About the public’s health
Opioid Trial: 4 Companies Reach Tentative Settlement With Ohio Counties: “Distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson pledged to pay $215 million, while manufacturer Teva Pharmaceuticals will pay $20 million in cash and an additional $25 million in addiction and overdose treatment drugs, according to Paul Farrell Jr., a co-lead attorney for the two counties. Under the deal, there is no admission of wrongdoing on the companies' part.”
J&J recalls baby powder after trace asbestos found in bottle: “Johnson & Johnson on Friday recalled a single batch of its baby powder as a precaution after government testing found trace amounts of asbestos in one bottle bought online. The recalled lot covers 33,000 bottles, which were distributed last year….The recall comes as J&J fights thousands of lawsuits in which plaintiffs claim its iconic baby talcum powder was contaminated with asbestos and that it caused ovarian cancer or mesothelioma, a rare cancer linked to inhaling asbestos fibers.”
About pharma
We Found Over 700 Doctors Who Were Paid More Than a Million Dollars by Drug and Medical Device Companies: Public disclosure of payments to physicians by drug and device companies was supposed to shame all parties into reducing the practice. However, “ProPublica’s new analysis shows that the public reporting has not dampened the enthusiasm of the drug and medical device industry for having doctors deliver paid dinner talks and sponsored speeches or paying them to consult on products.
In fact, there has been almost no change in how much the industry is spending. Each year from 2014 to 2018, drug and medical device companies spent between $2.1 billion and $2.2 billion paying doctors for speaking and consulting, as well as on meals, travel and gifts for them.” The article lists how much is spent on such promotional activities by product.
About hospitals and healthcare systems
Estimate of Federal Payment Reductions to Hospitals Following the ACA: 2010-2029: “Dobson DaVanzo & Associates was commissioned by the Federation of American Hospitals (FAH) and the American Hospital Association (AHA) to estimate the cumulative federal payment reductions to hospitals from 2010 through 2029 that were beyond those enacted under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).1 Twelve legislative Acts were identified as well as regulatory changes by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that are estimated to reduce federal payments to hospitals by $252.6 billion over this period.” The study details components of those reductions. For example about $86 billion each comes from federal sequestration and MS-DRG Documentation and coding. See the article for further explanations and details.
About health insurance
Spread of ACOs And Value-Based Payment Models In 2019: Gauging the Impact of Pathways to Success: This article is a great update on ACO status. Among the “higher level” findings is that across “all payers, ACO participation growth continued, but slowed, since the start of 2018. By the start of the third quarter of 2019, there were 1,588 existing public and private ACO contracts, covering almost 44 million lives. By comparison, there were 1,611 ACO contracts around this time last year, covering 40.9 million lives…By the start of the third quarter of 2019, about 60 percent of ACO lives were covered by commercial contracts, while about 30 percent were covered by Medicare contracts and 10 percent by Medicaid contracts.”