, U.S. Healthcare–

From Washington, DC,

  • The Hill reports, “Senate Republicans hit their full 53-member majority on Tuesday as Sens. John Husted (R-Ohio) and Ashley Moody (R-Fla.) were sworn into office by Vice President Vance.” 
  • Fierce Healthcare reviews how yesterday’s executive orders and other actions impact healthcare.
  • The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force highlights its most recent final recommendations.
  • Fierce Pharma tells us,
    • “Already on its way to becoming a blockbuster drug, Johnson & Johnson’s Spravato has received another potential boost as the FDA has blessed the nasal spray to be used as a monotherapy for major depressive disorder (MDD).
    • “Spravato was originally approved in 2019 to be used along with an oral antidepressant for patients who have not seen results with other antidepressant medications.
    • “In 2020, the U.S. regulator tacked on another nod for Spravato to be used by patients with MDD who experience acute suicidal thoughts or behavior.
    • “The standalone endorsement allows patients to use Spravato without taking oral antidepressants. Spravato can work as quickly as 24 hours, Bill Martin, Ph.D., who heads up J&J neuroscience, said in a release.
    • “Treatment-resistant depression can be very complicated, especially for patients who do not respond to oral antidepressants or cannot tolerate them,” Martin added. “For too long, healthcare providers have had few options to offer patients much-needed symptom improvement.”
  • and
    • “After hitting a regulatory roadblock in 2022, Sanofi’s consumer healthcare business Opella has secured the FDA’s blessing to move forward with its ambition to convert its erectile dysfunction med Cialis into an over-the-counter product.
    • “The agency previously placed a clinical hold on the company’s planned actual use trial (AUT) for the conversion, citing problems with protocol design. AUTs are a key step in the FDA’s process for switching drugs from prescription to OTC products and are meant to prove that consumers can adequately diagnose and treat themselves without the help of a healthcare provider.
    • “Now, after a review, the FDA’s green light marks a “significant step forward in Opella’s data-driven efforts to switch a PDE-5 inhibitor like Cialis,” Opella’s chief science officer Josephina Fubera, Ph.D., said in a company release.
    • “We look forward to continuing our work to bring safe and expanded access to the many consumers who will benefit from nonprescription Cialis,” Fubera added.”

From the public health and medical research front,

  • The University of Minnesota’s CIDRAP lets us know today,
    • “Over the past few days, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed more H5N1 avian flu outbreaks in poultry from eight states, including the first at a commercial farm in Georgia.
    • “Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the USDA on January 17 announced new steps to step up the safety of raw pet food, following recent reports of H5N1 infections in household cats.”
  • and
    • “A new real-world study published in PLOS Medicine that looked at outcomes of 703,647 patients with COVID-19 seen at 34 US clinics in 2022 and 2023 found that Paxlovid use was correlated with lower rates of hospitalization and death, particularly among older patients. 
    • “Both vaccinated and unvaccinated patients benefitted from Paxlovid when administered within 5 days of COVID-19 infection confirmation, the authors said. But researchers observed lower rates of use among Black and Hispanic patients than among White patients. 
    • “The study was based on the National COVID Cohort Collaborative’s (N3C) electronic health record database. While clinical trials showed as high as an 88.9% reduction in the risk of COVID-related hospitalization or death among those who received Paxlovid compared to those who received placebos, limited real-world data has been gathered in the post-Omicron era on Paxlovid efficacy.”
  • Consumer Reports, writing in the Washington Post, discusses “What to look for — and what to avoid — in an energy bar. Many are little more than candy bars and don’t deliver the health benefits you might expect.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • RAND opines,
    • “The typical cost of developing new medications may not be as high as generally believed, with a few ultra-costly medications skewing public discussions about the cost of pharmaceutical research and development, according to a new RAND study.
    • “Using a novel method to assess spending on research and development for 38 drugs that were recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, researchers found that the mean, or average, cost of developing a new drug was much higher than the mid-point (median) cost of development.
    • “Researchers estimated a median direct research and development cost of $150 million compared to a mean of $369 million.
    • “Costs were higher after adjusting for earnings drug developers could have made if they had invested these amounts in other activities and for drugs that never made it to the market. With these adjustments, researchers estimated a median research and development cost of $708 million across the 38 drugs examined, with the average cost rising to $1.3 billion driven by a small number of high-cost outliers.
    • “The average cost of developing a new drug was 26 percent lower when excluding just two drugs, dropping from $1.3 billion to $950 million. The findings are published in the journal JAMA Network Open.”
  • Employee Benefit News explains why “costly gene therapy is top of mind for benefits administrators.” Check it out.
  • Per Fierce Healthcare,
    • “Healthcare technology company Innovaccer announced its acquisition of Humbi AI, an actuarial software, services and analytics company used by providers, payers and life sciences companies.
    • “Innovaccer’s cloud powers a slew of healthcare AI features like an AI-assisted care management system, contract management, ambient documentation, pre-visit summary and AI-suggested differential diagnoses.
    • “Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
    • “The Humbi AI acquisition will help build out Innovaccer’s data analytics capabilities. The Nashville-based company combines healthcare data analytics and actuarial consulting to help healthcare organizations improve value-based contracts, manage risk and design benefits.
    • “Humbi AI’s actuarial capabilities will be an integral component of Innovaccer’s cloud platform, and the company plans to launch its own actuarial copilot, executives said in a press release.”
  • Modern Healthcare adds,
    • “Digital health companies at last week’s J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference weren’t just looking for investors. They were looking for dance partners.
    • “The desire of digital health companies to scale through mergers and acquisitions or partnerships was one of the most buzzed-about topics at the conference. Marissa Moore, principal at venture capital firm Omers Ventures, said potential buyers and sellers were trying to size up prospects during the event.
    • “People were soliciting us, ‘Hey, we’re trying to spin off this asset, do you know any good buyers?’ Every conversation we were having [at JPM] was an M&A conversation,” Moore said. “We were approached by corporate development executives from big tech companies…you could tell they were trying to get a pulse on what was struggling and what might fit into their growing portfolios, and where there might be an opportunity to partner.”
    • “That search was particularly active for companies selling digital health solutions to employers, a market that has become challenged as employers grapple with the rising cost of healthcare and low usage rates of their offerings. Employers are looking to reduce the number of companies they contract with to reduce costs and simplify the experience for their employees, said Jim Winkler, chief strategy officer at Business Group on Health, an industry group that represents large employers.”

Monday Report

David Ermer–CDC, CMS, Congress, COVID treatment, FDA, Medical / Rx research, Rx coverage, U.S. Healthcare–

From Washington, DC.

  • The Wall Street Journal reports, “Congress quickly and smoothly certified President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory Monday, a contrast to four years earlier, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol and temporarily halted the confirmation of President Biden’s win.” 
  • Federal News Network confirms,
    • “President Joe Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act into law Sunday afternoon, the final step needed for nearly 3 million public sector employees, retirees, spouses and surviving spouses to begin receiving larger monthly Social Security payments.
    • “The legislation repeals the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset — two longstanding provisions of Social Security that reduce or eliminate benefits for certain government retirees, including Civil Service Retirement System annuitants, as well as teachers, firefighters, police officers and others who have worked in a public sector position.”
  • The American Hospital Association News tells us,
    • “The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Jan. 6 announced the 15 participants for its state Transforming Maternal Health Model: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Washington, D.C., Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wisconsin. The model will provide technical support and resources to state Medicaid agencies to develop programs that address new mothers’ physical health, mental health and social needs during pregnancy and postpartum. The model launched Jan. 1 and will run for 10 years.”
  • Per FiercePharma,
    • “In recent years, the FDA has amped up its supervision of accelerated approvals, including by requiring that confirmatory trials at least be underway at the time of these conditional nods. But, after hearing some mixed messaging from the agency, drugmakers were left wondering what exactly “underway” means in this context.
    • “Now, a new draft guidance document tries to clear the air on the agency’s interpretation of the term “underway.”
    • “The FDA on Monday posted a draft guidance document titled “Accelerated Approval and Considerations for Determining Whether a Confirmatory Trial is Underway.” Although the guidance doc was uploaded by the Oncology Center of Excellence, which has issued the majority of accelerated approvals, the policies are slated to apply to the entire FDA.”
  • BioPharma Dive points out “five FDA decisions to watch in the first quarter of 2025. Over the next three months, the regulator could approve new medicines for pain, a deadly heart disease and a rare condition that’s long bedeviled drugmakers.”

