About pharma
Mallinckrodt to Settle Opioid Lawsuits for 1.6 Billion: “Mallinckrodt announced a $1.6 billion settlement with 47 U.S. states and territories for its role in the nation’s opioid crisis, in a deal that involves the bankruptcy of its generics unit.”
Online pharmacy Ro is testing a program that sends you generic prescriptions for $5 per month without insurance: “The company has been quietly opening up pharmacies across the country in an effort to ship the most common generic medications at a flat rate that most Americans can afford. It’s now testing a new medication-delivery service with a small number of its users that offers more than 500 generic medications for $5 per medication per month.”
About the public’s health
Blood drives—and donors—fall off as coronavirus worries grow: One of the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak: “Dozens of blood drives have been canceled, and regular donors are no-shows, industry officials said, especially in states like Washington and California where the virus is spreading more broadly within communities and health officials are urging residents to avoid public gatherings to reduce risk.”
Quest, LabCorp to launch nationwide coronavirus testing ahead of FDA review: “Two of the nation’s largest clinical testing providers are launching their own assays for the novel coronavirus—moving forward this week after the FDA gave high-tech labs the green light to operate tests before receiving any agency review or authorization.”
About health insurance
Amazon, Priority Health collaboration allows members to pay for healthcare items with plan: “Priority Health announced a new collaboration with Amazon that allows its members to use their accounts to order and pay for eligible healthcare items.
The Michigan-based insurer now has a branded storefront on Amazon’s website. Officials say it gives those who are part of a commercial group or individual health plan a convenient way to shop…
Members will be able to use their health savings accounts (HSA) and flexible spending accounts (FSA) for products ranging from vitamins and contact solution to arch supports, bandages, suntan lotion and heating pads.”
After 10 Years of Obamacare, Racial Gaps in Coverage Persist: Study: If you can get hold of the latest Health Affairs issue (available by subscription), it has several good articles evaluating the effect on the ACA on the 10th anniversary of its passage. (Recall the major provisions started in 2014). In this article, researchers at the University of Michigan studied insurance enrollment between 2008 and 2017. “Between 2013 and 2017… the insurance gap between blacks and whites narrowed 45%, and that between Hispanics and whites narrowed 35%.
In states that expanded Medicaid, the insurance gap between whites and blacks closed completely when population differences were taken into account…
By 2017, however, more than 27 million Americans in the age group studied still lacked health insurance, including 14% of blacks, 25% of Hispanics and 8.5% of whites.”
Transforming Medicare’s Payment Systems: Progress Shaped By The ACA: This article is another from Health Affairs. It goes into much detail evaluating different payment programs under the ACA. Here is the abstract:
”The Affordable Care Act promoted payment reforms directly and through the creation of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, which it endowed with the authority to introduce Alternative Payment Models (APMs) into Medicare and Medicaid. We conducted a narrative review of these payment reforms, finding that several programs generated modest savings while maintaining or improving the quality of care, but they had high dropout rates. In general, evidence for other APMs is less conclusive, and whether the reforms spurred similar changes in the private sector remains anecdotal. Despite challenges, APMs provide incentives for efficient care provision and offer providers a way to succeed financially in an environment with slowly rising fee-for-service prices. Thus, we consider the Affordable Care Act’s payment reforms to be modestly successful, and we encourage both the purging of initiatives that aren’t working and the continued development and study of promising ones.”
About hospitals and health systems
National Hospital Flash Report: 2019 Year in Review: “Hospitals nationwide saw improved margin performance in 2019 over 2018. Operating Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) rose 2.0 percent or 39 basis points (bps), while Operating Margin rose 7.4 percent or 78 bps. Contributing factors include modest revenue gains and some volume increases, despite rising expenses.”
About healthcare IT
State of Interoperability among U.S. Non-federal Acute Care Hospitals in 2018: Despite the date, this study was just published. In summary for 2018:
“Almost half of hospitals engaged in all four domains of interoperability (send, receive, find, integrate).
Electronic availability of patient health information from outsides sources increased by 10 percent in 2018 resulting in over half of hospitals having electronic patient health information available at the point of care.
On average, hospitals used about three different electronic methods to electronically exchange summary of care records with outside providers.
Small, rural, and critical access hospitals (CAHs) were less likely to participate in national networks and state, regional, or local HIOs [health information organizations] than their counterparts.”
Hopefully the progress has continued.