About the public’s health
Syringe shortage could hamper delivery of Covid-19 vaccine, experts warn:”US companies make roughly 663m syringes a year but the Trump administration has calculated that an extra 850m may be needed.”
Africa to be declared free of polio: Afghanistan and Pakistan are the last two places with wild polio virus.
Overview of Testing for SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19): Latest recommendations from the CDC. For example:
”If you have been in close contact (within 6 feet) of a person with a COVID-19 infection for at least 15 minutes but do not have symptoms:
You do not necessarily need a test unless you are a vulnerable individual or your health care provider or State or local public health officials recommend you take one.”
Mayo Clinic study finds uptick in chest pain searches online amid COVID-19, even as ED visits for heart problems drops: “Mayo Clinic researchers may lend more evidence that patients were trying to avoid a trip to the emergency room. In a study published this week in JMIR Cardio, the resesarchers found a correlation between online searches for chest pain symptoms and reports of fewer people going to the emergency department with acute heart problems.”
About hospitals
NRC Health Consumer Loyalty Award: See this site for award winners.
About pharma
10 most expensive drugs in the US (by annual list price): The list is headed by AveXis’ spinal muscular dystrophy drug Zolgensma, at $2,125,000.
FDA may fine drugmakers, universities $10K for failing to report clinical trial results:”The FDA has released final guidelines for penalizing companies and universities that fail to report clinical trial results.
According to the guidance, clinical trial sponsors that don't provide required information to ClinicalTrials.gov may face a $10,000 fine for each infraction. “
Teva indicted on U.S. price-fixing charges after walking away from settlement offers: “With the walls closing in around it on a yearslong generics price-fixing probe, Israeli drugmaker Teva faced two options: Reach a deal with prosecutors or gamble. Teva chose to roll the dice, and now it finds itself facing conspiracy charges—and a potentially bigger penalty on the horizon.
Federal prosecutors have charged Teva with conspiring to fix prices for a range of generic medicines between 2013 and 2015 as part of an industrywide scheme to overcharge consumers by more than $350 million, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a Tuesday release.”
Patients over 50 may take meds less if pill appearance changes a lot, study says: “A lack of consistency in the appearance of prescription drugs may contribute to medication nonadherence, a study conducted by researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical school found.”
Celltrion taps Intract Pharma to develop world's first oral Remicade biosimilar:”South Korea's Celltrion has teamed up with U.K.-based drug delivery firm Intract Pharma to codevelop the world's first tablet version of infliximab, a biosimilar of Johnson & Johnson's immunology blockbuster Remicade. With intravenous and subcutaneous versions of the drug already under its belt, Celltrion hopes the tie-up will further secure its position in the Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis fields. “
The development of an oral medication in this category is a huge innovation.
U.S. cities with the highest, lowest prescription drug costs: San Francisco, NY City and LA head the list.
Drugmakers deliver counteroffer to Trump international pricing plan: “The industry is offering to cut prices for physician-administered drugs in Medicare Part B by 10 percent. The administration estimated its original plan to link payments to lower costs abroad would save 30 percent.
Under the industry plan, Medicare’s Innovation Center would test a voluntary Part B model in which manufacturers would provide a ‘market-based’ discount for covered drugs that translates to a roughly 10 percent reduction in average sales price. The demo would also reduce cost sharing for those medicines to a set dollar amount between $15 and $20.”
About medical devices
Medtronic reports 44% drop in quarterly income as it begins to recover from COVID-19: This effect is from the reduction in elective procedures also causing revenue reductions in provider organizations.
About healthcare IT
What HIPAA law? Study finds future healthcare employees would consider violating privacy laws for cash: “A study of graduating students looking to go into the healthcare field found that close to half (46%) said they would violate federal privacy regulations for an amount of money ranging from $1,000 to more than $10 million.” The entire article is worth reading. Note the different scenarios the researchers presented for responses.
Interoperability can cut health costs by $30B. But this needs to happen first: Read the article for a list of what it will take to make interoperability happen. My #1 is to assure data security/confidentiality.
Innovation Improves Care Delivery Around the World: “Allscripts Healthcare Solutions was recently awarded five separate patents over the course of just eight days…
Each of the patents recently awarded contributes to streamlining and improving healthcare delivery. For example, one of the patents is for an application that connects electronic health records (EHRs) to various wellness applications to provide patients frictionless goal-tacking functionality, which directly leads to a higher level of patient engagement. Another application enables API calls from EHRs to initiate searches over genetic testing data stores. A patent was also issued for an application that helps organizations secure data in a HIPAA-compliant manner that will not cause performance issues that are often associated with typical encryption practices.”
About health insurance
Alphabet's Verily breaks into stop-loss health insurance market backed by Swiss Re: “Verily Life Sciences is expanding into the health insurance market with a focus on employer stop-loss insurance.
The Alphabet company will leverage its expertise in hardware, software and data science to offer a new data-driven solution for employers, the company said Tuesday.
The Verily subsidiary, called Coefficient Insurance Company, will be backed by Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, the commercial insurance unit of the Swiss Re Group, through a minority investment.”
Aetna fined for denying ER claims in California: “Aetna Health of California must stop using national standards to deny payment for emergency room claims, the California Department of Managed Health Care ordered Aug. 25.
The department said the practice has led to Aetna wrongfully denying ER claims because California's broader standards on ER services aren't being applied. Aetna faces a $500,000 fine for repeatedly not following California law and failing to implement improvements.
Under California law, health plans must pay for emergency medical services unless there is proof the services didn't occur or an enrollee didn't need ER care. The department reviewed a sample of Aetna's denials for ER services and found 93 percent of the sampled claims were wrongfully denied.”