Friday Factoids

SDOH

Friday Factoids

David Ermer–Medical / Rx research, SDOH, U.S. Healthcare–
Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

From the U.S. healthcare business front –

  • Healthcare Dive tells us
    • “All eyes were on UnitedHealth’s medical costs when the health insurance giant reported second-quarter financial results on Friday, but rising outpatient utilization among seniors that spooked investors left the payer’s earnings largely unscathed.
    • “UnitedHealth’s medical loss ratio — the share of premiums spent on healthcare costs — was 83.2% in the quarter, higher than the 81.5% notched in the second quarter last year but lower than analyst expectations.
    • “In the second quarter, outpatient care activity among seniors was a few hundred basis points above our expectations,” UnitedHealth CFO John Rex said on a Friday morning call with investors. “Specific orthopedic and cardiac procedures have increased far above that level of variation.”
  • The Wall Street Journal adds
    • “Americans of all ages are seeking far more mental-health care for conditions including anxiety, depression and substance-use problems.
    • “UnitedHealth Group, parent of the nation’s biggest health insurer, said the percentage of people getting psychological visits and other services was up by double digits just since last year, and it believes the shift represents a long-term change. The company said people feel increasingly comfortable seeking help for behavioral-health issues, but it sees a continuing shortage of mental-health-care providers that is leading to problems with access.
    • “The rising use of behavioral-health care was one driver of higher healthcare costs flagged by the company during a call discussing its second-quarter financial results, which overall beat analysts’ expectations.”
  • BioPharma Dive reports
    • “Eli Lilly has agreed to acquire privately held biotechnology company Versanis in a deal that will add an experimental antibody to Lilly’s pipeline of medicines for obesity.
    • “The companies did not disclose a purchase price, but said in a statement Friday that upfront and milestone payments by Lilly to Versanis shareholders could be worth as much as $1.9 billion.
    • “Founded in 2021 by Aditum Bio, Versanis is built around a drug licensed from Novartis. The antibody, called bimagrumab, is designed to block cellular communication via two types of protein regulators and is being studied in people who are overweight or obese.”
  • Beckers Payer Issues points out that “Competition between Blue Cross Blue Shield companies is increasing after a 2022 antitrust settlement that struck down some agreements limiting competition between BCBS Association members, according to a July 13 report from Advisory Board.“
  • Per Reuters
    • “An influential U.S. drug pricing watchdog raised the price estimate of two experimental gene therapies from Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX.O)/CRISPR Therapeutics and bluebird bio (BLUE.O) to as much as $2.05 mln, saying the new price can be cost effective to treat sickle cell disease.
    • “A price of up to $2.05 million a year, higher than the prior estimate in April of up to $1.9 million would meet some commonly used thresholds for cost effectiveness, the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) said.”

From the SDOH front, Healthcare IT News notes “Without the need for deep learning and neural network models, researchers were able to use machine learning to extract social determinants of health information on housing challenges, financial stability and employment status from unstructured patient data in electronic health records, a new research report from Regenstrief Institute shows.”

From the plan design front —

  • HR Executive offers six ways to make a primary care strategy blossom. Check it out.
  • Fierce Healthcare lets us know
    • “The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) has released a request for information to design a future episode-based payment model.
    • “The center is looking for feedback on questions related to care delivery, incentive structure alignment, clinical episodes, participants, health equity, quality measures and multipayer alignment, payment methodology and structure, and model overlap, according to the request.
    • “Episode-based payment models intend to address inefficiencies in traditional Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries, where providers are paid for each item or service. This leads to “volume over value and fragment care,” according to the request.”

From the mental healthcare front,

  • KFF created a brief on the success to date of the 988 national suicide and crisis number.
    • Since its launch in July 2022, the 988 national suicide and crisis hotline has received about 4 million contacts, a 33 percent increase from the year before, according to a new KFF analysis of publicly available data through May 2023. The contacts include more than 2.6 million calls, over 740,000 chats, and more than 600,000 texts. The total number of contacts rises to almost 5 million when nearly 1 million additional contacts from the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) are included, which were reported by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), but aren’t yet publicly available.

Midweek update

David Ermer–CMS, Congress, COVID-19, Rx coverage, SDOH, Telehealth, U.S. Healthcare–
Photo by Dane Deaner on Unsplash

From Washington, DC —

  • Politico reports,
    • “The Senate Finance Committee is releasing the next in its parade of legislation targeted at pharmacy benefit managers — an industry that Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill argue drives up the cost of drugs.
    • “Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — along with Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and ranking member Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) — plan to unveil legislation that would require PBMs, which manage prescription drugs for health insurers, to report a broader range of data about their business practices. The lawmakers seek comment on their proposal.
    • “The bill would require PBMs to submit annual reports to the Medicare drug plans that detail information about the treatments the plan covers, the discounts PBMs negotiate with drugmakers on medicines and the fees they collect.
    • “It’s the latest in a plan from Wyden and Crapo, who released a roadmap in April of PBM-focused legislation they want the committee to pursue.”
  • The Senate Finance Committee adds,
    • “Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) today announced that the committee will mark up legislative proposals to modernize and enhance federal prescription drug programs on Wednesday, July 26th at 2 p.m. The committee package will focus on addressing pharmacy benefit manager practices that have grown increasingly complex and opaque in recent years at the expense of patients and taxpayers.”
  • The American Hospital Association further informs us,
    • “The House Education & Workforce Committee July 12 voted 39-0 to pass legislation (H.R. 4509) that would require off-campus hospital outpatient departments to obtain a separate unique health identifier and include it on all claims for services billed to commercial group health plans or their enrollees. The legislation would prohibit the health plan from paying the claim and the hospital from collecting payment from the plan enrollee if the claim excludes the identifier, and impose civil monetary penalties on hospitals that violate the requirement. * * *
    • “In other action, the committee also passed bills that would strengthen price transparency requirements for commercial group health plans (H.R. 4507); require that the plans’ contracts with service providers allow the employer/plan fiduciary to access all de-identified claims and encounter data (H.R. 4527); and require the plans to further report to the employer/fiduciary their financial arrangements with pharmacy benefit managers (H.R. 4508).”

