About healthcare professionals
Physician survey details depth of pandemic’s financial impact:”The average number of in-person visits to physician offices fell from 97 per week to 57, according to the survey of 3,500 physicians who provided at least 20 hours of patient care a week prior to the pandemic.
Physicians averaged a 32% drop in revenue since February, the AMA survey shows. About one in five doctors saw revenue drop by 50% or more, while nearly one-third saw declines of between 25% and 49%. Only 19% of physicians reported no drop in revenue.”
About healthcare IT
HHS extends interoperability rule deadlines: 10 key compliance dates: This short summary has key compliance dates, starting April 5, 2021 with information blocking provisions.
Medical Device Security Stymied by Legacy Tech, Flawed Segmentation: An interesting article that explains how a large number of medical devices connected to non-secure, legacy programs at hospitals poses a great hacking threat.
FBI warns ransomware assault threatens US healthcare system: “In a joint alert Wednesday, the FBI and two federal agencies warned that they had “credible information of an increased and imminent cybercrime threat to U.S. hospitals and healthcare providers.” The alert said malicious groups are targeting the sector with attacks that produce “data theft and disruption of healthcare services.”
The cyberattacks involve ransomware, which scrambles data into gibberish that can only be unlocked with software keys provided once targets pay up. Independent security experts say it has already hobbled at least five U.S. hospitals this week, and could potentially impact hundreds more.”
With pending Livongo deal, Teladoc's virtual care business is booming:”Teladoc continues to see surging demand for its virtual care services even as the use of telehealth across the country has slowly declined from hitting peaks in April.
Teladoc, one of the nation's top telehealth providers, reported 2.8 million total virtual visits during the third quarter, up 206% from 928,000 visits in the third quarter of 2019.
Total telehealth visits in 2020 have jumped 163% from 2.9 million visits during the first nine months of 2019 to 7.6 million visits this year.”
About the public’s health
COVID-19 Trends in Tennessee: Summer turns to Fall: This Vanderbilt study provides yet another reason to wear masks: “Hospitals that predominantly serve patients from areas without masking requirements… continue to see the highest rate of growth in hospitalizations. As the percentage of patients residing in mask-requirement counties increases, the growth curve ‘flattens,’ indicating much lower growth in hospitalizations.”
White House could have traced and contained its covid-19 outbreak. It chose not to.: With regard to the Rose Garden ceremony celebrating the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett: “Officials say the White House called off early efforts to get to the bottom of the outbreak, including sequencing the genomes of virus samples from infected individuals. This genetic analysis could have revealed shared mutations that linked cases in Washington and other affected communities.”
Random effects key to containing epidemics: “…scientists have discovered, using mathematics and computer simulations, why dividing a large population into multiple subpopulations that do not intermix can help contain outbreaks without imposing contact restrictions within those local communities….
The main reason subdividing the population works is because the epidemic is completely extinguished in a significant fraction of the subgroups. This "extinction effect" occurs when infection chains spontaneously terminate.
Another way subdividing works is by desynchronizing the full population. Even if outbreaks occur in the smaller communities, the peaks may come at different times and cannot synchronize and add up to a large number.”
About pharma
REGENERON'S COVID-19 OUTPATIENT TRIAL PROSPECTIVELY DEMONSTRATES THAT REGN-COV2 ANTIBODY COCKTAIL SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCED VIRUS LEVELS AND NEED FOR FURTHER MEDICAL ATTENTION: The company announced that data on “ an additional 524 patients from the ongoing Phase 2/3 trial, provides definitive final virology results and meets the clinical endpoint of reducing medical visits. Regeneron has shared these results with the U.S. FDA, which is reviewing an Emergency Use Authorization submission for the REGN-COV2 low dose in adults with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who are at high risk for poor outcomes.”
Eli Lilly still confident in benefits of Covid antibody treatment despite end to hospital study: “Eli Lilly’s coronavirus antibody treatment can still be beneficial to Covid-19 patients, despite the recent end to a government-run study, CEO Dave Ricks told CNBC.