From the public health and medical research front,

  • The New York Times reports,
    • “A Louisiana patient who had been hospitalized with severe bird flu has died, the first such fatality in the United States, state health officials reported on Monday.
    • “The patient was older than 65 and had underlying medical conditions, the officials said. The individual became infected with the bird flu virus, H5N1, after exposure to a backyard flock and wild birds.
    • “There is no sign that the virus is spreading from person to person anywhere in the country, and Louisiana officials have not identified any other cases in the state. Pasteurized dairy products remain safe to consume.
    • “I still think the risk remains low,” said Dr. Diego Diel, a virologist at Cornell University.
    • “However, it is important that people remain vigilant and avoid contact with sick animals, sick poultry, sick dairy cattle, and also avoid contact with wild birds,” he added.”
  • The Washington Post informs us,
    • “The rate of triplet and higher-order multiple births in the United States declined 62 percent from 1998 to 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 
    • “Most of the downturn occurred since 2009. Triplet and higher-order births are pregnancies involving three or more babies. Because maternal and infant health problems are more frequently associated with higher-order multiple births than with twins and single births, the increase was of public health concern, the CDC report noted.” * * *
    • “The period that preceded the current study, 1980 to 1998, saw an extraordinary fivefold increase in births of triplets and higher-order multiple births — from 37 per 100,000 births in 1980 to 194 births per 100,000 in 1998. Researchers attributed the spike to higher maternal age and increased use of fertility treatments. Since that period, the rates of multiple births have trended in the opposite direction.”
  • Medscape adds,
    • “Respiratory syncytial virus prefusion F vaccine significantly reduced severe RSV-related lower respiratory tract disease (LRTD) requiring hospitalization or emergency department (ED) visits in an older adult population, including substantial representation from the oldest age groups.”
  • In related news,
    • Per the New York Times, “Can Paxlovid treat long Covid? A new report suggests it might help some patients, but which patients might benefit remains unclear. The report, published Monday in the journal Communications Medicine, describes the cases of 13 long Covid patients who took extended courses of the antiviral drug. Results were decidedly mixed: Nine patients reported some improvement, but only five said it lasted. Four reported no improvement at all.”
    • Per Infectious Disease Advisor, “Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (PaxlovidTM) reduced COVID-19-related hospitalization and all-cause death, as well as the duration of COVID-19 symptoms and utilization of health care resources among patients at high risk for severe diseases, according to study findings published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.”
  • The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review announced today “that it will assess the comparative clinical effectiveness and value of apitegromab (Scholar Rock) for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). ICER will also assess new evidence (since ICER’s 2019 Final Evidence Report) on the clinical effectiveness of nusinersen (Spinraza®, Biogen) and onasemnogene abeparvovec-xioi (Zolgensma®, Novartis), as well as the evidence for risdiplam (Evrysdi®, Genentech). Risdiplam was not evaluated in the 2019 report.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Fierce Healthcare reports,
    • “All of the commercial prescriptions dispensed at CVS pharmacies will be processed through its CostVantage reimbursement model beginning this year, the healthcare giant announced on Monday.
    • “Under the model, prescriptions are priced based on the underlying cost with a delineated markup and dispensing fee to cover the services provided by CVS in the transaction. The company says that this model makes it less necessary to raise the cost for certain prescriptions to cover losses on other drugs.
    • “The model also seeks to increase transparency for insurers and pharmacy benefit managers, making it potentially easier for PBMs to establish their own more transparent programs for plans and clients.
    • “Prem Shah, group president for CVS Health, said that the team is also working with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to expand the program to Medicare and Medicaid prescriptions.”
  • Modern Healthcare relates,
    • “Although the pharmacy benefit manager market has long been controlled by three large, established players, many smaller PBMs are seeing a spike in interest. But the newer entrants will continue to face stiff competition this year as they seek more business.
    • “Smaller PBMs that advertise themselves as transparent have gained traction over the last few years as health insurers, employers and government entities look to deviate from the traditional spread pricing model. Many of these companies have said 2024 was their largest selling year, with an increasing number of large customers showing interest.”
    • “Companies that had never even spoken to us prior to this past year now are talking to us and are including us as a finalist,” said David Fields, president and CEO of Navitus Health Solutions, which serves employers with up to 500,000 workers and dependents. Navitus will manage pharmacy benefits for about 18 million people in 2025.”
  • McKinsey & Company notes,
    • Technology leaders and enthusiasts are convening in Las Vegas this week for CES—formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show—to hear from industry leaders, get immersed in demos and interactives, and learn about the latest solutions to society’s greatest challenges. This year’s conference program features topics including artificial intelligence, digital health, vehicle technology and future mobility, and more. 
    • Whether you’re attending in-person or via livestream, prepare for #CES2025 by learning about the adoption, development, and effects of 15 top technology trends in an analysis by McKinsey’s Lareina Yee, Michael Chui, and Roger Roberts.

Monday Roundup

David Ermer–CDC, Congress, COVID treatment, Medical / Rx research, Medicare, Rx coverage, U.S. Healthcare–
Photo by Sven Read on Unsplash

From Washington, DC,

  • Reuters reports,
    • “Democratic U.S. Senate aides will meet with Novo Nordisk executives on Tuesday to discuss fallout from its decision to stop selling one of its long-acting insulins in the country, two sources familiar with the meeting told Reuters.
    • “Novo Nordisk (NOVOb.CO), opens new tab will meet with the aides for Senators Jeanne Shaheen, Raphael Warnock, and Elizabeth Warren. In April, the lawmakers wrote to the company expressing alarm at its decision, announced in November, that it would permanently discontinue Levemir by the end of 2024.
    • “Novo said it has given patients enough time to switch to other options, according to a May letter seen by Reuters. The company is unaware of plans for drug manufacturers to produce a biosimilar version of the insulin, the letter said, adding Novo would not assert any patent against such a version.
    • “The sources declined to be named citing the sensitivity of the matter.”
  • STAT News lets us know,
    • “For now, the doctor groups are lobbying [Congress] in unison toward the same goal of increasing the pot of money for physician services, which stood at about $71 billion in 2022, or 16% of Medicare fee-for-service spending. A Medicare spokesperson said that number is expected to reach about $90 billion this year. Doctors would also like to get credit for saving money by keeping patients out of the hospital.
    • “Those demands would pit doctors against others in the health care system, including hospitals, because Congress typically requires that increases in Medicare spending be paid for by cuts elsewhere in the program. That’s a heavy lift. Congress has been considering equalizing certain Medicare payments between hospitals and physicians’ offices to save money, but that site-neutral policy has faltered.
    • “That’s not the only thing working against doctors. If Congress increases spending on physician services, seniors’ Medicare Part B premiums will go up, according to the nonpartisan research arm of Congress. Congress could prevent premiums from increasing, but that would add to the government tab.
    • “For those reasons, doctor lobbyists privately doubt Congress will meaningfully increase physician pay rates overall, leaving doctors to fight over how a fixed sum of money should be split up.
    • “Courtney Savage, founder of Savage Health Policy, said she sees signs of trouble ahead for specialists. Republicans and Democrats in the Senate want to boost primary care pay. Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) unveiled a plan to “improve the adequacy of pay for primary care providers in Medicare.” Two days later, Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and the committee’s ranking Republican, Idaho’s Sen. Mike Crapo, published their plan to improve chronic care, which would likely favor primary care doctors, too.”
  • In this regard, the American Hospital News tells us,
    • The AHA July 15 commented to Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., responding to a request for information based on the Pay PCPs Act, legislation designed to improve support and pay for primary care providers. The AHA expressed concerns that its proposed hybrid per-member-per-month and fee-for-service payment structure in the physician fee schedule for primary care could result in payment cuts, and that there may be variation in the PMPM depending on the type of provider. The bill also has language implying that there is latitude for the PMPM to not be risk-adjusted and possibly restrict what could be included in the risk adjustment, AHA said. 
    • The AHA voiced support for a provision in the legislation that would reduce beneficiary cost-sharing for primary care services by 50% under the hybrid payment model. The association also shared principles for Congress to consider when designing alternative payment models to make participation more attractive for potential participants.
  • Per Axios,
    • “The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services last week proposed creating three new payment codes that would allow physicians to get paid for incorporating digital therapies into patients’ mental health treatment, starting in 2025. 
    • “The codes would only apply to products approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
    • “Insurers have so far been reluctant to pay for apps, video games and other therapeutic software. There isn’t long-term data on the effectiveness, and differences in the therapies make it difficult to standardize billing.
    • “The first company to get FDA clearance for a digital therapy, Pear Therapeutics, declared bankruptcy last year after struggling to secure insurance coverage for its products.”