From the public health front —

  • Beckers Clinical Leadership and Infection Control tells us,
    • “After identifying a new COVID-19 omicron subvariant — EU.1.1, a descendant of XBB.1.5 — in late June, its growth has slowed, according to the CDC. 
    • “Right now, the subvariant accounts for only 1.1 percent of cases in the U.S., data shows. Nationwide, hospitalizations and deaths both continue to decline. The CDC’s most recent data shows that hospitalizations decreased by 0.8 percent as of July 1, and deaths decreased by 9.1 percent in the same one-week period.
  • CNN reports
    • Childhood cancer diagnoses in the US have been trending up for more than a decade, according to a study published Tuesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
    • There were 14,381 new childhood cancer diagnoses in the US in 2019: about 177 new cases for every 1 million children and teens up to age 19. Incidence rates have dropped since reaching a peak in 2016 but are still about 8% higher than they were in 2003, when there were about 165 new cases for every 1 million children and teens.
    • “Overall, cancer is very rare in children and adolescents, and the increases were small,” said Dr. David Siegel, a pediatric oncologist and an epidemiologist with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s cancer division who was the lead author of the study. “Past studies have also reported increased survival rates. So the combination of increases in incidence and decreases in deaths means that there are more and more cancer survivors that need long-term care and resources.”
  • The U.S. Census Bureau issued a report examining “Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Disability by Health Condition.”
    • “The data show patterns in health-related disability among adults age 40 and older and key differences by sex, race and Hispanic origin.
      • “Among findings:
      • “Women were more likely than men to have health conditions that limited their daily activities.
      • “Asian (non-Hispanic) adults reported the lowest rates (17.2%) of disability-related health conditions.
      • “Black (non-Hispanic) adults (31.8%) and those reporting Other or multiple-race non-Hispanic identity (42.9%) were among those with higher rates.
  • The All of Us Program released its July 2023 Medical Minutes.

From the Rx coverage front

  • Per Healthcare Dive,
    • Major pharmacy benefits manager CVS Caremark is partnering with drug discounter GoodRx on a joint program to bring down out-of-pocket drug costs, the companies announced Wednesday.
    • Commercially insured customers will be able to pay GoodRx’s discounted pricing when filling commonly prescribed generic prescriptions at in-network pharmacies. The payments will be automatically applied to their deductibles and out-of-pocket limits.
    • The program, called Caremark Cost Saver, will be available for tens of millions of CVS Caremark clients’ members at in-network pharmacies starting January 2024.
  • Per Beckers Payer Issues,
    • ‘About two-thirds of patients who take popular weight loss drugs end their regimen within a year, according to a Prime Therapeutics study released July 11.
    • ‘Prime, a pharmacy benefit manager owned by 19 Blue Cross Blue Shield companies, analyzed pharmacy and medical claims of 4,255 patients who took GLP-1 receptor agonists — such as Ozempic and Wegovy — for weight loss in 2021. The study found only 32 percent of patients continued their weight loss treatment after one year. 
    • “The majority of patients aren’t getting the value of the product and there’s waste, especially with an expensive therapy,” Patrick Gleason, PharmD, Prime’s assistant vice president for health outcomes and a co-author of the analysis, told Reuters. “I was a little bit surprised by the persistency rate.”
  • STAT News delves into how Medicare Advantage plans are approaching the FDA’s approval of the infused Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi. The most illuminating part of the article concerns the Mayo Clinic.
    • As a condition of coverage, Medicare rolled out a new patient registry to collect more information from physicians prescribing Leqembi. Information is supposed to be submitted every six months. Physicians who had previewed the registry said it appeared to function, though many clinics are still finalizing protocols for prescribing Leqembi.
    • “I’m not sure it’s sufficiently detailed to answer the [coverage with evidence development] questions that the [national coverage decision] put forth. We and others would need to collect more detailed information to understand the true benefits and risks of the medicine,” said Ronald Petersen, the director of the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
    • Mayo Clinic isn’t prescribing Leqembi yet, as it’s planning to launch an Alzheimer’s treatment clinic in October, Petersen said. He said there has been interest from patients, but it “hasn’t been a landslide.”
    • Petersen is hoping to start a new research study at Mayo Clinic to do more detailed monitoring on patients. To start, Mayo physicians will likely only agree to treat patients in the geographic area close to the facility so they can oversee the follow-up appointments.
    • “We’d be more than happy to share our data with broader communities or merge it with data from CMS. It is incumbent upon all of us to share data to learn from each other what works,” Petersen said.

From the U.S. healthcare business front —

  • MedPage Today points out
    • “Private equity acquisitions of U.S. physician practices have risen dramatically over the last decade, driving up consumer prices in the process, according to a new report.
    • “In 2012, there were 75 private equity deals for physician practices across a range of specialties; in 2021, there were 484, marking a more than six-fold increase, Richard Scheffler, PhD, of the University of California Berkeley, and colleagues found.
    • “Over the entire period, the largest number of deals occurred in dermatology (376), ophthalmology (276), gastroenterology (120), and primary care (118), collectively accounting for 81% of the activity, Scheffler and colleagues wrote in the report, a joint effort by the American Antitrust Institute, the Nicholas C. Petris Center on Health Care Markets and Consumer Welfare at the University of California Berkeley, and the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.”

In telehealth news,

  • Fierce Healthcare tells us,
    • “While payers should cover telehealth, where these services are the most valuable still requires investigation, according to a study in Information Systems Research.
    • “The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services made the rules about telehealth usage more flexible during the COVID-19 pandemic, and some lawmakers want to make those changes permanent. But that should not mean giving providers carte blanche approval in using the new technology, nor should payers cover all uses of telehealth, suggests a study by researchers with the University of Texas.
    • “Telehealth should not be regarded as a one-size-fits-all solution to virtualize healthcare,” the study said.
    • “Despite that, however, the study also states that “insurance plans should expand their telehealth coverage to include more providers and close the healthcare access divide in rural locations, which can reduce subsequent hospitalizations and unnecessary costs.”
    • “The authors argue that telehealth’s benefits can be seen in treating conditions and diseases with “high virtualization potential” such as mental health, skin problems, metabolic conditions and musculoskeletal diseases. However, telehealth did not significantly reduce visits to specialists or emergency departments for circulatory, respiratory or infectious diseases.
    • “Indranil Bardhan, Ph.D., one of the authors of the study, said in a press release that “people believed that telehealth would be the next big thing, the future of healthcare. But our research shows that its impact is not as straightforward as people might think. It’s more nuanced.”

Happy Juneteenth

David Ermer–Congress, Generative AI, Rx coverage, SCOTUS, SDOH, Telehealth, U.S. Healthcare–
Photo by Derek Lamar on Unsplash

Mercer Consulting offers us this background

  • “On June 19 this year, 96 year-old Opal Lee will once again invite others to join her on a 2.5 mile Walk for Freedom in Fort Worth, Texas. Known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” Opal began campaigning decades ago for a national holiday to commemorate the anniversary of the day in 1865 when news of the Emancipation Proclamation finally reached the enslaved people in Galveston, Texas. In 2016, at age 89, Opal began a symbolic walk from Fort Worth to Washington D.C. in an effort to get 100,000 people to sign a petition to create the holiday. She was transported from city to city where she would walk 2.5 miles, representing the 2.5 years it took for freedom to reach Texas. By the time she made it to Washington, she had obtained over 1.5M signatures. In June 2021, her efforts succeeded – a bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden.  
  • “Juneteenth has long been celebrated by Black people; Opal Lee has vivid memories of celebrating Juneteenth as a child in East Texas with music, food, and games. Since the creation of the federal holiday, more employers are recognizing its importance and embracing their role in promoting Juneteenth in the workplace. In 2021, just 9% of employers had made Juneteenth a paid company holiday. That jumped to 33% in 2022 and rose again this year, to 39%.”