Ricks said the antibody treatment appears to be more effective in people who are earlier in their diagnoses. The stopped study looked at hospitalized patients.
’It’s disappointing, of course. We would have liked to have shown a benefit in the hospital,’ he said.”
COVID-19 fighter remdesivir racks up $873M as Gilead plays defense on unflattering WHO data:”Gilead Sciences started charging for remdesivir in July. Given its status then as the only drug authorized for COVID-19 in the U.S., industry watchers immediately forecast multibillion-dollar sales for this year.
But new clinical data have now put the Big Biotech in defense mode—and prompted analysts to dial down their expectations.
In the third quarter, Gilead sold $873 million of remdesivir, handily topping Wall Street’s previous estimate of $772 million. The drug was fully approved by the FDA last week, under the brand name Veklury, to treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients…
Veklury’s efficacy—as well as the FDA’s decision to approve it—recently came under serious question after a large study by the World Health Organization (WHO) found it offered ‘little or no effect’ in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, in terms of recovery time, requirement for ventilators and death rate.”
About health insurance
Molina Healthcare beats the Street with $185M in Q3 profit:Molina Healthcare earned $185 million in profit for the third quarter, beating Wall Street expectations.
That's up from the third quarter of 2019, when the insurer brought in $175 million in profit…
Molina attributes the jump in revenue to notably higher premium revenues both in the third quarter and across the first nine months of 2020. Premium revenues were up by 16.8% compared to the prior-year quarter and are 11.3% higher than the first three quarters of 2019.”
HHS to dole out $333M in incentive payments to nursing homes that improved COVID-19 care: “The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will start distributing about $333 million in performance payments to over 10,000 nursing homes that reduced COVID-19 infections and deaths over a two-month period.
The agency said the announcement illustrates how tying relief payments to outcome-based payments can yield positive results for improving quality.”
Blue Cross of California Partnership Plan Fined $1.2M for Failing to Authorize Medically Necessary Services: “The California Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) has taken enforcement action including $1,205,000 in fines against Blue Cross of California Partnership Plan, Inc. (Blue Cross) for its failure to timely implement two Independent Medical Review (IMR) determinations to authorize coverage for medically necessary services. The Medi-Cal managed care plan confirmed receiving the Department's notifications of the IMR decisions but failed to timely authorize the enrollees' services.”
Final rule for disclosure of insurance company cost information (from the Departments of the Treasury (IRS), Labor and HHS: “The final rules set forth requirements for group health plans and health insurance issuers in the individual and group markets to disclose cost-sharing information upon request to a participant, beneficiary, or enrollee (or his or her authorized representative), including an estimate of the individual’s cost-sharing liability for covered items or services furnished by a particular provider. Under the final rules, plans and issuers are required to make this information available on an internet website and, if requested, in paper form, thereby allowing a participant, beneficiary, or enrollee (or his or her authorized representative) to obtain an estimate and understanding of the individual’s out-of-pocket expenses and effectively shop for items and services. The final rules also require plans and issuers to disclose in-network provider negotiated rates, historical out-of-network allowed amounts, and drug pricing information through three machine-readable files posted on an internet website, thereby allowing the public to have access to health coverage information that can be used to understand health care pricing and potentially dampen the rise in health care spending. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also finalizes amendments to its medical loss ratio (MLR) program rules to allow issuers offering group or individual health insurance coverage to receive credit in their MLR calculations for savings they share with enrollees that result from the enrollees shopping for, and receiving care from, lower-cost, higher-value providers.” Unlike hospitals, which have to disclose 300 stoppable services starting the January 1, insurers will be required to provide a list of 500 shoppable services via the online tool for plan years that begin on or after Jan. 1, 2023. Cost information for additional services will be required on or after Jan. 1, 2024.
About hospitals and health systems
CHS shares jump 30%: “Shares of Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems soared 30 percent Oct. 28 after the for-profit hospital chain said its longtime CEO would step down and it released better-than-expected financial results for the third quarter.”