From the public health and medical research front,

  • The AHA News points out,
    • “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention July 14 announced four confirmed human cases of H5N1 bird flu among farm workers who were working at a Colorado poultry facility. The agency is also aware of a fifth presumptive-positive case, which is pending confirmation. All of the workers who tested positive reported having a mild illness, with symptoms that include conjunctivitis, eye tearing, fever, chills, coughing, sore throat and a runny nose. The CDC said they believe a risk to the public remains low.” 
  • STAT News adds,
    • The announcement of the fourth [H5N1 bird flu] case, on the eve of the July 4 holiday, led Adam Kucharski, the co-director of the Centre for Epidemic Preparedness & Response, at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, to ask on the social platform X: “What’s the plan?”
    • Kucharski posed a bunch of hypotheticals — What if there are clusters of cases? Cases among people who haven’t had contact with cows? Cases exported to other countries? — to convey the point that a mere four years after the start of the worst pandemic since the 1918 Spanish Flu, the world does not appear to be grappling with the fact that H5 virus spreading in cows could lead to H5 virus spreading in people.
    • “What, here in 2024, is the plan for dealing with an outbreak of a potentially pandemic pathogen like H5N1?” he asked.”
  • Medscape notes,
    • “Parkinson’s disease (PD) and dementia with Lewy bodies are currently defined by clinical features, which can be heterogeneous and do not capture the presymptomatic phase of neurodegeneration.
    • “Recent advances have enabled the detection of misfolded and aggregated alpha-synuclein protein (synucleinopathy) — a key pathologic feature of these diseases — allowing for earlier and more accurate diagnosis. This has led two international research groups to propose a major shift from a clinical to a biological definition of the disease.
    • “Both groups emphasized the detection of alpha-synuclein through recently developed seed amplification assays as a key diagnostic and staging tool, although they differ in their approaches and criteria.” * * *
    • “Commenting for Medscape Medical News, James Beck, PhD, chief scientific officer at the Parkinson’s Foundation, said the principle behind the proposed classifications is where “the field needs to go.”
    • “Right now, people with Parkinson’s take too long to get a confirmed diagnosis of their disease, and despite best efforts, clinicians can get it wrong, not diagnosing people or maybe misdiagnosing people,” Beck said. “Moving to a biological basis, where we have better certainty, is going to be really important.”
  • The New York Times reports, “Families pay thousands of dollars to store their children’s stem cells with the hope of a healthier future. But the cells are rarely useful, and sometimes contaminated.” No bueno.
  • A STAT News journalist observes,
    • If you read Derek Lowe — and come on, you must read the bearded chemist who has been blogging about pharma for two decades — you’ve already thought about ibuzatrelvir, Pfizer’s potential heir to Paxlovid, which would be given as a single pill and potentially without that metallic taste.
    • “I read this eagerly, but I had another question that I asked virologist Michael Mina when he posted Derek’s article on X. How do we test it?
    • “Plenty of people still get Covid and die from it. But I’ve been watching clinical trials of Paxlovid and other antivirals. And these drugs keep failing in studies. Even Paxlovid worked best when it was given to high-risk people who have not been vaccinated. Shionogi’s Paxlovid follow-up recently failed in a large study.“Plenty of people still get Covid and die from it. But I’ve been watching clinical trials of Paxlovid and other antivirals. And these drugs keep failing in studies. Even Paxlovid worked best when it was given to high-risk people who have not been vaccinated. Shionogi’s Paxlovid follow-up recently failed in a large study.
    • “It’s very hard to prove an antiviral drug works, a problem that has long dogged Tamiflu. The benefit only shows up if people are at very high risk, or if the study is very big. Otherwise, it just appears the drug is reducing symptoms a very tiny bit.
    • “On this, David Boulware of the University of Minnesota had one perspective: Shionogi’s drug failed because regulators wanted its study to contain too few high-risk patients. But my suspicion is that getting better Covid drugs will be less a problem of chemistry than of clinical trials. This is part of why we don’t have more monoclonal antibodies against new strains. Paxlovid sales have come in higher than many analysts were expecting so far this year. Maybe that will encourage drug.” companies to solve this problem.
  • The Washington Post and Consumer Reports explain “what to do when you need medical care fast,”
    e.g., self-triage.
  • Per MedPage Today,
    • “A mammography screening decision aid with information about the benefits and harms of screening increased the percentage of average-risk women in their 40s who wanted to delay mammography, according to a national online survey.
    • “Before viewing the decision aid, 27% of women ages 39 to 49 preferred to delay screening. The decision aid raised that percentage to 38.5%, reported Laura Scherer, PhD, of the University of Colorado in Aurora, and colleagues.
    • “The survey also showed a narrower majority of women preferred to undergo mammography at their current age after viewing the decision aid (57.2% vs 67.6% beforehand) and more preferred to wait until age 50 (18% vs 8.5%).
    • “As to what information shifted their view, 37.4% of women surveyed said they found the information about overdiagnosis in the decision aid “surprising,” and 28.1% said it differed from what their doctor had told them, Scherer and colleagues reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
    • “While the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends biennial screenings starting at age 40 years — compared with a previous recommendation that screening begin at 50 — it “endorses informed choice and shared decision making at all levels of its recommendations,” Scherer’s group wrote.
    • “However, “a lack of language promoting informed choice in the guideline itself may create confusion among clinicians about whether they should discuss both screening benefits and harms with patients or instead provide only information that maximizes screening uptake,” they added.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • AIS Daily reports,
    • “Blue Shield of California caught the attention of the industry last August when it announced a switch to a pharmacy benefits model using five vendors. While some insurers and plan sponsors have considered a similar move following Blue Shield’s revelation, benefits consultants tell AIS Health that most payers continue to have a traditional arrangement where one PBM handles all pharmacy-related activities. They add that Blue Shield’s so-called unbundled approach could be difficult to manage and may not achieve significant cost savings.”
  • Per Fierce Pharma,
    • “While patent cliffs are looming for many of biopharma’s top-selling products, the industry has enormous capacity to respond as “conditions for M&A are favorable,” according to a research note from Morgan Stanley.
    • “In the July 11 report, the analysts calculate that products losing exclusivity through 2030 are generating a combined $183.5 billion in annual sales, with Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb and Merck facing the most exposure of their revenue.
    • “Meanwhile—citing company financial reports and data from Visible Alpha and FactSet—Morgan Stanley estimates that Big Pharma has $383.1 billion of firepower available for dealmaking. The companies sitting on the most dry powder are Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Novo Nordisk, the analysts said.
    • “We continue to see the conditions as generally favorable for bolt-on M&A as large-cap pharma companies have balance sheet capacity and a need to acquire outer-year revenue,” the Morgan Stanley team, led by Terence Flynn, Ph.D., wrote.”
  • BioPharma Dive offers a chart with “Years of expiration for principal patents protecting the top 30 pharmaceutical products by 2023 sales.”
  • Beckers Hospital Review discloses the gender breakdown of physicians across the fifty states and DC.
  • Per MedCity News, “Walgreens’ Finances Are in Dire Straits — But All Hope Is Not Lost. Walgreens’ financial performance is still rocky, but experts agree there is a good chance that CEO Tim Wentworth can lead the company to recovery. To make this happen, Walgreens will have to let go of its retail clinic dreams and focus more on making its core pharmacy business as strong as possible.”

