About health insurance
Blue Health Insurers Reach Tentative Antitrust Settlement for $2.7 Billion: “The Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance group has negotiated a tentative settlement in a sweeping antitrust suit filed on behalf of customers, according to people with knowledge of the matter, in a deal that would require a payout of around $2.7 billion and curtail practices that allegedly limited competition among its three dozen member-companies.
The settlement isn’t final, according to these people. The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association has signed off on the agreement, but it hasn’t been approved by the boards of all 36 Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers.”
About pharma
Gilead To Pay $97M To Resolve Copay Kickback Claims: Gilead used a foundation to pay patient copays, a plan HHS has banned.
Novartis sells bonds tied to expanding access to medicines in poor countries: “In a first-of-its-kind move by a large drug maker, Novartis (NVS) raised approximately $2.1 billion last week by selling bonds that are tied directly to its progress in making medicines accessible in certain low- and middle-income countries.
Specifically, the stated goal is to expand the number of patients who receive its brand-name medicines by at least 200% by 2025, as well as programs that market medicines to combat leprosy, malaria, Chagas, and sickle cell disease by at least 50% over the same period.”
CVS accused of patient steering: The National Community Pharmacists Association "conducted a survey of 412 community pharmacies between Sept. 8 and Sept. 11 and found that 79 percent of community pharmacies said patient steering happened with one or more of their patients in the past six months, and almost 78 percent said some of their patients then moved their prescriptions to CVS.
Patient steering happens when an insurance company moves a patient's prescriptions to a different pharmacy without their knowledge or consent.” CVS denies the claim.
Pfizer partner BioNTech sees no role for its vaccine in UK challenge trial: The trial in the UK involves challenging volunteers with live Sars-CoV-2 to see if the vaccine works.
Letter to Eli Lilly and Company from the HHS General Council criticizing the drugmaker’s decision to restrict its participation under the 340b program.
About hospitals and health systems
The National Patient and Procedure Volume Tracker™: Among the findings:
”Inpatient volume has not fully recovered with inpatient procedures and surgeries still down significantly
Volumes now approaching 2019 levels, but lost volumes have not recovered
The “new normal” may be 90-95% of previous levels
Inpatient procedures and surgeries continue to trail 2019 levels, down 18.6% cumulatively, having a negative financial impact
Medical, not surgical service lines, have come back strongest as patients have focused on chronic, preventative, and screening care
Outpatient volume has recovered for some, but not for all
Volumes fell significantly, but have now recovered, down 56% at the start, but down only 1.5% for the past 30 days
Recovery is not evenly distributed, as some areas have come back strongly, while other care areas still lag
Volume rebound demonstrates ongoing recovery outside the inpatient setting, including new channels such as telehealth”
Trump Administration Plans Crackdown On Hospitals Failing To Report COVID-19 Data: “The federal government is preparing to crack down aggressively on hospitals for not reporting complete COVID-19 data daily into a federal data system, according to internal documents obtained by NPR.
The draft guidance, expected to be sent to hospitals this week, also adds new reporting requirements, asking hospitals to provide daily information on influenza cases, along with COVID-19. It's the latest twist in what hospitals describe as a maddening flurry of changing requirements as they deal with the strain of caring for patients during a pandemic.”
About healthcare IT
BestBuy Health, Amazon Alexa team up on new telehealth-enabled flip phone for seniors: “BestBuy Health… launched a new flip phone equipped with Amazon Alexa voice assistance and telehealth capabilities that help connect older adults to healthcare services.
The phone, dubbed Lively Flip, has Amazon Alexa capabilities so individuals can use their voice to make calls and send text messages. The device is also designed with an urgent call button, which if pressed, automatically connects the caller to a clinical urgent care team via GreatCall, a medical alert system and device provider that offers 24/7 access to urgent response agents.”