About the public’s health
Loneliness is at Epidemic Levels in America: This Cigna study found that “loneliness in Americans is up 7-percentage points from 54% in 2018 to 61% in 2019. Why?
Not enough social support
Too few meaningful social interactions
Poor physical and mental health
Not enough balance in our lives.”
The study and media comments suggest more social support in the workplace will help.
Coronavirus in the U.S.: Map of where the virus has been confirmed across the country: This article is an update on the coronavirus spread.
Association of Simulated Patient Race/Ethnicity With Scheduling of Primary Care Appointments: This article makes a great discussion piece both for why the findings occur and remedies. The research found that “black and Hispanic patients were more likely to be offered an appointment, but they were asked more frequently about their insurance status than white callers. Black and Hispanic callers experienced longer wait times than white patients, indicating a barrier to timely access to primary care.”
Major Asia gene study to help doctors battle disease: This research seeks to address the problem that Asian populations are under-represented in clinical studies. For example there are differences in diseases patterns and drug metabolism profiles.
Maximizing the Impact of Surgical Health Services Research: The Methodology Toolbox: This editorial is in the latest issue of JAMA Surgery. See the Table for a summary of strengths and limitations of health services research methodologies. Other articles in the issue go into detail about these research approaches. Well worth a read for those involved in teaching health services research.
About pharma
OPDP to Study How Drug Names Affect Consumer Perceptions: “The Office of Prescription Drug Promotion plans to study how the name of a prescription drug affects consumer perception.
ODPD will be looking into how names that suggest the drug’s indication affect the perceptions of consumers and healthcare providers and if a name that overstates the efficacy of a drug affects perceptions.”
Walgreens teams up with Microsoft to launch 'health corners': “Walgreens is piloting the ‘health corners’ at 12 pharmacies in Tennessee. The pilot sites will feature two clinic-like rooms, where patients can meet with a pharmacist to discuss medications and health-tech devices. This is a different approach than Walgreens is taking with its retail clinics, which are staffed by nurse practitioners and other clinicians, according to the report.
As part of the partnership entered into last year, Microsoft manages Walgreens' data storage, and the pharmacy chain leverages Microsoft's AI platform and retail solutions. After the ‘health corners’ launch, Microsoft will help analyze the visits to develop a model that works best for Walgreens' customers…”
Publix betting big on in-hospital pharmacies: As previously mentioned, many supermarkets are getting out of the pharmacy business. This article explains how Publix is bucking this trend.
CVS Health RxZERO Solution Eliminates Member Out-of-Pocket Costs for Diabetes Medications: “CVS Health today announced a new solution eliminating member out-of-pocket costs associated with all diabetes prescription medications, including insulin. Offered through the company's pharmacy benefit manager (PBM), CVS Caremark, RxZERO enables employers and health plan sponsors to leverage formulary and plan design approaches to offer all categories of diabetes medications at zero dollar out of pocket for their members without raising costs for the plan sponsor or increasing premiums or deductibles for all plan members.”
Rare Disease Drugs Turning Huge Profits Catch Congress’ Eye: In order to encourage development of treatments for rare conditions, companies that garner an orphan drug designation get an extra seven extra years of exclusivity. (See Chapter 7 of the book for details.) The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee is looking at options to change the protection if the drug becomes profitable.
Anthem's Medicare Advantage enrollment grew by 20% in 2019: This article is in the pharma section because Anthem attributed its increase in revenue to the launch of IngenioRx, the company’s pharmacy benefit manager.
About healthcare quality
Hospital Compare overall hospital rating: Medicare has updated its hospital “star report.”
About healthcare IT
Judge says no-can-do on HIPAA rules {scroll down for this story]: “Major sections of HHS' work to facilitate cheaper access for patients to their data are not permissible under the Administrative Procedure Act, a federal judge ruled late Tuesday night.
The HHS actions, which allowed third parties like insurers and law firms to make record requests on patients' behalf and separately capped allowable fees for retrieving records, had been opposed by record-retrieval firm Ciox Health, which had sued the federal government.”
Insurers, CMS Seek to Ease Prior Authorizations: “AHIP [America's Health Insurance Plans] is rolling out a project known as Fast Path that it hopes will smooth the automated process for PA for drugs and for medical procedures and devices. The project is expected to begin in 60-90 days and run for about six months. Two vendors -- SureScripts on the pharmacy side and Availity on the procedure and device side -- are partnering with AHIP on the system; the seven plans participating provide health insurance to about 60 million Americans…”
About health insurance
Trump administration to offer states Medicaid block grant option: “A letter to every state Medicaid director, to be dispatched on Thursday, will offer the possibility of trading away an entitlement program that expands and contracts depending on how many poor people need the government health coverage. In exchange, for able-bodied adults in the program, states could apply to receive a fixed federal payment and freedom from many of the program’s rules, according to several individuals familiar with the plans.”