Mercer Consulting adds

  • “For employers, the JAMA Open Network study [on healthcare disparities] underscores the pressing need to expand provider networks to be inclusive of diverse clinicians. By improving networks, and actively working with partners to dismantle barriers and biases within healthcare, we can begin to empower employees with choice – the ability to connect with providers who better understand their unique needs, experiences, and challenges. Diverse physician networks lead to stronger doctor-patient relationships, which ultimately lead to better health outcomes for marginalized populations.”

From Washington, DC —

  • The U.S. Supreme Court handed down five opinions last week. NPR identifies the remaining cases that it is tracking. (One of them the Indian Child Welfare Act was decided last week in favor of the Indian tribes.)
  • Last week, OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs posted its Spring 2023 federal regulatory agenda. Here is a link to the OPM agenda. OPM is planning a second Postal Service Health Benefits Program rule and a rule that would accelerate the effective date of FEHB coverage for new federal employees.

Healthcare Dive reports

  • “The group that advises Congress on Medicare policy released a new report Thursday [June 15] with recommendations on telehealth, overpayments to Medicare Advantage plans and site-neutral payments across some outpatient care settings.
  • “The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, or MedPAC, included telehealth in the report to satisfy a mandate from Congress after virtual care surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Telehealth coverage under Medicare was limited before the public health emergency, and it was expanded to preserve access to care.
  • “The report found fee-for-service Medicare spending for telehealth care was $4.8 billion in 2020 and $4.1 billion in 2021, more than 30 times greater than 2019. Early findings show more telehealth use was associated with little change in quality, slightly improved access to care for some beneficiaries and slightly increased costs to Medicare.”

From the MD opinion front —

  • An emergency room doctor writing in MedPage Today gives us his take on the fentanyl crisis.
  • An oncologist writing in STAT News gives us her take on the cancer drug shortage. Her article’s title says it all: “Cancer drug shortages should have patients rioting in the streets.”

From the generative AI front, Healthcare IT News tells us, “An NYU Langone Health [large language model] LLM can predict hospital readmissions. The large language model is still in testing, but the AI tool had a median accuracy score of 77.8% compared to a physician score of 62.8%. The code base is now available to all healthcare organizations [via GitHub].

From the semaglutide drug front —

  • The Wall Street Journal reports that these drugs designed for weight loss also may bring alcohol and tobacco use from an addiction to a controllable level.
  • Politico discusses manufacturer lobbying efforts to convince Congress to cover these drugs for weight loss unconnected to diabetes.
  • Bloomberg informs us
    • “Some dosages of Eli Lilly & Co.’s Mounjaro are again in shortage, the latest in a line of recurring supply issues caused by patients using the diabetes medication as a weight-loss treatment.
    • “The latest shortage will result in “intermittent backorders” for three of six doses through July, according to an update posted by the US Food and Drug Administration on its website on Friday.
    • “Lilly spokesperson Jessica Thompson said the backorders were “due to continued dynamic patient demand” and would affect the three highest doses of Mounjaro. She also said the company is investing in expanding manufacturing capacity.”

From the miscellany front –

  • CNBC reports
    • “Bristol Myers Squibb on Friday sued the Biden administration over Medicare’s new powers to slash drug prices, the third such lawsuit to be filed against the program in a matter of days.
    • “The lawsuit filed in federal district court in New Jersey argues the Medicare negotiations violate the First and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
    • “Bristol Myers Squibb has asked the court to declare the program unconstitutional and prevent the Health and Human Services Department from forcing the company to enter negotiations.
    • “Bristol Myers Squibb’s arguments mirror those lodged last week by Merck, the first company to sue the federal government over the drug negotiations. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has also sued HHS over the program with similar arguments.”
  • Fierce Healthcare relates
    • “Simple HealthKit has inked a deal with Walmart to bring at-home diagnostic tests, including diabetes, respiratory wellness and sexual wellness labs, to the largest retailer in the world.
    • “Through the retail giant’s website, customers can purchase tests bolstered by Simple HealthKit’s end-to-end healthcare infrastructure, including testing, follow-up and treatment. The digital health company’s HbA1c test identifies key markers for Type 2 diabetes. Respiratory wellness tests include influenza A, influenza B and respiratory syncytial virus. In light of a decrease in sexual health testing during the pandemic, customers can test for three of the most common STDs at home, chlamydia, gonorrhea and trichomoniasis.”
  • Health Payer Intelligence points out
    • Employer-sponsored health plan enrollment among nonelderly Americans will grow after 2025, accompanied by higher private payer premiums, a Health Affairs study found.
    • The study used Congressional Budget Office projections to estimate future coverage trends. However, the researchers noted many uncertainties embedded in these trends, including future economic, policy, and healthcare utilization changes. * * *
    • After 2025, enhanced subsidies will end and employment will increase, driving more people to employer-sponsored coverage. Approximately 157 million individuals may have employer-sponsored coverage in 2027. By 2033 this population will grow to 159 million.
    • Private-payer premiums will also trend upward from 2023 through 2033. In 2023, the private payer premium growth rate will be 6.5 percent. Premiums will grow 5.9 percent from 2024 to 2025 and 5.7 percent from 2026 to 2027. By 2033, the average premium increase will be 4.6 percent.
  • Of course, depending on the outcome of the 2024 federal election, it is possible that the ACA subsidies could be made permanent in 2025. Time will tell.

Tuesday Tidbits

David Ermer–Congress, COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccine, Medical / Rx research, Medicare, SDOH, U.S. Healthcare–
Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

