About pharma
Zantac’s Original Maker Halts Shipping on Carcinogen Concern: In the ongoing story of a carcinogenic contamination of Zantac, GlaxoSmithKline, the original branded maker of of the drug, stopped its global distribution.
FTC Flags Potentially Unlawful TV Ads for Prescription Drug Lawsuits: “The Federal Trade Commission staff has sent letters to seven legal practitioners and lead generators expressing concerns that some television advertisements that solicit clients for personal injury lawsuits against drug manufacturers may be deceptive or unfair under the FTC Act. The FTC is not publicly identifying who received the letters.
The letters state that some lawsuit ads may misrepresent the risks associated with certain pharmaceuticals and could leave consumers with the false impression that their physician-prescribed medication has been recalled.”
About health insurance
2019 Employer Health Benefits Survey: The Kaiser Family Foundation has published its latest survey on employer-sponsored health insurance (and other benefits). All healthcare decision makers should read this survey each year (at least the executive summary). Understanding the trends explained in the research is extremely important to formulating strategic plans in your sector. The takeaways are very clear from the many graphics.
The part of this report that made headlines today in many media was that this year the average annual premium for family coverage rose 5 percent to $20,576. The figure for single coverage increased 4 percent to $7,188.
While figures vary by firm and between employer sectors, employees are largely isolated for these large premium costs. Employers paid 82% of the cost for single coverage and 70% percent of the cost for family coverage. However, these subsidies come at the cost of increasing out-of-pocket expenses for patients.
New Survey: Just Over a Quarter of U.S. Adults Favor ‘Medicare for All,’ but Many Need More Information: The Commonwealth Fund issued this opinion poll today about views on Medicare for All and other healthcare issues. The question interviewers asked was whether people were in favor of eliminating all private insurance and replacing it with a single governmental payer, like Medicare. While these answers are certainly skewed by political party affiliation, overall, 27% strongly or somewhat favor the proposal, 32% strongly or somewhat oppose the proposal and 40% “don’t know enough to say.”
About healthcare IT
How Successful Are Healthcare Organizations at Achieving ROI with Analytics?: “HIMSS Analytics asked 109 senior healthcare executives involved with analytics use and decision-making about which metrics they measure through analytics, how they determine ROI, and how successful they have been at measuring success.” The survey has a lot of good information about how analytics are being used in clinical, operational and financial areas and how success is being measured. Overall:
”Of organizations that are leveraging analytics, 84% are doing so in multiple areas (clinical, financial, operational), while two-thirds are leveraging analytics across the organization.
Organizations feel their analytics solutions have been most effective towards improving financial performance, but they have actually been able to see the most measured success with clinical analytics (77.7%) vs. financial analytics (73.5%) or operational analytics (70.3%).”