Friday Factoids

David Ermer–CDC, COVID treatment, COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccine, FDA, Federal employment benefits, Medical / Rx research, Mental health care, No Surprises Act, Obesity, OPM, U.S. Healthcare–
Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

From Washington, DC

  • The Federal Times reports,
    • “It took 13 years — with some stops, starts and stumbles in between — but as of today, the federal government now has a single website designed to deliver detailed, searchable information about all federal programs.
    • “The Office of Management and Budget flipped the switch Thursday on the new Federal Program Inventory, a platform it’s been building via various pilot efforts since December 2020. Officials acknowledge it doesn’t yet capture every single program: For now, only “domestic assistance” programs are included. But that broad category encompasses most federal spending, ranging from Social Security and Medicare to the smallest community block grant programs.
    • “As of now, the database includes spending and performance data on 2,388 programs, said Diedre Harrison, OMB’s deputy controller.”
  • The FEHBlog cannot locate the FEHBP in this database, FYI. What’s more,
    • “The Treasury Department and the IRS are calling on teleworking employees to return to the office for half of their workdays, starting in a few months.
    • “IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel told employees in an email Thursday that teleworking employees will need to return to the office 50% of the time, on any given month, starting on May 5.
    • “Our top priority, regardless of where employees are located at any point in time, will continue to be meeting our goals of serving taxpayers, ensuring tax compliance and maintaining our vital technology and operations,” Werfel wrote.
    • “The return-to-office plans will only impact IRS executives, managers and non-bargaining unit employees with telework agreements in the National Capital Region. The decision affects IRS headquarters, the agency’s New Carrollton Federal Building and other offices in the Washington, D.C. area.”
  • Healthcare Dive points out,
    • “The federal government received 13 times more surprise billing disputes in the first half of 2023 than it expected to receive in a full year, according to new CMS data.
    • “And the amount is growing each quarter, contributing to a growing backlog and straining the capacity of the system regulators set up to arbitrate disputes over medical bills between providers and health insurers.
    • “Of the 288,810 disputes filed in the first six months of 2023, fewer than half were closed, and arbiters rendered payment decisions in under a third of cases. Of those, providers won 77% of payment determinations, while health plans prevailed in 23% — noteworthy statistics given providers have argued the arbitration process is unfairly weighted toward insurers.”
  • The Commonwealth Fund discusses the status of creating a separate version of the No Surprises Act for ground ambulances.
  • Newfront fills us in on federal claim substantiation rules for flexible spending accounts, health reimbursement accounts, and health savings accounts.
  • The Wall Street Journal reports,
    • “Novartis and Roche Holding said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved their Xolair treatment to reduce allergic reactions following the exposure to one or more foods.
    • “The pharmaceutical companies on Friday said Xolair has been approved for patients aged one year and older with the IgE-mediated food allergy.
    • “Patients taking Xolair for food allergies should continue to avoid all foods they are allergic to, the companies added.
    • “Xolair, a prescription biologic medicine that is given as an injection, shouldn’t be taken as an emergency treatment for allergic reactions.”
  • BioPharma Dive adds,
    • “The Food and Drug Administration will decide by June 21 whether to loosen the restrictions surrounding use of Sarepta Therapeutics’ gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the company said Friday
    • “Sarepta’s gene therapy, Elevidys, was granted a conditional OK last June for children between 4 and 5 years of age who have Duchenne and can still walk. Sarepta aims to convert that nod to a full approval for all people with Duchenne and a confirmed mutation to a specific gene, even though Elevidys failed to hit its main goal in a study meant to confirm its benefits. 
    • “Sarepta, for its part, has argued that the collective evidence it’s accrued proves Elevidys is impacting the disease. Analysts appear optimistic of its chances, given the agency won’t convene a group of outside experts to review its request.”  

From the public health and medical research front,

  • The Centers for Disease Control tells us
    • In September 2023, CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended updated 2023–2024 (monovalent XBB.1.5) COVID-19 vaccination for all persons aged ≥6 months to prevent COVID-19, including severe disease. Many variants co-circulated during fall 2023; the JN.1 lineage became predominant in January 2024. Few estimates of updated 2023–2024 vaccine effectiveness (VE) are available.
    • What is added by this report?
    • Receipt of updated COVID-19 vaccine provided approximately 54% increased protection against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection compared with no receipt of updated vaccine. Vaccination provides protection against JN.1 and other circulating lineages.
    • What are the implications for public health practice?
    • All persons aged ≥6 months should receive updated 2023–2024 COVID-19 vaccine. CDC will continue monitoring COVID-19 VE, including against severe disease and for expected waning.
  • The CDC called attention to its website on RSV prevention.
  • MedCity News offers
    • “Three Tips To Improve Health Plans’ Chronic Conditions Management 
    • “During a virtual panel, leaders from across the industry shared their advice on how health plans can do a better job of achieving their goals for chronic management. For example, one executive said health plans should utilize remote monitoring tools for centralized observation and be wary of using the wrong metrics.” 
  • Benefits Pro lets us know,
    • “Older Americans may forego elective surgeries because they are worried about out-of-pocket expenses and time away from work, along with potential exposure to COVID-19.
    • “This is according to a study by the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, which discovered that these factors tend to dissuade older Americans from going through with surgeries more than concerns about pain or the recovery process.
    • “Nearly half of those who said they were very concerned about cost and more than half of those who were very concerned about taking time off of work ended up not having a surgery they were considering, the study found. However, those who were concerned about surgery-related pain were just as likely as those with no concerns about pain to go ahead with surgery.”
  • Medscape calls attention to “How the New MRSA Antibiotic Cracked AI’s ‘Black Box.'”
    • “The MIT study is part of the Antibiotics-AI project, a 7-year effort to leverage AI to find new antibiotics. Phare Bio, a nonprofit started by MIT professor James Collins, PhD, and others, will do clinical testing on the antibiotic candidates.
    • “Even with the AI’s assistance, there’s still a long way to go before clinical approval.
    • “But knowing which elements contribute to a candidate’s effectiveness against MRSA could help the researchers formulate scientific hypotheses and design better validation, Lee noted. In other words, because they used explainable AI, they could be better positioned for clinical trial success.”
  • The New York Times reports,
    • “Growing numbers of children and adolescents are being prescribed multiple psychiatric drugs to take simultaneously, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Maryland. The phenomenon is increasing despite warnings that psychotropic drug combinations in young people have not been tested for safety or studied for their impact on the developing brain.
    • “The study, published Friday in JAMA Open Network, looked at the prescribing patterns among patients 17 or younger enrolled in Medicaid from 2015 to 2020 in a single U.S. state that the researchers declined to name. In this group, there was a 9.5 percent increase in the prevalence of “polypharmacy,” which the study defined as taking three or more different classes of psychiatric medications, including antidepressants, mood-stabilizing anticonvulsants, sedatives and drugs for A.D.H.D. and anxiety drugs.”
  • AP reports,
    • “Smoking has surpassed injecting as the most common way of taking drugs in U.S. overdose deaths, a new government study suggests.
    • “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called its study published Thursday the largest to look at how Americans took the drugs that killed them.
    • “CDC officials decided to study the topic after seeing reports from California suggesting that smoking fentanyl was becoming more common than injecting it. Potent, illicit versions of the painkiller are involved in more U.S. overdose deaths than any other drug.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Healthcare Dive informs us,
    • “CommonSpirit Health cut its operating losses in the three months ended Dec. 31by working with payers to speed the rate of reimbursement for services and implementing cost containment measures, according to earnings released on Thursday.
    • “The Chicago-based health system reported an operating income of $356 million for the quarter. Normalized for the California provider fee program, CommonSpirit logged an operating loss of $87 million. In the same period last year, CommonSpirit reported an operating loss of $440 million.
    • “CommonSpirit said supply and salary inflation continues to vex the system. Salaries and benefit expenses increased $413 million, or 9.3%, year over year, primarily due to higher salary costs.”
  • RevCycle Intelligence adds,
    • “Rural healthcare’s outlook just worsened, according to a new analysis from Chartis, a healthcare advisory firm.
    • “The updated analysis of key indicators such as rural hospital operating margin, facility closures, and loss of access to care and services paints a grim picture for rural hospitals in the US, particularly independent providers.
    • “Half of rural hospitals are operating in the red, the analysis found, and that percentage increased from 43 percent a year ago. More independent rural hospitals are operating at a loss at 55 percent, while 42 percent of health system-affiliated rural hospitals have a deficit. The analysis noted that almost 60 percent of rural hospitals in the US are now affiliated with a health system.
    • “With more rural hospitals facing revenue losses, 418 facilities are “vulnerable to closure,” the analysis showed.
    • “America’s rural hospitals have been battling against drivers of instability for more than a decade, but this newest research suggests this crisis has accelerated quickly to previously unseen levels,” Michael Topchik, national leader of The Chartis Center for Rural Health, said in a statement. “To learn the percentage of rural hospitals in the red has shifted 7 [percent] and now includes half of all rural hospitals is startling and should serve as an urgent call to action for everyone invested in rural healthcare.”
  • Per Fierce Healthcare,
    • “Nearly all healthcare executives believe new digital health technologies are worth the cost, even though they have yet to see a financial return from it, a new survey reveals.
    • “The inaugural Health Pulse Survey was conducted by Ernst & Young and reached more than 100 payer and provider administrative executives across the U.S. It found that the appetite for digital health solutions has risen, particularly since COVID-19. The pandemic was a catalyst for the industry.
    • “COVID prompted a lot of digital health tech investments by payers and providers—it was out of necessity,” Kaushik Bhaumik, EY’s U.S. health technology leader, told Fierce Healthcare. “People had to connect with their patients through digital channels.” 
  • Reuters reports,
    • “A small but rapidly growing number of U.S. adolescents began treatment with Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss drug Wegovy last year, a powerful new tool to address record rates of pediatric obesity, according to data shared exclusively with Reuters.
    • “In the first 10 months of 2023, 1,268 children ages 12 to 17 with an obesity diagnosis started taking Wegovy, according to U.S. insurance claims data compiled by health technology company Komodo Health.”

