About Covid-19
Renewal of Determination That A Public Health Emergency Exists: Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services, renewed the COVID emergency for an additional 90 days (started January 14).
Fourth vaccine dose boosts antibodies, researchers say, but likely not enough to prevent Omicron breakthrough infections: “Early data out of Israel suggests that a fourth dose of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna coronavirus vaccine can bring an increase in antibodies -- more than what's been seen after a third dose -- but it still might not be enough to protect against breakthrough infections caused by the Omicron variant.
’These are very preliminary results. This is before any publication, but we're giving it out since we understand the urgency of the public to get any information possible about the fourth dose,’ Dr. Gili Regev-Yochay, director of the Infection Prevention and Control Unit at Sheba Medical Center, told reporters during a virtual news conference Monday about the data.”
WHO says no evidence healthy children, adolescents need COVID-19 boosters: “There is no evidence at present that healthy children and adolescents need booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine, the World Health Organization's chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said on Tuesday.”
Types of Masks and Respirators: An update from the CDC:
Clarified that people can choose respirators such as N95s and KN95s, including removing concerns related to supply shortages for N95s
Clarified that ‘surgical N95s’ are a specific type of respirator that should be reserved for healthcare settings
Clarified that some types of masks and respirators provide more protection to the wearer than others” Specifically, cloth masks should only be used when surgical or N95/K95 masks are not available.
The effect of COVID certificates on vaccine uptake, public health, and the economy: Lessons from the European practice of COVID certificates. The abstract is worth quoting at length:
“We estimate that the announcement of COVID certificates during summer 2021 led to increased vaccine uptake in France of 13.0%… of the total population up to the end of the year, in Germany 6.2%…, and in Italy 9.7%…. Further, this averted an additional 3,979… deaths in France, 1,133… in Germany, and 1,331…in Italy; and prevented gross domestic product (GDP) losses of €6.0… billion in France, €1.4… billion in Germany, and €2.1 …billion in Italy. Notably, the application of COVID certificates substantially reduced the pressure on intensive care units (ICUs) and, in France, prevented occupancy levels being exceeded where prior lockdowns were instated. Varying government communication efforts and restrictions associated with COVID certificates may explain country differences, such as the smaller effect in Germany. Overall, our findings are more sizeable than predicted. This analysis may help inform decisions about when and how to employ COVID certificates to increase vaccine uptake and thus avoid stringent interventions, such as closures, curfews, and lockdowns, with major social and economic consequences.”
24 states must ensure healthcare workers are fully vaccinated by March 15, CMS says: “CMS issued updated guidance Jan. 14 for enforcement of the agency's healthcare worker COVID-19 vaccination mandate, including that covered providers must ensure their employees are fully vaccinated by March 15.”
These 24 states are the ones that challenged the CMS conditions of participation to combat COVID spread.
”CMS said the Supreme Court decision does not affect compliance timelines for providers in the District of Columbia, the U.S. territories and the other 25 states that did not challenge the mandate, which must have their employees fully vaccinated by Feb. 28.”
Association of Race and Neighborhood Disadvantage with Patient Engagement in a Home-Based COVID-19 Remote Monitoring Program: “In a COVID-19 remote patient monitoring program, Black enrollees preferentially selected, and had higher retention in, telephone- over app-based monitoring. As a result, overall retention was similar between races. Remote monitoring programs with multiple modes may reduce barriers to participation.”
U.S. CDC warns against travel to 22 destinations over COVID-19: “In total, the CDC now lists just over 100 countries and territories at "Level 4." The CDC also raised another 20 countries to Level 3: High," including Uganda, Kuwait, Jamaica, Costa Rica and Cuba.”
About health insurance
MedPAC: Majority of Medicare beneficiaries to be on MA by 2023, but coding issues remain rampant: “MedPAC found 46% of beneficiaries in Parts A and B were enrolled in MA plans, and that figure is expected to stretch past 50% in 2023…
The panel also found that for this year, 99% of Medicare beneficiaries have access to at least one plan, and 98% of them can choose a plan with a Part D benefit.