From Washington, DC —

  • The House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce held a hearing today to examine the policies and priorities of the Department of Health and Human Services.
  • STAT News adds
    • “A key House Republican ramped up his criticism of pharmacy benefit managers Tuesday, calling for the government to dismantle companies that have consolidated drug supply chain operations.
    • “We should break these PBMs up,” House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said during an Education and Workforce Committee hearing. Health Secretary Xavier Becerra testified at the hearing on his department’s priorities. * * *
    • “Comer asked Becerra what the administration thinks should be done to reform PBMs.
    • “Transparency,” Becerra responded. “As they say, sunshine is the best disinfectant.”
  • STAT News reports from the Senate
    • “In another bid to lower prescription drug prices, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued a report showing that medicines developed with help from the National Institutes of Health have often cost Americans more than what is paid in other countries. And he called on the agency to reinstate a provision in federal law that would require companies to set reasonable prices when they license NIH inventions. * * *
    • “The report was issued as the Biden administration seeks confirmation of Monica Bertagnolli, who currently heads the National Cancer Institute and was nominated to run the NIH. But the confirmation cannot proceed without support from Sanders because, as chair of the Senate health committee, he controls when nominees are reviewed for positions in the Department of Health and Human Services.
    • “However, Sanders threatened that he will not proceed until the Biden administration provides a “comprehensive” plan to lower prescription drug prices. The White House reportedly responded by acknowledging that prescription drug costs remain high for many Americans and pointed to the Inflation Reduction Act, a recently enacted law that allows Medicare to negotiate prices for certain medicines.”
  • Fierce Healthcare reports
    • “The Biden administration is rolling out new flexibilities that aim to prevent procedural coverage losses as states work through a backlog of Medicaid eligibility determinations.
    • “The Department of Health and Human Services announced that managed care plans can take on a more direct role in assisting members in completing renewal forms. This extends to filling out certain parts of the paperwork on behalf of the member.
    • “In addition, states are able to delay administrative disenrollments by a month for further outreach, which will allow for greater time to fill out necessary forms and paperwork. The agency will also allow pharmacies and community-based organizations to assist in getting coverage reinstated for people who are still eligible but lost coverage for procedural reasons.
    • “Procedural disenrollment is a key concern during the Medicaid redetermination period, as many people who are at risk of losing coverage are not aware that the process is even going on. A recent analysis from KFF looking at early redetermination data found that in a number of states, large numbers of disenrollments are linked to administrative issues.”
  • and
    • “Industry hospital groups are pushing the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to consider a higher annual pay bump and to shed some light on why it believes the number of uninsured patients won’t be increasing during fiscal year 2024.
    • “In April, CMS released its proposed fiscal year 2024 Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems (IPPS) rule with a 2.8% increase in payments for the 12-month period beginning in October.
    • “The tentative pay raise for eligible participating hospitals translates to a collective $3.3 billion increase, CMS said at the time, and is based on a 3% projected hospital market basket update minus a 0.2 percentage point productivity adjustment.
    • “Comment letters submitted by the American Hospital Association (AHA) and other major hospital industry groups on Friday homed in on the 2.8% net update as “woefully inadequate” in light of cost pressures, such as inflation and labor spend, that have not subsided since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

From the public health front —

  • The Wall Street Journal tells us
    • “Longevity researchers have spent decades hunting for a magic pill to slow the aging process. But the best solution—at least for now—may be the simplest one: Move more.
    • “No single thing—whether it’s regular cold plunges or off-label drugs and supplements like metformin, rapamycin or taurine—has a track record that can match exercise’s in terms of protecting against age-related diseases and helping people get more from their later years, a vast body of research shows.
    • “The muscle and bone growth stimulated by exercise can help older adults maintain their independence, lessen fatigue and protect against bad injuries from falls, the leading cause of injury-related death among those over 65. 
    • “Regular exercise can reduce the risk of developing certain age-related diseases, including Alzheimer’s, cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. * * *
    • “Any amount of physical activity can help extend a person’s life, research suggests, especially for people who currently are doing very little. Federal guidelines recommend that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise a week. 
    • “A team of researchers who analyzed data on more than 650,000 adults over about a decade found that, compared with those who were inactive, those who got about half the government’s recommended physical activity added an average of 1.8 years to their lives. Those who exercised for roughly five to eight hours weekly gained an average of 4.2 years.
    • “When you think about that, in terms of how many years you’re gaining per how many minutes of activity, it’s a very sizable yield,” says Steven C. Moore, the study’s lead author and senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute.”
  • Healthcare Dive informs us
    • “Uber will soon be able to deliver groceries and other over-the-counter items to patients of its payer and provider clients, in the latest benefits expansion of its Uber Health platform.
    • “Uber Health, which already provides non-emergency medical transportation and prescription delivery, has been expanding beyond medical transportation to care coordination across multiple benefits, Catilin Donovan, the head of the division, said in an interview. Soon, provider users will have access to patient benefit data and eligibility files from their health insurers, so they can prescribe services they know are covered.
    • Uber is not yet giving specifics of Uber Health’s financial performance, but Uber Health grew bookings by 75% year over year in the first quarter. Donovan declined to say whether Uber Health was profitable.”
  • The Government Accountability Office released a watchdog report on law enforcement-oriented approaches to reducing deaths from drunk driving.
  • The All of Us campaign issued its June report.

From the medical research front,

  • The National Institutes of Health announced
    • “Repeat treatment with corticosteroid injections improved vision in people with persistent or recurrent uveitis-related macular edema better than two other therapies, according to results from a clinical trial funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI). Compared with methotrexate or ranibizumab intravitreal (in-the-eye) injections, the corticosteroid treatment achieved greater reductions in retinal swelling and was the only therapy in the study that improved vision. The report was published today in the journal Ophthalmology. NEI is part of the National Institutes of Health.”
  • The Cigna Newsroom relates,
    • “A new study by Cigna Healthcare found that site-of-care redirection is associated with favorable clinical outcomes and increased access and affordability for peg­filgrastim, an injection used to prevent infection in cancer patients. The results showed that patients experienced better outcomes when the injection was administered in a home setting rather than a nonhome setting. The study was recently published in the Journal of Clinical Pathways.
    • “This study shows that we can help improve health outcomes by providing cancer patients with treatment such as infusions in a setting where many are most comfortable – home,” said Dr. Scott Josephs, chief medical officer, Cigna Healthcare. “These findings confirm that home infusion of complex and expensive specialty medications presents new opportunities to maximize access, improve effectiveness, increase affordability, and enhance convenience for patients.”

Friday Factoids

David Ermer–CMS, FDA, Federal employment benefits, Generative AI, Medicare, SDOH, U.S. Healthcare–
Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

From the FDA front —

  • MedPage Today tells us
    • “Lecanemab (Leqembi) showed clinical benefit in early Alzheimer’s disease in its confirmatory trial, paving the way for traditional approval of the drug, an FDA advisory committee said Friday.
    • “In a 6-0 vote, the agency’s Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee fully backed the evidence supporting the anti-amyloid monoclonal antibody. * * *
    • “The agency is expected to make its final decision about lecanemab by July 6.
  • KFF provides a cost perspective in anticipation of FDA approval of this drug, which action is expected to trigger CMS approval for Medicare Part B coverage.

From the FEHB front, Tammy Flanagan writing in Govexec delves into FEHB and Medicare Part B coverage.

From the litigation front —

  • The Wall Street Journal reports
    • “Pharmaceutical industry giants completed a deal to pay $19 billion to states that accused them of fueling the opioid crisis, infusing more money into communities still struggling with how to address the scourge of drug use.”
    • “Most states agreed to the deal to settle agreements with manufacturers Teva and Allergan as well as pharmacy chains CVS and Walgreens. The agreement is in addition to a $26 billion so-called global settlement with drug distributors McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen and manufacturer Johnson & Johnson. The latest settlements close lawsuits against most of the major players and brings the total income from opioid litigation that states will have to spend to about $50 billion. 
    • “The legal fight stretches back nearly a decade, when more than 3,000 lawsuits from states, Native American tribes and counties alleged the drugmakers, pharmacies and distributors played down the risk of painkillers and didn’t stem their flow. Misuse of prescription painkillers sparked a health crisis that was supercharged as fentanyl infiltrated the illicit drug supply and now claims more than 100,000 lives in the U.S. each year. 
    • “Money from the recent settlements will begin to flow to states this year. More than $3 billion from the global settlementhas already been dispersed. The funds are distributed to states based on population adjusted to account for the burden of the opioid epidemic based on deaths and people using drugs. The agreements require most of the money to be spent on abating the opioid crisis, but the parameters are broad and officials are using different strategies to spend it.”
  • KFF has created a tracker to follow the distribution of the opioid litigation settlement funds.

