About the public’s health
E.P.A. to Limit Science Used to Write Public Health Rules(NY Times- may require subscription): “A new draft of the Environmental Protection Agency proposal, titled Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science, would require that scientists disclose all of their raw data, including confidential medical records, before the agency could consider an academic study’s conclusions. E.P.A. officials called the plan a step toward transparency and said the disclosure of raw data would allow conclusions to be verified independently.” However, the “measure would make it more difficult to enact new clean air and water rules because many studies detailing the links between pollution and disease rely on personal health information gathered under confidentiality agreements.”
Disparities in Receiving Guideline-Concordant Treatment for Lung Cancer in the United States:”Between 2010-2014, many lung cancer patients in the United States received no treatment or less intensive treatment than recommended. Particularly, elderly lung cancer patients and non-Hispanic Blacks are less likely to receive guideline-concordant treatment.” Unfortunately treatment disparities are still prevalent.
E-cigarettes hurt heart health, possibly more than regular cigarettes: This article summarizes two studies to be presented at the upcoming meeting of the American Heart Association. E-cigarettes are as bad or worse for health than regular cigarettes.
Merck's Ervebo, the world's first Ebola shot, wins inaugural approval in EU: A big step for public health- the first approved Ebola vaccine.
About pharma
Even a Modest Co-Payment Can Cause People to Skip Drug Doses (NY Times- may require subscription):This article provides a nice summary of recent research showing how people do not fill prescriptions, ask for cheaper medications and skip/reduce doses to save money. These measures occur about twice as often in the US as the next comparison country, Canada.
16 recent pharmaceutical lawsuits, settlements: An interesting summary of activity in this sector. Worth a quick read.
Walgreens Boots receives $70bn buyout proposal from KKR (Financial Times, subscription required): The offer has been confirmed for history’s largest private equity buyout. Walgreens has an equity value of $56bn.
Bayer highlights the human value of its products in its biggest image campaign ever: In the shadow of the Roundup trials that allege it causes cancer, Bayer is launching an image campaign to show all the valuable product it produces. The TV and social media ads are branded under the name “Why We Science.” Do you think the message is credible?
About healthcare IT
Google has collected health data on millions of Americans through new partnership: report: (This story was reported in today’s print version of the Wall Street Journal. This link has open access.) The Ascension system partnered with Google in a venture called Project Nightingale. The agreement allows Google to obtain access to personal health care data from Ascension’s patients in 21 states, including lab results, diagnoses, hospitalization records and health histories with names and date of births. “Neither patients nor doctors were informed that Google was collecting the data, according to the Journal, and at least 150 Google employees have access to the information.” Ascension asserts the data is for internal use only to improve decision making for benefit of patients.
Ancestry's Catherine Ball on why the genealogy company just gave UpToDate a $1M grant: Ancestry announced a $1 million grant to Wolters Kluwer, publisher of UpToDate software “which offers doctors evidence-based medical information on 11,600 topics across 25 specialties…The funding will be aimed at allowing UpToDate to independently develop information for healthcare providers to help them interpret and act on the results of genetic testing.”
About health insurance
Medicare Improperly Paid Acute-Care Hospitals $54.4 Million for Inpatient Claims Subject to the Post-Acute-Care Transfer Policy: HHS Office of the Inspector General found that “Medicare improperly paid acute-care hospitals $54.4 million for 18,647 claims subject to the transfer policy. These hospitals improperly billed the claims by using the incorrect patient discharge status codes. Specifically, they coded these claims as discharges to home (16,599 claims) or to certain types of healthcare institutions (2,048 claims), such as facilities that provide custodial care, rather than as transfers to post-acute care.” For all the talk about how Medicare operates with low administrative costs, when did you last hear about such an error being made by a private insurer?
Private Medicare enrollment for 7 commercial payers: FYI, the latest Medicare Advantage enrollment figures for the top seven commercial payers.