Midweek update

David Ermer–Congress, COVID treatment, FDA, Medical / Rx research, Medicare, Mental health care, NIH, Obesity, OPM, U.S. Healthcare–
Photo by Manasvita S on Unsplash

From Washington, DC,

  • Roll Call informs us
    • “House leadership smoothed the path for consideration of a $78 billion family and business tax break deal Wednesday by committing to a floor vote as soon as next week on a separate bill to boost the state and local tax deduction cap for married couples.”
  • and later
    • “The House on Wednesday night passed a $79 billion family and business tax break bill after several days of uncertainty, teeing it up for consideration in the Senate. 
    • “The package negotiated by House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., and Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., easily mustered the two-thirds majority needed to pass, despite GOP drama earlier in the week and previous criticism from Democrats. 
    • “It’s a strong, commonsense, bipartisan step forward in providing urgent tax relief for working families and small businesses,” Smith said on the floor ahead of the 357-70 vote. “Parents in Main Street communities across this country will see lower taxes, more opportunity and greater financial security after we pass this legislation.”
  • Here is a link to today’s hearing held by the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee about national healthcare expenditures.
  • Fierce Healthcare tells us,
    • “Medicare Advantage (MA) payments are set to decrease yet again in 2025 as the feds phase in significant changes to risk adjustment.
    • “As those overhauls begin to take effect, benchmark payments are set to decline by about 0.2% on average, according to the latest advance notice released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
    • “Despite this, the feds said Wednesday that payments to MA plans are expected to increase by 3.7% in 2025, a $16 billion increase over 2024. The payment rate announced today could change by the time the final rate announcement is published, no later than April 1.”
  • The CY 2025 Advance Notice may be viewed by going to: https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Health-Plans/MedicareAdvtgSpecRateStats/Announcements-and-Documents and selecting “2025 Advance Notice.”
  • A fact sheet discussing the provisions of the CY 2025 Advance Notice, as well as frequently asked questions, can be viewed here: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/2025-medicare-advantage-and-part-d-advance-notice-fact-sheet.
  • Beckers Payer Issues adds,
    • “A bipartisan group of lawmakers is urging CMS to maintain “payment and policy” stability in Medicare Advantage. 
    • “In a letter to CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the group of 60 senators asked the agency to “consider the ongoing implementation of program reforms finalized last year and provide stability for the Medicare Advantage program in 2025.”  * * *
    • “The letter comes after two lawmakers, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, wrote to the agency urging more action on curbing overpayments to the program. 
    • “Read the full letter here. “
  • Today, OPM posted on the Federal Register website a proposed FEHB rule that “would allow FEHB and PSHB coverage to become effective at the beginning of the pay period that the employee in pay status has an initial opportunity to enroll. This change would occur when the employee becomes eligible for FEHB or PSHB coverage, provided an appropriate request to enroll is received by the employing office within the initial pay period that the employee becomes eligible.”
  • American Hospital News reports,
    • “The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Jan. 31 issued a final rule that updates certain regulations for Opioid Treatment Programs and the standards for treatment of opioid use disorder. The rule makes some COVID-19-related flexibilities permanent, including take-home doses of methadone, the ability of an OTP to prescribe medication for OUD via telehealth without an initial in-person physical evaluation, and the removal of certain requirements for admission to an OTP to better align with evidence-based practice.”
  • KFF shares three charts about Medicare drug price negotiations.
  • Federal News Network reports,
    • “The Postal Service is looking to cut $5 billion from its operating costs and grow its revenue by the same amount over the next two years to overcome its long-term financial challenges.
    • “Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is telling the White House and Congress that implementing these plans is necessary to keep USPS from running out of cash in the coming years.
    • “DeJoy, in a Jan.10 letter obtained by Federal News Network, told President Joe Biden and congressional leaders that USPS is “utilizing all of the self-help tools that are available to us,” and trying to get back on track with its “break-even” goal, after years of billion-dollar net losses.
    • “It is evident that to break even and avoid running out of cash in the next several years, we must press ahead on our financial improvement initiatives over the next two years,” DeJoy wrote. “While we have already achieved historic reductions, they are simply not enough to make us financially sustainable.”