From the CMS front —

  • Healthcare Dive informs us,
    • “CMS is exploring programs that would pay social or community health workers to address patients’ social needs in a bid to invest more heavily in food, housing, transportation and other social determinants of health, according to agency officials.
    • “We are looking at that. For example, in maternal health, thinking about the role of doula and community health workers,” Liz Fowler, director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, said on Thursday during the CMS’ inaugural health equity conference.”
  • and
    • “CMS announced a new model that aims to strengthen and improve primary care, including by ensuring small and rural organizations are able to enter into value-based care arrangements. 
    • “The Making Care Primary Model will run for more than 10 years in eight states — in Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina and Washington.
    • “Research shows primary care is key to improving health outcomes and lowering costs. The CMS noted Medicare and Medicaid patients are often diagnosed with multiple chronic conditions, and primary care providers are charged with prevention, screening and management. But, because many patients will see multiple specialists, coordinating care can be challenging.”
  • Fierce Healthcare relates,
    • “The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released a 43-drug list of the Medicare Part B prescription treatments that must repay the program for raising prices above the rate of inflation.
    • “The second quarterly list takes effect in July and is an expansion over the 20 price-capped drugs from April through June. According to HHS, the rebates could save Medicare beneficiaries taking the treatments anywhere from $1 to $449 per average dose in out-of-pocket costs.
    • “The Medicare Prescription Drug Inflation Rebate Program is a critical way to address long-term price increases by drug companies, and [the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)] is continuing our work to make prescription drugs more affordable for people with Medicare,” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said in a release.
    • “The full list of prescription drugs and biological products with adjusted coinsurance amounts for July 1 to Sept. 30 is available here (PDF).
    • “Of note, CMS said the list could be adjusted before or after July 1 based on public feedback notifying the agency of any potential discrepancies, as was the case during the program’s inaugural quarter when a highly publicized list of 27 drugs was later trimmed down to 20.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front —

  • Beckers Hospital Review reports
    • “In the first quarter of 2023, 17 healthcare companies with more than $10 million in liabilities filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a sharp rise compared to seven bankruptcies in the first quarter of 2022, Bloomberg Law reported June 9.
    • “High-profile bankruptcies from Envision, Invacare Corp. and Sorrento Therapeutics contributed to the numbers. The first three months of 2023 saw a slight slump in bankruptcies but remain higher than the same period a year ago.
    • “Despite the year-over-year increase, the first quarter of 2023 still had fewer healthcare bankruptcies than the fourth quarter of 2022.
    • “Once the government money ran out, once all the stimulus dollars around healthcare ran out, there was essentially going to be this backwash,” Timothy Dragelin, a healthcare director at FTI Consulting, told Bloomberg. “The fact that labor costs increased substantially—you also had the issues with supply chain and supply chain caused some disruptions.”
  • Fierce Healthcare tells us
    • “Walgreens Boots Alliance sold its remaining stake in post-acute care and infusion services company Option Care Health for $330 million.
    • “The drugstore chain announced Thursday it sold 10.8 million shares of Option Care Health and plans to use the proceeds primarily for debt paydown, continued support of the company’s strategic priorities and to help fund its healthcare-focused business initiatives, according to a press release.
    • “The transaction is another decisive action WBA is taking to unlock value and further simplify the company’s portfolio,” the company said.
    • “Back in March, Walgreens cut its stake in Option Care Health when it sold 15.5 million shares at $30.75 per share. The transaction reduced Walgreen’s ownership in the company, formerly known as Walgreens Infusion Services, from 14% to 6%, according to a Walgreens news release. “

From the generative AI front —

  • Beckers Hospital CFO Report points out the steps the Google and Microsoft are taking to integrate generative AI in healthcare systems.
  • HR Dive discusses the impact of generative AI on employers and the workplace.

Midweek update

David Ermer–Generative AI, Medical / Rx research, Mental health care, Patient safety, SDOH, U.S. Healthcare–
Photo by Manasvita S on Unsplash

From Washington DC —

  • STAT News tells us,
    • “Ahead of a major Food and Drug Administration meeting on a new Alzheimer’s treatment this week, several Democratic lawmakers are ratcheting up their criticism of how the Biden administration is planning to handle a potential approval this summer.
    • “Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who leads the Senate’s health committee, wrote to health secretary Xavier Becerra on Wednesday asking him to ”use the full extent” of his authority to ensure Medicare doesn’t pay the list price of $26,500 for Eisai and Biogen’s Leqembi.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front —

  • Healthcare Dive informs us,
    • “The financial performance of the seven largest publicly traded U.S.-based insurers remains stable so far this year, despite “continued challenges” in the healthcare sector, according to a report out Tuesday from credit ratings agency Fitch Ratings.
    • “Though persistent staffing shortages and high inflation has been pressuring healthcare providers, the largest payers, which Fitch estimates to account for about 70% of the privately ensured U.S. population, reported a 7.7% operating EBITDA margin in the first quarter compared with 7.6% during the same period in 2022.
    • “However, the report noted that cost pressures at the provider level could impact payer and provider contract negotiations and cause premium rates to increase over the next few years, contributing to “heightened public discourse around healthcare costs for consumers.”
  • Per the Lown Institute —
    • A recent New York Times investigation found that Allina Health System, a nonprofit health system in the Midwest, has been rejecting patients for appointments if they have unpaid medical bills. If patients amass at least $1,500 in medical debt three separate times, they may not be allowed to come back to a clinic or hospital until they pay up. In many cases, Allina’s electronic health record system precludes doctors from making new appointments with patients that have unpaid debt.
    • The policy, which was started in 2006, applies to patients struggling with chronic conditions like diabetes and depression, and is even applied to children. The Times heard from doctors and patients who described being unable to complete medical forms that children needed to enroll in day care or show proof of vaccination for school. Allina’s dominance in the region also means that patients who are rejected for care–especially patients in rural areas–may have trouble finding other providers. 
    • How is a nonprofit system allowed to deny needed care for patients with debt? While nonprofit hospitals are required by federal law to accept any patient for emergency care regardless of ability to pay, the same requirement doesn’t apply to non-emergency care. 
    • Because there aren’t regulations against this practice, Allina is not alone in rejecting patients with debt. According to a 2022 KFF Health News investigation of 528 hospitals sampled nationwide, 55 indicated in their written policy that they do allow deniels of non-emergency care for patients with medical debt, 22 said this is allowed but not current practice, and 85 others had no information in their policy on whether or not they do this. (Allina Health Faribault Medical Center was included in this last group, but no other Allina hospitals were included in the study). Among the hospitals that allow for care denials are within some of the largest nonprofit systems in the country, including Ascension, Indiana University Health, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Mayo Clinic, Trinity Health, and more.

