Consumer Price Index Summary: At 2.5%, medical care had the lowest growth among CPI items for 2021 (unadjusted).
About Covid-19
Supreme Court blocks Biden's Covid requirements for businesses, upholds health care workers mandate: As predicted:
”The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Biden administration's rule requiring larger businesses to ensure that workers receive the Covid vaccine or wear masks and get tested on a weekly basis. [Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented].But the court said a separate mandate requiring vaccinations for an estimated 20 million health care workers can be enforced [Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett dissented].”
See this link for a FAQ from MGMA on the health facility final rule requirements.
BioNTech and AI start-up develop tool to predict high-risk coronavirus variants: “The artificial intelligence-based program, developed by BioNTech, the German biotech group behind the leading Covid-19 vaccine, and north African AI start-up InstaDeep, identified more than 90 per cent of variants of concern, including the highly transmissible Omicron strain, on average two months before their designation by the World Health Organization. The results from the study show that the program can evaluate the risks of new variants from their spike proteins within minutes, and monitor them as they evolve ‘nearly in real time’, according to the two companies. Ugur Sahin, chief executive of BioNTech, said the tool would be made freely available.”
The potential of this tool for preemptive development of vaccines cannot be overstated.
U.S. COVID deaths rising but likely due to Delta, not Omicron, says CDC chief: “COVID-19 hospitalizations in the United States have increased by about 33% and deaths are up by about 40% from a week earlier, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Wednesday…
The recent increase in COVID deaths is likely a lagging effect of the Delta variant, which was surging before Omicron took hold in the United States in December, Walensky said.”
Kids’ low COVID-19 vaccination rates called a ‘gut punch’: ”Distrust, misinformation and delays because of the holidays and bad weather have combined to produce what authorities say are alarmingly low COVID-19 vaccination rates in U.S. children ages 5 to 11.
As of Tuesday, just over 17% were fully vaccinated, more than two months after shots became available to the age group. While Vermont is at 48%, California is just shy of 19% and Mississippi is at only 5%.
Vaccinations among the elementary school set surged after the shots were introduced in the fall, but the numbers have crept up slowly since then, and omicron’s explosive spread appears to have had little effect.”
Qiagen Gains CE Mark for COVID-19 Test That Measures T-Cell Response: “The assay detects CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses, which allows a more comprehensive assessment of immunity generated by COVID-19 vaccines, especially in vulnerable individuals.
T-cell response to the virus declines more slowly than antibody responses and may indicate how severe the course of COVID-19 will be in infected patients.”
Quebec plans to impose a ‘health contribution’ tax on the unvaccinated: “Premier François Legault announced the new ‘contribution’ for the unvaccinated on Tuesday, as the province reported 62 new deaths, bringing the total number of people killed by Covid-19 in the province to 12,028 – the most in Canada.
‘A health contribution will be charged to all adults that don’t want to get vaccinated. We are there now,’ he said. ‘Those who refuse to get the shot bring a financial burden to hospital staff and Quebecers. The 10% of the population can’t burden the 90%.’”
About health insurance
Morgan Health, Kaiser Permanente partner on health equity: “Beginning this month, JPMorgan Chase's some 8,000 California employees will be able to access care through Kaiser Permanente, and the partnership will put a focus on health disparities.
The two plan to jointly collect and report health equity metrics for those patients, Morgan Health executives said at the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference this week. JPMorgan and Kaiser Permanente plan to roll out performance guarantees tied to health equity on certain quality measures for JPMorgan employees beginning in 2023.”
One needs to ask how Morgan Health is different from a self-insured employer contracting with an existing provider network/ third party administrator.
Clover Health's MA enrollment spikes 25% from 2021: “Clover Health saw its Medicare Advantage enrollment increase 25% in 2022 over the previous year, the insurer said this week.
The startup insurer said that it began January 2022 ahead of its full-year guidance of 82,000 members. The overall industry growth in MA averages 10% year-over-year, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Clover offers plans in 209 counties across nine states.”
About pharma
Judge Won't Lift Ch. 11 Injunction For J&J Talc Claims: “A New Jersey bankruptcy judge denied on Tuesday a request to allow a talc claim against Johnson & Johnson to go to trial, saying it would unavoidably disrupt the Chapter 11 case of the company's bankrupt talc spinoff.”
Pfizer to Announce a Record $80 Billion in Revenue Amid Layoffs in Sales Force: “Pfizer is expected to announce record revenue of more than $80 billion for 2021 on robust sales of the COVID-19 vaccine it developed with BioNTech and its oral COVID-19 treatment, Paxlovid, both of which are being sold directly to governments.
This is almost double Pfizer’s total revenue in 2020 of $41.9 billion.”
Drugs to Watch 2022: “This year’s Drugs to WatchTM report identifies seven late-stage experimental treatments that Clarivate analysts forecast to reach blockbuster status within five years, i.e., if approved,
are expected to earn $1 billion in annual revenue. These treatments span a remarkably diverse set of therapeutic areas, from conditions like Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), which afflict tens of millions of patients worldwide, to very rare diseases, such as transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTR), which afflict thousands.”
About the public’s health
Progress on Lung Cancer Drives Overall Decline in U.S. Cancer Deaths: Sharp drops in lung cancer deaths fueled greater declines in overall U.S. cancer deaths from decreases of about 1% a year in the late 1990s to 1.5% a year during the 2000s and 2% a year from 2015 through 2019…”
Secondhand nicotine vaping at home and respiratory symptoms in young adults: “Secondhand nicotine vape exposure was associated with increased risk of bronchitic symptoms and shortness of breath among young adults.”
The real cost of smoking by state: Smoking costs the US more than $300B annually. This list divides the costs by state. At the top is DC, with a total lifetime cost (with the highest contribution from lost income) of >$3.3 million.
About healthcare IT
Headspace Health grabs startup Sayana to build out AI-based mental health tools: “Six months after the $3 billion merger with Ginger, Headspace Health acquired Sayana, an AI-driven mental health and wellness company.
Sayana will expand Headspace Health’s ability to provide personalized self-care content to its 100 million users, executives said.
Headspace Health did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.”
Guidelines and quality criteria for artificial intelligence-based prediction models in healthcare: a scoping review: “This scoping review aimed to identify actionable guidance for those closely involved in AI-based prediction model (AIPM) development, evaluation and implementation including software engineers, data scientists, and healthcare professionals and to identify potential gaps in this guidance…
Topics were extracted from the identified literature and summarized across the six phases at the core of this review: (1) data preparation, (2) AIPM development, (3) AIPM validation, (4) software development, (5) AIPM impact assessment, and (6) AIPM implementation into daily healthcare practice.”
Healthcare finance
HCA, Eli Lilly, Atrium Health back $55M venture fund to invest in Black-founded and -led health startups: “Some heavy hitters in the healthcare and pharma industries—HCA Healthcare, Eli Lilly and the American Hospital Association (AHA)—are backing a new venture fund to invest exclusively in Black-founded and -led healthcare startups.
Nashville, Tennessee-based Jumpstart Health Investors (JHI) raised $55 million for its new Jumpstart Nova venture fund, oversubscribing the initial $30 million goal. The fund will invest exclusively in Black founder-led healthcare companies across health IT, digital health, tech-enabled services, diagnostic devices, biotech, medical device manufacturing and consumer health and wellness, according to a press release.”