About health insurance/insurers
Cigna posts $2.8B in profit on Q3 earnings beat “The insurer reported $2.8 billion in profit for the quarter, up from $1.6 billion in the third quarter of 2021. In addition, Cigna posted revenues of $45.3 billion, up slightly from $44.3 billion in the prior-year quarter, according to its earnings report released Thursday.”
Most and Least Expensive States for Health Care, Ranked See the interactive figures.
“Key Takeaways
South Dakota topped the list of states with the most expensive health care, while Michigan is the cheapest.
Forbes Advisor’s analysis found that the eastern part of the country is where you may find the most expensive health care costs. Five of the 10 most expensive states for medical care are in the east, including West Virginia, Florida, Maine, Delaware and New Hampshire.
The western part of the country has many of the cheapest states for health care, including Washington, Nevada, Hawaii, New Mexico and Oregon.”
About pharma
New U.S. cancer drug prices rise 53% in five years -report “The annual price of a newly-launched cancer drug in the United States averaged $283,000 last year, a 53% increase from 2017, according to a new report from U.S. Democratic Representative Katie Porter, a consumer bankruptcy law professor running for re-election in California.”
The article has many product examples.
NY Reaches $523M Opioid Deal With Teva The headline is the story.
Moderna slashes billions from its sales forecast after a quarter of 'pain points' “On Thursday, the company said it deferred between $2 billion and $3 billion in vaccine sales to 2023. As a result, Moderna has slashed its annual sales projection for Spikevax from $21 billion to a range of $18 to $19 billion.
Third quarter sales of the shot, at $3.12 billion, came in below Wall Street’s expectations. The figure represented a 35% decrease from the third quarter of last year and 31% decline from the second quarter of this year.”
CMS sets court-ordered 340B drug payments, but leaves back payment issues unresolved “The American Hospital Association and 340B Health applauded CMS' final ruling for its 2023 Medicare outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) that will restore payments for drugs to 340B hospitals to the same amounts all other hospitals receive, but were disappointed that past repayment issues have still not been resolved.
From 2018 to 2022, many 340B hospitals were paid nearly 30 percent less for drugs administered to Medicare patients, according to 340B Health. The Supreme Court ruled in June that those cuts were unlawful.”
About the public’s health
HHS renews public health emergency for monkeypox outbreak “The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Wednesday renewed the national public health emergency for the monkeypox outbreak, with officials stating that the virus is still very present in the U.S. even as cases continue to drop…
The public health emergency for monkeypox was first signed on August 4. Public health emergencies from HHS end after 90 days unless they are renewed.”
Enhancing pharmacists' prescribing power boosts access to PrEP: GoodRx study “The research, provided exclusively to Fierce Healthcare, found that fills for PrEP increased by 24% in one year in states that passed pharmacist prescriber policies for these drugs. Fills grew 110% after two years, the study found.
By comparison, PrEP fills remained largely flat in states that did not expand phamacists' prescribing power, the study gound. The findings suggest pharmacists could play a key role in helping people who live in underserved or underresourced areas access critical preventive drugs like PrEP.”
Sleep doctors’ orders: Use standard time 365 days a year “In a position statement published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) is unequivocal in advocating elimination of daylight saving time, the practice of setting clocks ahead one hour between mid-March and early November.
‘The U.S. should eliminate seasonal time changes in favor of a national, fixed, year-round time,’ says the position statement, adding that ‘current evidence best supports the adoption of year-round standard time, which aligns best with human circadian biology and provides distinct benefits for public health and safety.’”
CDC wants to change ‘antiquated’ rules that hamper agency’s ability to fight Covid, polio and other diseases “ Despite having a multibillion-dollar budget, the agency doesn’t have authority from Congress to hire consultants in a timely way when an urgent situation arises.”
About healthcare IT
What Consumers Want from Virtual Primary Care – Findings A good review of patient wants and attitudes
HHS Seeks to Prevent Discrimination by Clinical Algorithms “The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) intends to add language to a federal rule to make it clear that physicians could be held accountable for decisions made while relying on clinical algorithms that discriminate on the basis of a patient's race.
The intent, HHS said, is to make physician practices and hospitals take a closer look at clinical decision support algorithms. Overreliance on algorithms could lead to violations of Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, gender, race, and other identities.”
Biometrics Can Help Match Patients to Their Electronic Health Records From a Pew Foundation study:
“The work group participants reached consensus on the following positions:
Facial imaging is an optimal type of biometrics because it is relatively inexpensive and contactless, and people are already used to having their picture taken for identification purposes. However, the technology raises issues related to privacy, equity, and data security.
Storing encrypted biometrics on patients’ personal devices (such as smartphones) is preferable to storing them in a single national repository or across various health systems’ databases. Called “match-on-device,” this approach reduces security and privacy risks but can introduce logistical and accessibility-related challenges, especially for patients without a smartphone or broadband internet connection.
Biometrics should be used alongside demographic data such as address, birthdate, and Social Security number to match patient records; they should not be the sole matching mechanism. (As a result, this report uses the term “biometrics-enhanced patient matching” to describe this hybrid approach.)
National policies and standards are needed to ensure that different health care and EHR systems can exchange information as easily as possible. Further, biometrics technology should not favor or be based on any particular vendor’s proprietary technology, which could limit usability.
Patients’ rights should be at the center of decisions around biometric standards. Federal legislators and regulators should study the extent to which existing privacy regulations apply to biometrics and enact and enforce additional policies as needed to protect patients’ biometrics from being misused for data mining, surveillance, or other purposes for which patients do not provide informed consent.”
About healthcare finance
20 largest healthcare companies by revenue FYI
Thermo Fisher wagers on early cancer diagnostics in $2.6B cash deal for multiple myeloma test maker “The life sciences conglomerate is shelling out $2.6 billion (£2.25 billion) to acquire The Binding Site Group from a group of private equity investors, integrating a suite of diagnostic assays and instruments for blood cancers and immune system disorders into its specialty diagnostics business.
In particular, Thermo Fisher highlighted The Binding Site’s tests for multiple myeloma diagnosis and monitoring as a standout product.”