From the public health and medical research front,

  • Check out this JAMA Open article to learn why “Paxlovid Is Effective but Underused—Here’s What the Latest Research Says About Rebound and More.”
  • Per Fierce Healthcare,
    • “As artificial intelligence advances in different areas of healthcare, there are concerns that technology and AI-based chatbots will replace the human connections between patients and practitioners.
    • “But, a new study finds promising potential for AI and large language models to enhance mental health therapy at scale by being able to analyze millions of text-based counseling messages to shine a light on what works.
    • “Researchers used AI to analyze more than 20 million text conversations of counseling sessions and successfully predicted patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes, according to a study published this week in the Journal of The American Medical Association (JAMA) Open.”
  • The National Institutes of Health announced,
    • An analysis conducted by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) reveals a substantial increase in the overall use of complementary health approaches by American adults from 2002 to 2022. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, highlights a surge in the adoption of complementary health approaches for pain management over the same period.
    • Researchers utilized data from the 2002, 2012, and 2022 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) to evaluate changes in the use of seven complementary health approaches, including yoga, meditation, massage therapy, chiropractic care, acupuncture, naturopathy, and guided imagery/progressive muscle relaxation.
    • The key findings include:
      • The percentage of individuals who reported using at least one of the seven approaches increased from 19.2% in 2002 to 36.7% in 2022.
      • The use of yoga, meditation, and massage therapy experienced the most significant growth from 2002 to 2022.
      • Use of yoga increased from 5% in 2002 to 15.8% in 2022.
      • Meditation became the most used approach in 2022, with an increase from 7.5% in 2002 to 17.3% in 2022.
      • Acupuncture, increasingly covered by insurance, saw an increase from 1% in 2002 to 2.2% in 2022.
    • Additionally, the analysis showed a notable rise in the proportion of U.S. adults using complementary health approaches specifically for pain management. Among participants using any of the complementary health approaches, the percentage reporting use for pain management increased from 42.3% in 2002 to 49.2% in 2022.
    • Despite the findings, the authors acknowledge study limitations, including decreasing NHIS response rates over time, possible recall bias, cross-sectional data, and differences in survey wording.
  • and
    • “Researchers at the National Institutes of Health detected abnormal proteins in the spinal fluid of people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), which could help improve diagnosis of these diseases. The findings were published in Science Translational Medicine.
    • “The proteins in question are built from “cryptic” exons—abnormal portions of RNA, the cell’s instructions for how to build proteins. Cryptic exons occur when TDP-43, a protein that regulates how RNA is processed, stops functioning normally. TDP-43 dysfunction is linked to ALS, FTD, Alzheimer’s disease, and Limbic Associated TDP-43 Encephalopathy (LATE).
    • “The study showed that these mis-spliced sections of RNA can sometimes generate new proteins from the cryptic sequence. The findings advance our understanding of how cryptic exons may be involved in the dementia disease process and could help identify diseases involving TDP-43 dysfunction before symptoms appear. Currently, TDP-43 aggregates in the brain can only be detected at autopsy.”  
  • MedPage Today points out, “Getting clinicians to commit to the Choosing Wisely recommendations somewhat reduced low-value care for older adults in common scenarios, a cluster randomized trial found.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Per BioPharma Dive,
    • “Novo Nordisk has resumed shipping starter doses of its weight-loss drug Wegovy, nearly nine months after manufacturing problems forced it to restrict distribution to maintenance shots in order to ensure that people who had already started taking it could continue, the company said Wednesday.
    • “The resumption of the starter doses, which begin at 0.25 milligrams per week, comes two months after obesity rival Eli Lilly gained U.S. approval for a competing drug, Zepbound, that could threaten to eat away at Novo’s sizable lead in weight-loss treatment.”
  • The Wall Street Journal adds,
    • “Nearly every employer in the country is now grappling with how—and whether—to pay for new weight loss drugs. Needless to say, such decisions are highly important to patients struggling with obesity.
    • “But for Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, it actually doesn’t matter, for now, from a financial perspective. They are selling every injection they can make. It won’t change anytime soon.” ***
    • While the companies are both moving as fast as possible, expanding the manufacturing of injectables is complicated. 
    • “You’re talking about billions of pens. That’s not a trivial exercise,” says Guggenheim analyst Seamus Fernandez. “Producing pens is a very complex process that requires precision and lots of attention to safety.” 
    • “That is one reason why developing pills such as Lilly’s orforglipron, which is undergoing clinical trials, is so crucial, he adds. Figuring out how to make oral versions well-tolerated is a challenge, though.”
  • MedTech Dive tells us about the top medtech trends in 2024. “Experts said M&A, orthopedic procedure backlogs and emerging cardiac markets were among the top trends to watch in the medical device industry this year.”
  • Per Healthcare Dive,
    • “Cigna has agreed to sell its Medicare business to Health Care Service Corporation for roughly $3.7 billion, the health insurer announced Wednesday.
    • “HCSC is acquiring Cigna’s Medicare Advantage, supplemental benefits and Medicare Part D plans, along with CareAllies, a division that helps providers transition to value-based care. In total, the plans cover 3.6 million people on Medicare.
    • “The companies said they expect the deal — which includes $3.3 billion in cash and $400 million in capital Cigna expects to be freed up — to close in the first quarter of 2025, subject to regulatory approval.”
  • and
    • “Humana plans to expand its primary care network for seniors this year, as the insurer looks to lean on provider capabilities to boost its beleaguered Medicare Advantage business.
    • “In 2024, CenterWell Senior Primary Care plans to enter three new markets in North Carolina and Louisiana, and add additional centers in eight of its current markets in the U.S., the payer announced on Tuesday.
    • “Humana is one of many health insurers racing to build out a provider network to provide convenient access to primary care for its members. But for Humana, this strategy is more important than it might be for its rivals with a broader variety of plans, given Humana has made such a significant bet on Medicare Advantage, said Arielle Trzcinski, a healthcare analyst at market research firm Forrester.”
  • BioPharma Dive lets us know,
    • In 2021, the Food and Drug Administration for the first time approved a medicine meant to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Developed by partners Biogen and Eisai, the medicine, called Aduhelm, was viewed initially as a needed new treatment option by patients and a potential blockbuster product by Wall Street analysts.
    • “Now, less than three years since that approval, Biogen is fully giving up on the drug. The company said Wednesday it is handing rights to back to Aduhelm’s original developer, Neurimmune, and will redirect much of the money spent on the drug toward other Alzheimer’s therapies in its business.
    • “Biogen is reprioritizing resources to build a leading franchise to address the multiple pathologies of the disease and patient needs,” said Christopher Viehbacher, the company’s CEO, in a statement.”
  • Per Beckers Payer Issues,
    • “The share of U.S. employees in healthcare plans funded by their employer rose from 2015 to 2021, a study published in the January issue of Health Affairs found. 
    • “In 2015, 55% of employees were enrolled in self-funded plans, compared to 60% of employees in 2021. Most of the growth occurred in states and counties with lower levels of self-funded enrollment, the study found. 
    • “Groups of rapid growth in self-funded plans were concentrated in Arkansas, New York, Northern California, Pennsylvania and Utah, the study found. 
    • “Elevance Health is the largest administrator of self-funded plans, with around 19% of the total market, according to the study. CVS Health claimed the fastest growing self-funded enrollment from 2015 to 2021. “

Tuesday Tidbits

David Ermer–CMS, COVID treatment, FDA, Obesity, OPM, Rx coverage, SDOH, U.S. Healthcare–
Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

From Washington, DC,

  • The Department of Health and Human Services announced today that
    • “Sickle cell disease (SCD) will be the first focus of the Cell and Gene Therapy (CGT) Access Model, which was initially announced in February 2023. The model is designed to improve health outcomes, increase access to cell and gene therapies, and lower health care costs for some of the nation’s most vulnerable populations. * * *
    • “Gene therapies for sickle cell disease have the potential to treat this devastating condition and transform people’s lives, offering them a chance to live healthier and potentially avoid associated health issues,” said CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure. “Increasing access to these promising therapies will not only help keep people healthy, but it can also lead to savings for states and taxpayers as the long-term costs of treating sickle cell disease may be avoided.” * * *
    • “For additional information see the fact sheet – PDF and CGT model page.“
  • The American Hospital Association reports,
    • “Paxlovid may no longer be distributed with an emergency use label after March 8, the Food and Drug Administration announced. Providers may dispense unexpired Paxlovid labeled for emergency use to patients through March 8, after which Paxlovid labeled for emergency use must be returned to the manufacturer or disposed of in accord with regulations, the agency said.
    • “The FDA last May approved a new drug application for Pfizer’s Paxlovid to treat adults at high risk of progressing to severe COVID-19. Paxlovid labeled under the new drug application will continue to be authorized for emergency use to treat eligible pediatric patients, the agency said.”
  • Following up on Affordable Care Act FAQ 64, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management issued today a carrier letter no. 2024-03 on contraceptive coverage and patient education.
  • Reuters reports,
    • “Pharmaceutical companies are due to receive by Thursday the U.S. government’s opening proposal for what are expected to be significant discounts on 10 of its high-cost medicines, an important step in the Medicare health program’s first ever price negotiations.
    • “Five Wall Street analysts and two investors told Reuters they expect the negotiations over prices that will go into effect in 2026 to result in cuts ranging from the statutory minimum of 25% to as much as 60% when the final numbers are set in September.
    • “The drugmakers and the government are expected to wait until then to disclose them.” * * *
    • “Pharmaceutical companies and business groups have filed more than half a dozen lawsuits to stop the negotiations from taking place, saying that they are unlawful.
    • “Drug companies say the law’s costs will hurt drug development programs and patients.”
    • “The lawsuits have not slowed the implementation timeline.”
  • Axios points out that CMS’s recent prior authorization proposed rule do not apply to prescription drug claims.
  • The Federal Acquisition Regulation Council published in the Federal Register today a proposed rule
    • “would prohibit contractors and subcontractors from seeking and considering information about job applicants’ compensation history when making employment decisions for certain positions. Under the proposed policy and the proposed regulatory amendments, contractors and subcontractors would also be required to disclose the compensation to be offered to the hired applicant in job announcements for certain positions.”
  • The public comment period ends on April 1, 2024.