From the healthcare research front, BioPharma Dive offers its wrap-up report on the ASCO conference held in Chicago this week.

From the SDOH front —

  • Healthcare Dive points out,
  • “Patients of color, or those on public insurance, are still at increased risk for certain adverse events compared to White patients, regardless of high hospital safety ratings, according to a report out Wednesday from the Leapfrog Group.
  • “Although higher hospital safety ratings generally correspond with fewer adverse safety events, the report found that pattern doesn’t hold true for patients of color or those on Medicare or Medicaid, who were more likely to experience adverse events after surgery, including sepsis, blood clots and respiratory failure.
  • “Rather than suggesting problems with individual hospitals, the data points to a “systemic issue impacting the quality of care for Black and Hispanic patients and those with public insurance plans,” according to the report.”

From the mental healthcare front, Health Payer Intelligence discusses six strategies that payers can use to promote behavioral health prevention, along with a strong provider network.

From the litigation front —

  • Fierce Healthcare reports
    • “A federal appeals court held a brief hearing Tuesday afternoon to hear from attorneys on both sides as it decides whether to lift a nationwide freeze on a lower court’s ruling that struck down preventive care protections in the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
    • “A panel of judges at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, issued a stay on the District Court ruling while the appeals process plays out, though it could choose to lift the stay following Tuesday’s hearing. Legal experts expect a decision on the pause in short order.”
  • The FEHBlog is willing to bet the ranch that the panel will uphold the existing stay.

From the generative AI front —

  • Healthcare Dive relates
    • “Google is linking up with longtime collaborator Mayo Clinic to explore generative artificial intelligence’s applications in the hospital, the tech giant announced Wednesday morning.
    • “Mayo will use a Google Cloud tool that lets organizations create chatbots and search applications using generative AI to answer complex questions and produce summaries faster than traditional search functionalities.
    • “Mayo could improve the efficiency of clinical workflows and make it easier for clinicians and researchers to find information, Google said.”

In federal employee benefits news, Federal News Network tells us

  • “The Office of Personnel Management’s backlog of retirement claims dropped by 2,259 in May. OPM received 6,096 claims, just over 2,200 fewer than in April, which saw 8,298. OPM processed 8,355 claims, bringing down the inventory backlog to 18,125, the lowest it has been since June 2020, when it reached 17,432.
  • “OPM still has improvements to make, as the inventory backlog is more than 5,000 claims above the steady state goal of 13,000.”

Tuesday Tidbits

David Ermer–AHRQ, Congress, Medical / Rx research, Patient safety, SDOH–
Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

From Washington, DC,

Roll Call tells us,

“President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday tapped proxies to negotiate directly over how to increase the debt limit with time running short before the government runs too low on funds.”

and

“Lawmakers are beginning to think about changing their plans and staying in Washington in the coming weeks as a standoff over increasing the debt limit bears down. Members of both parties’ leadership said on Tuesday that plans for the Senate to recess next week and the House to leave town the following week could shift.”

BenefitsLink pointed out that the Internal Revenue Service released a revenue procedure identifying inflation-adjusted high deductible health plan and health savings account amounts for use in 2024 just in time for FEHB high deductible health plan benefit proposals due May 31.

STAT News reports

“In an unexpected move, the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday filed a lawsuit to block Amgen from acquiring Horizon Therapeutics, claiming the $27.8 billion deal would make it possible for Amgen to develop monopolies through a tactic that manipulates health coverage and drives up consumer costs.

“At issue is a practice known as bundling. Simply put, a drug company combines two or more medicines in a package deal for health plans and pharmacy benefit managers, which determine lists of medicines that are covered by insurance. The practice has previously sparked concerns that a drug company will unfairly offer higher rebates for bundles in order to win favorable placement.”

From the medical and drug research fronts —

  • The National Institute of Health informs us,
    • “A study from the National Institutes of Health shows that new cases of chronic pain occur more often among U.S. adults than new cases of several other common conditions, including diabetes, depression, and high blood pressure. Among people who have chronic pain, almost two-thirds still suffer from it a year later. These findings come from a new analysis of National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data by investigators from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) at the NIH, Seattle Children’s Research Institute, and University of Washington, Seattle, and are published in JAMA Network Open.”
  • The New York Times reports
    • “The man should have gotten Alzheimer’s disease in his early 40s — he had a gene mutation that guaranteed it, or so it seemed. Scans of his brain even revealed severe atrophying and the hallmarks of the disease: rough, hard, amyloid plaques and spaghetti-like tangles of tau proteins. But the fatal brain disease did not appear until the man was 67.
    • “Now an intense research effort has discovered why. The man was protected because another mutation in a different gene blocked the disease from entering his entorhinal cortex. That tiny area of the brain is a hub for neurons involved in memory, recognition of objects, navigation and time perception. And it is there that scientists believe that Alzheimer’s disease begins.
    • “A paper on the finding was published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine.
    • “More than six million people in the United States have Alzheimer’s, a disease that has been notoriously difficult to treat. Yet here was a man with a mutation that causes the most severe and rapidly progressing form of Alzheimer’s. And his disease was delayed for two decades. If a drug could do what the mutation did, resulting in most people getting Alzheimer’s very late in life, the outcome could be transformative.”

From the SDOH front,

  • the National Institutes of Health shared
    • “New research shows that the economic burden of health disparities in the United States remains unacceptably high. The study, funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), part of the National Institutes of Health,  revealed that in 2018, racial and ethnic health disparities cost the U.S. economy $451 billion, a 41% increase from the previous estimate of $320 billion in 2014. The study also finds that the total burden of education-related health disparities for persons with less than a college degree in 2018 reached $978 billion, about two times greater than the annual growth rate of the U.S. economy in 2018.”

From the AI department,

  • Beckers Payer Issues informs us
    • Payers are putting artificial intelligence to work. 
    • Google recently launched a new AI-powered cloud program for prior authorization and claims processing. Elevance Health is piloting AI-powered concierge care for members. 
    • Becker’s asked 18 payer executives how AI will transform the insurance industry. [The interview squibs are available in the article.]

From the patient front, here is a link to HHS’s Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research March 2023 Chartbook on Patient Safety.

