About health insurance/insurers
Growth Of Value-Based Care And Accountable Care Organizations In 2022 An excellent update on the growth and types of these organizations.
Medicare Advantage Coverage is Rising for the Declining Share of Medicare Beneficiaries with Retiree Health Benefits From a KFF study: Based on the Survey, we find:
Half (50%) of large employers offering retiree health benefits to Medicare-age retirees offer coverage to at least some retirees through a contract with a Medicare Advantage plan, nearly double the share in 2017 (26%).
About 44% of large employers that offer Medicare Advantage coverage to their retirees do not give retirees a choice in coverage options.
Among larger employers with 1,000 or more workers that offer retiree health benefits through a Medicare Advantage plan, the most commonly cited reason they elected this option was the lower cost.
About hospitals and healthcare systems
Operating Margins Among the Largest For-Profit Health Systems Have Exceeded 2019 Levels for the Majority of the COVID-19 Pandemic The article covers HCA, Tenet and CHS.
About pharma
Swiss Parliament Approves Motion to Allow FDA-Approved Medical Devices into Market “The Swiss Parliament has cleared the way for legislation to allow non-CE-marked medical devices — including those approved or cleared by the FDA — to be marketed in Switzerland, where only CE-marked medical devices are currently available.”
Comment: This action is a real breakthrough: it allows a device to be used in a European country with only FDA approval.
CVS, Walgreens, Walmart appeal Ohio $650M opioid ruling “Arguing in the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, lawyers for the three pharmacy chains said there was never any proof the companies had violated the federal Controlled Substances Act through dispensing the drugs. It was also unfair to target these companies and therefore allow other pharmacy chains not to contribute to any of the fines imposed, the report added.”
About healthcare IT
Use of Online Tracking Technologies by HIPAA Covered Entities and Business Associates “Regulated entities are not permitted to use tracking technologies in a manner that would result in impermissible disclosures of PHI to tracking technology vendors or any other violations of the HIPAA Rules.For example, disclosures of PHI to tracking technology vendors for marketing purposes, without individuals’ HIPAA-compliant authorizations, would constitute impermissible disclosures.”[Emphasis in original].
These guidelines come after exposure that many hospitals have been using third-party tracking tools, such as Google Analytics or Meta Pixel, to perform analysis on their data.
About health technology
Congress needs to update FDA’s ability to regulate diagnostic tests, cosmetics “The outdated framework has forced the agency to regulate a test based on where it is made — by a medical device manufacturer, for example, or in an academic or clinical laboratory — rather than its distinctive complexity or potential risks. The result is an obsolete and bifurcated approach that leaves patients and providers often overestimating the amount of oversight that’s been applied to tests that matter for increasingly important clinical decisions, and that leaves test developers facing both uncertainty and inefficient regulatory burdens.”
An excellent review of what is needed to correct this problem.