But MedPAC found that the explosion of growth has not also led to more savings for traditional Medicare.
The panel discovered that this year spending in MA will be 4% higher than fee-for-service Medicare after considering coding practices such as upcoding, which leads to higher quality bonuses for plans…
In 2020, MedPAC found MA risk scores were 9.5% higher than fee-for-service beneficiaries that had a similar health status.”
One factor that must be taken into consideration is that MA plans have a financial incentive to code correctly while traditional Medicare payments are not diagnosis-dependent.
Some insurance brokers enroll people in ACA plans without consent: “Some insurance brokers are enrolling people into Affordable Care Act health plans without their consent, perhaps for the commissions, a move that could put consumers in danger of owing back the subsidies connected with the coverage. The damage could be hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
A consumer's first hint that something is wrong is a big one: a letter from the IRS or a delay in their tax refund.
Although the practice does not appear widespread, it has prompted the Department of Health and Human Services to seek changes to some oversight rules affecting brokers. They would start in 2023.”
About pharma
The top 10 biopharma M&A deals in 2021: “Biopharma merger and acquisition (M&A) activity was subdued in 2021, and it would have approached a record low for recent years but for a flurry of deals in the last quarter.
The top 10 biopharma M&A deals last year reached a combined value of just under $53 billion, well down from the $97 billion tally in 2020 and a fraction of the $207 billion spent on the 10 largest transactions in 2019.”
See the articles for details of the firms involved.
Teva settles shareholder lawsuit over generic drug pricing for $420 mln: “Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd has agreed to pay $420 million to settle shareholder litigation alleging the company hid an anti-competitive scheme to fix the price of generic drugs.”
Gilead says counterfeiting network sold $250 mln worth of its HIV drugs: “Gilead Sciences Inc said on Tuesday that tampered and counterfeit versions of its HIV treatments worth $250 million were sold to pharmacies over two years by a network of drug distributors and suppliers.”
About the public’s health
Texas’s six-week abortion ban remains in effect after federal appeals court ruling: “The nation’s most restrictive abortion law remains in effect in Texas after a federal appeals court on Monday rejected a request from abortion providers to immediately return their legal challenge to a trial court judge who had previously blocked the measure.
In a 2-to-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit temporarily transferred the case to the Texas Supreme Court, a step requested by state officials that could leave the dispute in limbo for months.”
About healthcare IT
Oscar Health reveals data breach caused by printing error: “The insurer said Friday that it discovered the breach on or around Nov. 23 and believes the incident occurred between Oct. 28 and Nov. 16. The company found that mailers, which contained personal information, were misrouted to other Oscar members.
The mailers included information such as members' names, Oscar ID numbers, claims numbers, provider information, dates of service, procedure names and plan names or affiliations. This information may have been viewed by another Oscar member who received the mailer, according to the notice.”
The article does not say how many members were affected.
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Partners with Google Cloud to Improve Veteran Access to Benefits and Services: “Through a $13 million, multi-year contract, the VA will deploy Apigee, Google Cloud’s application programming interface (API) management platform. The implementation is part of the continued evolution of the VA’s Lighthouse API program, providing developers with seamless and secure access to VA APIs in the development of new tools and services. For example, with Apigee, developers can use the VA’s Benefits API to create applications that help Veterans submit and track electronic benefits claims and add supplemental documentation. Developers can also easily access the VA’s Health APIs to build new online tools that help Veterans manage their health and access their medical records.”
About health technology
The top 10 medtech M&A deals of 2021: “Looking to make up for lost time and hopefully prepare companies for a new life in a post-COVID landscape, dealmaking kept that pace through the first half of 2021 and then some. Logging about $31.5 billion in transactions over the first six months of the year alone, the medtech sector overtook the $28.8 billion M&A total it saw for all of 2020, according to figures from Evaluate Medtech.”
See the article (or link) for details of the firms involved.
Special Report:
Trust in a New Era of Health: A very interesting report from Salesforce.com. Results are broken down by segment and also age groups. Well worth a least a skim.