Monday Roundup

David Ermer–AHRQ, Congress, FDA, Federal employment benefits, HSA, Rx coverage, SDOH–
Photo by Sven Read on Unsplash

From Washington DC —

  • The Wall Street Journal reports,
    • “Time isn’t on Washington’s side.
    • “With the U.S. facing a potentially economy-shaking default as soon as next month, logistical hurdles, disagreements on the scope of any talks, a tight legislative calendar and a late start are complicating negotiations over raising the debt ceiling.
    • “President Biden said Monday that the next meeting with congressional leaders will come Tuesday, while responding “no” when asked if there were updates regarding the talks with Republicans. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) said that the two sides remain “far apart” and that he would like a deal to be done by this weekend.” * * *
    • “A second meeting with the president and congressional leaders that was originally set to take place on Friday was postponed until early this week. The House and Senate are scheduled to be in session simultaneously for just one more week this month, and Mr. Biden is set to travel overseas for a Group of Seven meeting. Moreover, Republican leaders have so far rejected any short-term debt deal to buy more time.”
  • According to the White House’s briefing room,
    • “President Biden announced his intent to nominate Dr. Monica Bertagnolli as Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world’s preeminent biomedical research organization. Dr. Bertagnolli is a world-renowned surgical oncologist, cancer researcher, educator, and physician-leader who has the vision and leadership needed to deliver on NIH’s mission to seek fundamental knowledge and promote human health.”  

From the litigation front, the American Hospital Association informs us

“The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit today temporarily restored an Affordable Care Act requirement that most health plans cover certain preventive services without cost sharing. The 5th Circuit ordered that this requirement remain in effect for everyone (except the few health plans challenging the requirement) until it issues a final decision in the case, which is expected later this year. A federal judge in Texas recently vacated the requirement nationwide, prompting the Department of Health and Human Services and plaintiff to appeal the decision and seek this temporary stay.”

From the public health front —

  • HealthDay tells us,
    • “Older Americans are dying of falls at more than double the rate of 20 years ago — with women, men and all racial groups showing increases, according to a new study.
    • “In 2020, the study found, just over 36,500 Americans age 65 and up died of a fall-related injury. That was up from roughly 10,100 deaths in 1999.
    • “Adjusted for age, those numbers translated into a more than twofold increase in the rate of fall-related deaths among older Americans: from 29 per 100,000 in 1999, to 69 per 100,000 in 2020.” * * *
    • The National Council on Aging has a tool for older adults to check their risk of falls.

From the Rx coverage front —

  • MPR relates
    • “The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Pulmonary-Allergy Drug Advisory Committee voted 16:6 in favor for adults, and 17:5 in favor for children (<18 years of age and ≥30kg), that available data support a favorable benefit-risk assessment for neffy® in the treatment of severe allergic reaction (Type 1), including anaphylaxis, for adults and children who weigh more than 30kg. * * *
    • “While not bound to the committee’s recommendations, the FDA does take them into consideration when making final decisions on approval. If approved, neffy would be the first needle-free epinephrine product to treat severe allergic reaction. A decision is expected by mid-2023.”
  • The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) announced today that it will assess the comparative clinical effectiveness and value of sotatercept (Merck & Co) for pulmonary arterial hypertension.
  • The Wall Street Journal delves into “How to Get Your Health Insurance to Cover Ozempic and Other Drugs Used for Weight Loss; Tips for checking whether your health plan will pay for a prescription and then getting authorization.”
  • Per Hub International,
    • “CMS recently released its updated Medicare Part D guidelines that can be used by group health plan sponsors to determine whether their plans’ prescription drug coverage is creditable for 2024 and to update the information needed for required Part D disclosures to eligible individuals and to CMS.
    • “To help determine whether prescription drug coverage is creditable, CMS has released the following 2024 parameters for the standard Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit:
      • Deductible: $545 (up from $505 in 2023);
      • Initial coverage limit: $5,030 (up from $4,660);
      • Out-of-pocket threshold: $8,000 (up from $7,400);
      • Total covered Part D spending at the out-of-pocket expense threshold for beneficiaries who are not eligible for the coverage gap discount program: $11,477.39 (up from $10,516.25 in 2023); and
      • Estimated total covered Part D spending at the out-of-pocket expense threshold for beneficiaries who are eligible for the coverage gap discount program: $12,447.11 (up from $11,206.28).”

From the artificial intelligence front —

  • This week’s episode of the Econtalk podcast features an artificial intelligence discussion between host Russ Roberts and his guest Tyler Cowen. Russ Roberts suggests using ChatGPT to formulate questions for your doctor or your parents’ or your kids’ doctors.
  • Bloomberg examines the use of AI by drug manufacturers.
  • Medcity News looks into the use of AI by pharmacists and PBMs.

From the miscellany department —

  • Fierce Healthcare points out, “Million-dollar claims per million covered employees rose 15% in the past year and 45% from 2019 to 2022, according to a report by Sun Life, a life and disability insurance company.”
  • EHR Intelligence reports,
    • “The Health IT End-Users Alliance has released a consensus statement regarding collecting and using social determinants of health (SDOH) data to support health equity.
    • “The Alliance brings together health information professionals, physicians, hospitals, and other front-line healthcare providers to advance end-user perspectives in health IT policy and standards development.
    • “The statement calls for additional efforts to standardize and increase the uniform collection and reporting of SDOH. The group also calls for more training on collecting this data, better use of appropriate tools and processes to manage and share SDOH, and ongoing research to support these efforts.”
  • Employee Benefit News notes, “Thirteen FSA and HSA-eligible expenses that may surprise you.”

Tuesday’s Tidbits

David Ermer–Congress, No Surprises Act, SDOH, U.S. Healthcare–
Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

From Washington, DC

Fierce Healthcare reports

  • “Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, reached a deal on new legislation that aims to increase access to generic drugs and impose transparency measures on pharmacy middlemen.
  • “The two senators, the new leaders of the powerful Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), said the legislative package will “reform pharmacy benefit managers and expand the availability of low-cost generic drugs.”
  • “The committee will hold a hearing on May 2 to consider the legislative package, which includes four bills.”

Govexec adds

  • “Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Reps. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, Eleanor Holmes Norton of Washington, D.C., and Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, all Democrats, and Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, a Republican, [introduced] the Family Building FEHB Fairness Act on Tuesday, marking National Infertility Awareness Week.
  • “Duckworth said the proposed legislation would cover other IVF-related costs and expand coverage to all the different forms of assisted reproductive technology. The most common type of assisted reproductive technology by far is IVF, but there is also gamete intrafallopian transfer, zygote intrafallopian transfer and frozen embryo transfer.” 

The FEHBlog expects that fertility coverage advocates will be pleased with FEHB carrier initiatives for 2025.

From the social determinants of health front —

  • Patient Engagement HIT informs us,
    • The different social determinants of health have different impacts on healthcare quality, utilization, and outcomes, with new Humana data showing that some SDOH are more closely related to poor care quality while others are more closely related to high healthcare utilization.
    • For other SDOH, like social isolation and limited access to transportation, patients experience both poor care quality and high acute care utilization, the JAMA Network Open report showed. * * *
    • This latest study looked at which SDOH have the biggest impact on health and well-being, as measured by care quality and acute care utilization, to better determine effective SDOH interventions going forward.

