About pharma
Business Groups Rally Behind J&J's $465M Opioid Appeal: “The U. S. Chamber of Commerce, a defense bar organization called the Product Liability Advisory Council and other lobbying groups have urged the Oklahoma Supreme Court to overturn a nearly half-billion-dollar judgment against Johnson & Johnson in the nation's first and only opioid-crisis trial. The Product Liability Advisory Council in a Thursday brief said product liability law is more than adequate to protect consumers, not public nuisance law. If the verdict is not overturned, then product liability law's aims to protect consumers and encourage economic activity will be thwarted and the floodgates would open for more novel public nuisance claims…”
Shorter course of antibiotics OK for children with pneumonia who are improving: “Among children with community-associated pneumonia who have improved by day 5, study findings showed that additional days of antibiotic therapy did not confer additional benefits…”
About the public’s health
More than 83,000 new coronavirus cases recorded in US for second-straight day:”About 35 states reported more new cases in the last week than the previous week, Johns Hopkins noted. New Jersey and Michigan both reported records for single-day cases, with 1,994 cases and 3,338, respectively.
And Illinois reported its highest single-day total since the pandemic began, with 6,161 new cases.”
Drug-resistant superbug thriving in hospitals hit hard by COVID-19: As if we didn’t have enough to worry about, Candida auris spread continues in hospitals and may increase among those with COVID-19.
Vaccine hopes rise as Oxford jab prompts immune response among old as well as young adults: “One of the world’s leading COVID-19 experimental vaccines produces an immune response in both young and old adults, raising hopes of a path out of the gloom and economic destruction wrought by the novel coronavirus.
The vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford, also triggers lower adverse responses among the elderly, British drug maker AstraZeneca Plc, which is helping manufacture the vaccine, said on Monday.”
Covid-19 vaccine trials from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson to restart: The headline speaks for itself.
Aspirin Use is Associated with Decreased Mechanical Ventilation, ICU Admission, and In-Hospital Mortality in Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19: The message is in the headline. The dose of aspirin was only 81mg. The authors caution: “However, a sufficiently powered randomized controlled trial is needed to assess whether a causal relationship exists between aspirin use and reduced lung injury and mortality in COVID-19 patients.”
About hospitals and health systems
Texas COPA law may pave the way for more hospital M&A: Remember Certificate of Need regulations? It’s “opposite” are relatively new Certificate of Public Advantage (COPA) laws, which allows states to override FTC concerns for mergers. The link has an excellent podcast discussion of these laws with a focus on a Texas hospital merger case.
Sanford Health plans to merge with Intermountain Healthcare: “The combined organization would employ more than 89,000 people, and operate 70 hospitals and 435 clinics across seven states. It would also provide senior care and other services in 366 locations in 24 states, and insure 1.1 million people.
The organization would be headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah — which is Intermountain's current headquarters — while keeping corporate offices in Sioux Falls, South Dakota where Sanford is headquartered.”
HCA Healthcare Reports Third Quarter 2020 Results: “Consistent with the Company’s preview of third quarter 2020 results, revenues in the third quarter of 2020 increased to $13.311 billion, compared to $12.694 billion in the third quarter of 2019. Net income attributable to HCA Healthcare, Inc. totaled $668 million, or $1.95 per diluted share, compared to $612 million, or $1.76 per diluted share, in the third quarter of 2019.”
Kaiser Permanente to build medical center in Maryland: “Kaiser Permanente Aspen Hill Medical Center will house an ambulatory surgery center as well as space for primary care, obstetrics, urology, pain management and ophthalmology. It will also have a pharmacy, imaging and laboratory services.
The first phase of the project will include building a 130,000-square-foot facility and 542 parking spaces. In the second phase, a 50,000-square-foot addition will be added and a parking garage with 304 spaces will be built.”
The facility is expected to open in 2022.
About health insurance
CMS delays radiation oncology payment model following fierce opposition from physician community: “The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has decided to delay the start of its mandatory radiation oncology bundled payment model following fierce opposition from the physician community.
CMS had planned to launch the effort on Jan. 1; however, the go-live date will now move to July 1, 2021…”
UnitedHealth Ships Flu Kits to Medicare Recipients: “UnitedHealthcare… plans to provide at-risk patients with 200,000 kits that include Tamiflu, the prescription antiviral treatment; a digital thermometer; and a coronavirus P.C.R. diagnostic test. People can take the test at home and then mail it in for laboratory analysis, helping patients and doctors determine the cause of their symptoms, which is particularly important because the coronavirus and flu have similar symptoms but differ in treatment.”
Trump Administration Health Reimbursement Arrangements Put ACA Subsidies at Risk: The monograph explains what individual coverage health reimbursement arrangements (ICHRAs) are and how they can put employees’ premium tax credits at risk when they buy an ACA compliant plan. It also describes how such arrangements can distort insurance markets by separating employees who are healthier from those with chronic conditions.
About healthcare IT
First VA medical center (finally) goes live on Cerner EHR as part of $16B project: “The Department of Veterans Affairs' achieved a major milestone Saturday in its decades-long, multi-billion-dollar effort to upgrade its aging health IT systems.
Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington went live with a new Cerner EHR system this weekend, the first site as part of VA's massive medical records project.
It marks progress in the latest effort to upgrade the VA's system, a $16 billion technology project that's been plagued by delays, leadership turnover, and infrastructure problems since it kicked off in 2018.”