About Covid-19
Covid-19 public health emergency extended in the US “The Biden administration on Friday extended the Covid-19 public health emergency for another three months.
US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra officially renewed the declaration, extending it through October 13, 2022.”
White House COVID-19 coordinator says virus ‘still evolving rapidly’ “As variants continue to circulate and develop, White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha says the U.S. has “got to stay on top of this virus” as it quickly evolves.
‘We’re still in the middle of this pandemic,’ Jha said Sunday on ABC’s ‘This Week.’
The latest COVID-19 subvariant, BA.5, is the most highly transmissible to date, Jha said. It’s also ‘immune-evasive,’ leading to high levels of reinfection and breakthrough infections.
Vaccines are still effective at staving off severe illness, he added, but they’re not as protective against BA.5 compared to other iterations of the virus.”
WHO Advises Against Using Fluvoxamine and Colchicine for COVID-19 “The World Health Organization (WHO) has advised against the use of the antidepressant drug fluvoxamine and the gout drug colchicine for patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19…
The panel based its advice on data from three clinical fluvoxamine trials and seven colchicine trials. Citing the lack of adequate data, the WHO did not make any recommendation on the use of the two drugs for patients with severe and critical cases of COVID-19.”
About health insurance
CMS pitches outpatient payment rule: 5 things to know “Five takeaways from the 886-page proposed rule:
1. Payment update. CMS proposed increasing OPPS rates for hospitals that meet quality reporting requirements by 2.7 percent in 2023 compared to this year. The department estimates that total payments to providers would be $86.2 billion in 2023, up $6.2 billion from 2022.
2. Inpatient only list. CMS proposed removing 10 services from the inpatient only list next year. The procedures were removed from the list in 2021 as part of the first phase of eliminating the IPO list, but they were added back to the list when the elimination process was halted last year. CMS said the codes for the maxillofacial procedures "meet the current criteria to remove services from the IPO list."
3. 340B program. CMS said it anticipates applying a payment rate of average sales price plus 6 percent to certain drugs purchased through the 340B Drug Pricing Program. "We are still evaluating how to apply the Supreme Court's recent decision to prior calendar years," CMS said in a fact sheet.
4. Rural emergency hospitals. The proposed rule includes a payment model for rural emergency hospitals, including a monthly facility payment. "To improve access to all types of care in rural settings, CMS is broadly proposing to consider all covered outpatient department services … as REH services," CMS said. Rural emergency hospitals would be paid for providing services at a rate that is equal to the OPPS rate plus an additional 5 percent payment.
5. Comment period. Public comments on the proposed rule are due by Sept. 13.”
See, also this CMS Fact Sheet.
Health insurance illiteracy costs employees, study finds “According to the latest Health Insurance Literacy Survey from HealthCare.com:
1 in 4 Americans say lack of health insurance understanding caused them to receive a higher-than-expected medical bill.
Half believe that copays count toward deductibles, when they generally do not.
Half of respondents say they can’t afford health insurance without employer coverage.
3 in 10 stay in jobs they don’t like or take jobs they don’t want so they can receive health insurance.”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
Biden’s FTC Has Blocked 4 Hospital Mergers and Is Poised to Thwart More Consolidation Attempts “Under the FTC’s traditional economic theory, high prices in a region should attract new competitors and that competition will bring down prices. But regulatory hurdles and massive costs involved in setting up a health care network — which includes hospitals and doctors, as well other aspects like testing facilities — make such movement unlikely, if not impossible.
So Biden appointees at the FTC and Department of Justice have announced that they want to adopt some legal theories of antitrust enforcement that have been less frequently deployed…
Last December, FTC Chair Lina Khan said the agency would scrutinize how proposed mergers might affect not only prices but also workers in the labor market…
Excessive market power, she added, can allow companies to impose onerous, take-it-or-leave-it contract terms, including noncompete clauses…
The Democratic commissioners also want to take a tougher line in challenging so-called vertical mergers. In these deals, hospitals, insurers, or other types of health care companies seek to merge with or acquire companies that provide needed products, services, or staffing. One example is when hospitals or insurers acquire large physician practices, which studies have found leads to higher prices. Patients will visit a longtime physician only to find prices doubled or more, simply because the practice has been purchased by a hospital, which now sets the rates.”
About pharma
The top 10 generic drug makers by 2021 revenue FYI
About healthcare IT
iPad stolen from Kaiser Permanente hospital had info of 75,000 patients “The iPad included patient names, birth dates, medical record numbers and date of service information.There was no financial information or Social Security numbers in the iPad.”
About health technology
GE Healthcare to retain its household corporate name in 2023 spinoff “General Electric took another step forward in its plan to split up its businesses among a trio of independent, publicly traded companies. It has set out a road map into early 2024 and announced the brand names of its new scions focused on medical products, aviation and energy.
In a decision that almost assuredly involved the transfer of large sums of money to market research professionals, GE Healthcare will be rechristened GE HealthCare…”