From the public health and medical research front,

  • The Wall Street Journal reports,
    • “People who are suffering from severe pain but don’t want to risk addiction to an opioid are closer to a new option for treatment.
    • “Vertex Pharmaceuticals on Tuesday reported positive study results for its closely watched non-opioid painkiller. The drug lowered the moderate-to-severe acute pain reported by study volunteers, a sign it could be the first in a new class of painkiller to be approved for use.
    • “But the experimental medicine is more likely to provide an alternative to opioids, rather than supplant them, because it didn’t work better than a widely used opioid drug sold under the brand name Vicodin.
    • “Vertex said it would file for approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by the middle of this year.”
  • STAT News tells us,
    • “Drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy — already game changers for diabetes and obesity — are being studied to treat an entirely different growing health problem: mental health illnesses, including depression and bipolar disorder.
    • “Early data and anecdotes suggest that this class of GLP-1 drugs could help patients feel less depressed and anxious. The treatment may also fight the decline in cognitive and executive function that many people with mental health disorders experience, like worsening memory and losing the ability to focus and plan.
    • “If further research yields positive results, it could drive even more demand for the highly popular GLP-1 treatments, which have increasingly been shown to help with problems across the body, such as heart and kidney complications. And especially if the cognitive benefits are proven out, the GLP-1 drugs would plug a critical gap in current treatments for depression, since most depression drugs help with mood, but close to none address cognitive symptoms that affect memory and attention.”
  • and
    • “The U.S. syphilis epidemic isn’t abating, with the rate of infectious cases rising 9% in 2022, according to a new federal government report on sexually transmitted diseases in adults.
    • “But there’s some unexpected good news: The rate of new gonorrhea cases fell for the first time in a decade.
    • “It’s not clear why syphilis rose 9% while gonorrhea dropped 9%, officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, adding that it’s too soon to know whether a new downward trend is emerging for the latter.
    • “They are most focused on syphilis, which is less common than gonorrhea or chlamydia but considered more dangerous. Total cases surpassed 207,000 in 2022, the highest count in the United States since 1950, according to data released Tuesday.”
  • MedTech Dive calls attention to “four heart device trends shaping the medtech sector in 2024. Medtronic, Boston Scientific and J&J are among the medtech companies advancing treatments in cardiac care for when medicines are not enough.
  • MedCity Dive discusses “How Food as Medicine is Becoming A Core Team Capability. As the food as medicine movement grows, some payers and healthcare organizations are carving out specific roles and teams dedicated to food and nutrition. Doing so can be beneficial considering the significant impact diet can have on health outcomes.”
  • The Washington Post notes,
    • “Older adults spend an average of three weeks every year on doctor’s appointments and other health care outside their homes, according to research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
    • “Of those 21 “health care contact days,” 17 involve ambulatory services, such as office visits with primary-care doctors or specialists, testing and imaging, procedures, treatments and therapy. The remaining four days included time spent in an emergency room, hospital, skilled nursing facility or hospice.
    • “The study also found that about 11 percent of people 65 and over spend even more time — 50 or more days each year (nearly one day a week) — obtaining routine health care away from home. The research was based on Medicare data from a nationally representative sample of 6,619 people 65 and older.
    • “The findings represent “not only access to needed care but also substantial time, efforts and cost, especially for older adults and their care partners,” the researchers wrote.”
  • Peterson – KFF Health System Tracker offers a study comparing U.S. life expectancy to other countries.

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Pfizer released its full year 2023 results and reaffirmed its full year 2024 financial guidance provided on December 13, 2023. “The fourth-quarter 2023 earnings presentation and accompanying prepared remarks from management as well as the quarterly update to Pfizer’s R&D pipeline can be found at www.pfizer.com.”
  • Beckers Hospital Review reports,
    • “Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare saw revenues of $17.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, up from $15.5 billion over the same period in 2022, according to its financial report released Jan. 30.” 
  • and
    • “Nonprofit Hospitals’ operating margins are far below the pre-pandemic “magic number” of 3% and are in danger of a permanent reset in the 1%-2% range, according to a Jan. 29 report published by Fitch Ratings.
    • “This operating margin reset is worrying some investors, but “hospital downgrades en masse would be unlikely because many systems have built up robust balance sheets and learned to economize on capital spending to a certain degree,” Kevin Holloran, senior director and sector head at Fitch, said.

Thursday Miscellany

David Ermer–AHRQ, CDC, COVID treatment, COVID-19, FDA, Medical / Rx research, Obesity, OPM, Rx coverage, U.S. Healthcare–
Photo by Josh Mills on Unsplash

From Washington, DC,

  • Govexec informs us,
    • “Published last month, OPM’s annual report to Congress covers the 2022 fiscal year, which ended in September 2022, meaning it covers a period of time when agencies were developing and beginning implementation of re-entry plans after a two-year period of maximum telework during the COVID-19 pandemic, but before the Biden administration’s concerted push beginning last spring to increase “meaningful in-person work” across government.
    • “In a message accompanying the report, OPM Director Kiran Ahuja acknowledged that the snapshot of telework as represented by the data may not be current, given the shift in the last year toward more in-person work, but she stressed that changes made this year will improve agencies’ data collection and OPM’s analysis going forward.
    • “With COVID-19 no longer the primary driver in workforce decisions, federal agencies are closely examining the balance of in-person and virtual work to maximize mission delivery—including making increases to meaningful in-person work while also utilizing flexible work arrangements as a strategic tool to enhance organizational performance,” she wrote. “To support this work, OPM has been engaging with agencies to improve the quality of government-wide and agency-specific telework data. OPM anticipates that future reports will reflect these improvements.”
  • HHS’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality issued a report about the value of respectful maternity care.
  • BioPharma Dive points out five Food and Drug Administration decisions to watch out for this first quarter of 2024.
    • “The agency could approve a closely watched Alzheimer’s disease drug, as well as what could be the first medicine for a prevalent liver disease and a new kind of cancer therapy. Also on deck are verdicts for a drug at the heart of a multibillion dollar buyout and a linchpin asset for one biotech’s oncology plans.”

From the public health and medical research front,

  • The New York Times reports,
    • “As Covid rises again, killing about 1,500 Americans each week, medical researchers are trying to understand why so few people are taking Paxlovid, a medicine that is stunningly effective in preventing severe illness and death from the disease.
    • “A study of a million high-risk people with Covid found that only about 15 percent who were eligible for the drug took it. If instead half of the eligible patients in the United States had gotten Paxlovid during the time period of the research, 48,000 deaths could have been prevented, the authors of the study, conducted by the National Institutes of Health, concluded.
    • “It’s not because people don’t know about the drug — most do — but the reluctance seems to come from doctors worried about interactions with other drugs and people wary of a possible rebound case or the metallic aftertaste.” * * *
    • “Reasons for not prescribing or taking it have varied: Doctors balk at the long list of medications not to be mixed with Paxlovid, including common drugs meant to lower blood pressure or prevent blood clots. Patients tend to complain about the drug’s metallic aftertaste. Many wave off the drug in the early days of Covid, when symptoms tend to be mildest, bypassing the chance to limit early viral growth. * * *
    • “Federal officials still have more than one million free doses out to pharmacies, and the medication will be free through 2024 for Medicaid and Medicare patients. But in recent weeks, officials have handed distribution of the drug off to Pfizer, which has priced it at about $1,400 per course, though private insurers are expected to cover some portion of the price and Pfizer is offering co-payment assistance.“
  • Fierce BioTech tells us,
    • “Researchers at Roche have developed a novel antibiotic with the ability to fight a dangerous drug-resistant bacteria that kills in up to 60% of infections.
    • “In a pair of articles published Jan. 3 in Nature, Roche and Harvard University scientists described how they developed a new antibiotic that is effective against carbapenem-resistant acinetobacter baumannii—also known as CRAB—in mice. The drug, zosurabalpin, works by interrupting construction of the bacteria’s outer membrane.
    • “The ongoing research into zosurabalpin, as well as a second novel class of antibiotics being developed by Roche in human clinical studies, will help uncover new biology about the construction of bacterial membranes,” Michael Lobritz, M.D., Ph.D., global head of infectious diseases at Roche Pharma Research & Early Development, said in a statement provided to Nature. “Our goal is to contribute new innovations to overcome antimicrobial resistance, one of the biggest infectious disease challenges to public health.”
    • “CRAB is a common culprit in hospital-acquired sepsis and other infections, and is at the top of the list of both the World Health Organization’s and the Centers for Disease Control’s “priority pathogens” for which new drugs are urgently needed.” 