From the public health front

  • The All of Us Research Program celebrates National DNA Day!
  • Medscape reminds us that unexpected weight loss can be a health warning.
    • “Our study emphasizes the importance of weight loss even in relatively healthy individuals who are free from evident cardiovascular disease (CVD), dementia, physical disability, or life-limiting chronic illness,” first author Monira Hussain, MBBS, MPH, PhD, told Medscape Medical News.
    • “Clinicians should be aware that even minor weight loss of 5% or more in older adults without life-limiting illnesses can increase mortality risk,” Hussain said. “Regular monitoring of weight changes can help early identification of associated risks.”
    • The study was published online April 10 in JAMA Network Open.
  • STAT News tells us, “Consumers turning to melatonin gummies to get some help falling asleep might be getting a lot more help than they bargained for, according to a new study published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.”
    • “However, one dietary supplement lobbying group argued that variability in strength of the gummies studied is to be expected, and is often purposefully done by manufacturers to ensure they do not degrade overtime and thereby run afoul of the FDA’s rules. Dietary supplements are required to demonstrate they contain 100% of the listed ingredient until their expiration date, and thus manufacturers will “put an overage in to start to be sure that six months from now that when that consumer buys the product, they’re still getting 100% of what’s on the label,” according to Steve Mister, the CEO of the Council for Responsible Nutrition.
    • “Mister conceded that he did share concerns about two of the products studied — one which included no melatonin and another that included more than 300% of the advertised amount. He maintained, however, that “there is … absolutely nothing in this study that should alarm consumers.”

From the U.S. healthcare business front

  • Fierce Healthcare relates, Health insurer “Centene Corporation posted $1.1 billion in profit for the first quarter of 2023, up from $849 million in earnings in the prior year quarter. The company’s revenue was also up year-over-year, reaching $38.9 billion compared to $37.2 billion in the first quarter of 2022. The numbers fall short of Wall Street analysts’ expectations on profit but exceed their predictions on revenue, according to analysts at Zacks Investment Research.”
  • Per Healthcare Dive,
    • “Tenet Healthcare, one of the largest for-profit hospital operators in the U.S., raised its forecast for full-year profit after posting growth in case volumes that boosted revenue and net income in the first quarter.
    • “The company said on Tuesday that quarterly profit climbed 2.9% from a year earlier to $143 million, beating an earlier forecast that net income would range between $90 million and $125 million in the period..
    • “The earnings results also beat Wall Street revenue estimates, according to SVB Securities analysts. Tenet logged $5 billion in revenue, a 5.8% increase compared to the first quarter of 2022.”
  • Per MedTech Dive,
    • “Labcorp on Tuesday reported a 10% increase in its base business revenue in the first quarter and said the proposed spinoff of its clinical development unit would be completed as expected at mid-year.
    • “The company’s base business benefited from an agreement to manage laboratories for the Ascension health system, Labcorp said. That relationship contributed about 4% of Labcorp’s organic growth in the first quarter, CEO Adam Schechter said on the company’s earnings call.
    • “Labcorp is now managing laboratories in nearly 100 Ascension hospitals, Schechter said. The partnership, established early last year, covers Ascension hospital-based labs in 10 states.”

Axios updates us with developments from the No Surprises Act front.

“What we’re watching: Lawmakers in the House and Senate said they’re planning to conduct oversight of the law, with Republicans focusing on how the Biden administration is implementing it.

  • “Senate health committee ranking member Bill Cassidy (R-La.) noted that “the courts continue to toss out the way that the administration has implemented [the law]. So, oversight hearings, we’re going to have some discussions in the HELP Committee. I think that’s all appropriate.”
  • “A federal judge in Texas has ruled in favor of providers in two of the lawsuits.
  • “Florida Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan, chair of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, said the committee would hold a hearing on the topic in June. A GOP committee aide said “the hearing schedule was fluid,” but given the bipartisan interest, “this is a strong potential topic” for a hearing.

“Yes, but: When asked, lawmakers weren’t sure what Congress might be able to do to fix providers’ issues, though some are open to new legislation.”

The FEHBlog is on record favoring that the Administration’s approach to implementing the law in a way that controls healthcare spending.

Weekend update

David Ermer–Congress, FDA, Mental health care, Rx coverage, SDOH, Telehealth, U.S. Healthcare–
Photo by Eric Heininger on Unsplash

Congress remains on a District / State work break which concludes next Monday following the Easter and Passover holidays.

OPM has rescheduled the second day of the 2023 OPM AHIIP carrier conference for April 20, 2023 from 11 am to 4:15 pm ET.

From the public health front —

  • NPR Shots discusses the simple intervention that may keep Black moms healthier — daily home-administered blood pressure readings.
    • Blood pressure is just one way to measure a person’s health, but during pregnancy and soon after, it’s a critical metric. Unchecked, high blood pressure can contribute to serious complications for the pregnant woman and baby, and increase the risk of death.
  • Politico tells about new efforts underway to solve the crisis in mental health problems among children and adolescents that accompanied the Covid pandemic.
    • Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) plans to introduce three bills aimed at improving mental health care for kids, one of his aides told POLITICO. One bill, set to be reintroduced soon, would create grants for children’s mental health services and make them more accessible. Another would help gather more accurate national data on mental health and children, and the third would focus on the mental health of kids in foster care.
    • And children’s health providers tell government leaders it’s now critical that the federal government step up support for an overburdened system, arguing for increased funding for graduate medical education programs and boosted government reimbursement rates for mental health services.

From the Rx coverage front —

  • USA Today discusses challenges related to using the new generation of weight loss drugs. “Drugmakers are working hard to convince Americans they need their next-generation weight loss medications. But many come with side effects – and the fact we don’t really know what happens long-term.”
  • The Wall Street Journal offers an essay about potential uses for inhalable therapies beyond asthma.
    • “We’re pushing the boundaries of delivery,” said Philip Santangelo, a professor of biomedical engineering at Emory University. 
    • Respiratory diseases that spread through the air are a key target. Dr. Santangelo and colleagues are developing inhalable drugs that use an RNA-editing tool known as CRISPR-Cas13 and messenger RNA to kill viruses such as Covid-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus or RSV. Using nebulizers that dispense medicine as mist via a mask, they have tested the delivery of some of the medicines on rhesus monkeys, cows, horses and pigs. The tests in pigs showed that getting the drugs to the lungs reduces the severity and spread of infections, Dr. Santangelo said. 

From the medical research front —

  • Forbes reports, “Researchers have uncovered an unusual way some cancer cells make nutrients they need to grow, a discovery that could hold the key to starving one of America’s deadliest cancers [pancreatic] with a drug we already possess and raising hopes for a powerful new treatment against a disease that is often caught late and has one of the lowest survival rates of any cancer.”
  • Fortune Well discusses new developments in cancer testing via blood studies.