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • BioPharma Dive points out,
    • “Eli Lilly wants to make it easier for people to access its medicines for obesity, diabetes and migraine, announcing Thursday the launch of a website designed to support home delivery of drugs like its in-demand weight loss treatment Zepbound.
    • “The company’s new service, dubbed LillyDirect, relies on online pharmacy providers like Eversana and Truepill to deliver prescribed Lilly medicines. A website provides access to telehealth services through which people can consult with an independent physician. If prescribed a Lilly medicine, LillyDirect is also meant to help patients more easily access the company’s savings cards.
    • “LillyDirect currently supports 14 of the pharmaceutical company’s medicines, 12 of which are various formulations and types on insulin. Notably, the service also offers Zepbound, which the FDA approved for weight loss in November, and Lilly’s migraine medicine Emgality.”
  • Reuters reports
    • “CVS Health (CVS.N) said on Wednesday it will remove AbbVie’s (ABBV.N) blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira from some of its lists of preferred drugs for reimbursement as of April 1, and will recommend biosimilar versions of the medicine instead.
    • “CVS said Hyrimoz and an unbranded version of Humira, both from Swiss drugmaker Sandoz (SDZ.S), will be covered across all its formularies, while branded and unbranded near copies of the drug from India’s Biocon (BION.NS) will be covered on some reimbursement lists.
    • “CVS also announced that AbbVie and CVS-owned company Cordavis, which launched in August, will produce a co-branded version of Humira that will be made available to customers in the second quarter of this year. While most biosimilars are near copies of the branded drug, the Cordavis version will be identical to Humira in its formulation, CVS said.”
  • Healthcare Dive notes,
    • “Walgreens beat Wall Street expectations on earnings per share and revenue in its first quarter, as the pharmacy giant continues to push through “growing pains” amid its shift to healthcare services, according to CEO Tim Wentworth.
    • “The chain’s U.S. Healthcare segment posted sales of $1.9 billion compared with $989 million in the prior-year period, boosted by primary care chain VillageMD’s acquisition of Summit Health and growth in other business units. But the segment still reported a $96 million adjusted operating loss, compared with a $152 million loss last year. 
    • “Walgreens is nearly halfway through its plan to close 60 VillageMD clinics as the provider focuses on density in “high opportunity” markets, Wentworth said during an earnings call.” 
  • The Wall Street Journal reports,
    • “Health insurance companies say they want to offer more services directly to customers. But that requires dropping the cumbersome technology that has defined the industry in favor of the smartphone-app experience users have come to expect.
    • “Kaiser Permanente Chief Digital Officer Nari Gopala said he is working to remove friction from the company’s digital-pharmacy experience, including introducing prescription-refill reminders. “The experience itself is like what you’re used to as a consumer in other industries, like how you order your coffee or groceries,” Gopala said.
    • “Kaiser, an integrated health system with insurance and hospital components, is one of a number of firms revamping technology in the hopes of encouraging more people to get their medications through the mail rather than picking them up in retail pharmacies.”
  • United Healthcare discusses, “Recently launched initiatives by Optum Rx enable more than 26,000 in-network community and independent pharmacies with expanded support to strengthen access to care and improve outcomes for the patients they serve.”
  • Beckers Hospital Review lets us know,
    • “Since launching in January 2021 with about 100 generics, Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co. now offers more than 2,000 drugs, including about a dozen brand-name medications. 
    • “The company has also grown to offer discounted drug prices through more than 4,000 affiliated pharmacies, including those in Kroger and Meijer grocery stores. 
    • “Cost Plus Drugs is targeting inflated drug prices through multiple lenses. It markets medications at their acquisition cost and adds a $5 shipping fee, a $5 pharmacy labor fee and a 15% markup. Other pharmaceutical companies are taking notice of the transparency marketing effect. 
    • “The company’s conservative drug pricing model is buttressed with a “yes, and” approach to its collaborations and partnerships, which include four pharmacy benefit managers. 
    • “In recent months, Cost Plus Drugs has struck collaboration deals with an elderly care business, two fertility health companies, a digital health company and a mail-order pharmacy.” 
  • Per Fierce Healthcare,
    • “A “pivotal year for price transparency” closed out with most—but not all—of the healthcare industry publishing their data publicly and at a higher quality, price transparency data startup Turquoise Health wrote in a state-of-the-industry report released Thursday.
    • “Across a total of 6,357 hospitals, 5,763 (90.7%) posted a machine-readable file (MRF) with at least some necessary service rates in 2023. This was an increase of 562 hospitals over the end of 2022, with Turquoise noting that most of the additions “were individual hospitals, often with unique MRF formats.”
    • “Turquoise gave 2,634 of the hospitals posting MRFs a five-star rating for publishing “a complete MRF that contains cash, list and negotiated rates for a significant quantity of items and services,” the group wrote. That list of top scorers grew 24% from the end of 2022, and now represent more than half of the total hospital field. * * *
    • “The number of payers publishing their data has grown from an initial 67 back in July 2022 to 170 in January 2023, and now to 205 as of November 2023, according to the report. Turquoise also noted that “the quality and breadth of their files have also improved” over the past several months — welcome news for researchers and other stakeholders who previously critiqued payers’ unwieldy data releases.”  

Weekend Update

David Ermer–ACA, CDC, Congress, COVID treatment, Medical / Rx research–

From Washington, DC,

  • The Federal Benefits Open Season ends a week from tomorrow.
  • KFF News provides a helpful overview of the recently proposed Affordable Care Act notice of benefit and payment parameters.
  • The New York Times reports,
    • “A small group of Republican senators on Friday called on President Biden to ban travel from China to protect against an outbreak of respiratory illnesses in children there, even as scientists and global and American health officials said there were no signs of a threatening new pathogen.
    • “Instead, those experts said, the evidence so far pointed to a surge of age-old infectious agents such as influenza, driven by the colder weather and China’s emergence from stringent Covid lockdowns. The World Health Organization said last week that China had shared data about its outbreak, including laboratory results from infected children, that did not show any unusual pathogens.
    • “Dr. Mandy Cohen, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, echoed that assessment on Friday. She said American officials had also been in touch with Chinese authorities, academic experts and health workers.
    • “What we have all been able to ascertain is that there is no novel pathogen,” she said. “This is all related to upticks of known viruses and bacteria in their pediatric population.”

From the public health front,

  • NPR Shots tells us,
    • “There’s just not much that’s very effective for treating the common cold,” said Dr. Lauren Eggert, clinical assistant professor in the Pulmonary Allergy and Critical Care Division at Stanford University. * * *
    • “She opens a database called UpToDate, which physicians use as a resource when they want to see the summary of evidence for medications targeting specific concerns. The conclusions for cold and flu remedies are disconcerting:
      • “Antihistamines, vitamins and herbal remedies are deemed ineffective.
      • “Cough syrups, decongestants, expectorants, and zinc may have minimal or uncertain benefits.
      • “Nasal sprays and analgesics like Tylenol and ibuprofen may be effective.”
  • The American Medical Association lets us know what doctors wish their patients knew about Covid oral anti-virals, Paxlovid and molnupiravir.
  • Medscape points out,
    • “Breast cancer has a worse prognosis when diagnosed during pregnancy or postpartum. Methods for early detection are needed, as evidenced every day in the multidisciplinary unit for treating pregnancy-associated breast cancer, which operates within the Breast Unit at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain.
    • “The team working in this field is led by Cristina Saura, PhD, who is also head of the Breast Cancer Group at the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO). The results of a study recently published in Cancer Discovery show, for the first time, that breast milk from breast cancer patients contains circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) that can be detected by a liquid biopsy of the milk.”