About Covid-19
Cuba's vaccine coverage and focus on children helped beat back Omicron, experts say: Lessons from another country that developed its own vaccine:
”Omicron arrived in Cuba in December but fell far short of the pronounced spike in cases seen in many other places and infections have since fallen off by more than 80%, official data shows.
Deaths have remained at around 10% or less of their peak throughout the Omicron wave, according to a Reuters tally…
Health workers on the Caribbean island have since fully inoculated 1.8 million children between 2 and 18 years of age, or upwards of 96% of the total, with no serious side effects reported, according to official Cuban data…
Cuba has fully vaccinated 87% of its total population, and nearly 94% have received at least one dose, placing it among the top three globally among countries of at least 1 million people, according to official statistics compiled by ‘Our World in Data.’”
Racial, Ethnic Divide in U.S. Views of Pandemic, Healthcare: “Nearly seven in 10 Black adults (69%) and Hispanic adults (68%) are very or somewhat stressed about contracting COVID-19, compared with 57% of White adults, according to a survey by West Health and Gallup…
The West Health-Gallup study highlights continued disparities in access to healthcare and in health outcomes in the U.S. Black Americans (8%) are twice as likely as White Americans (4%) to say they know someone who has died in the past year due to an inability to pay for treatment.
At the same time, Americans across racial and ethnic groups agree that healthcare is too expensive and that costs do not match the quality of care. More than 90% of adults among each group say the general cost of care is too high and that they pay too much for the quality of care they receive, and about 70% indicate that healthcare costs are a financial burden for them. Additionally, 51% of U.S. adults overall -- including 51% of White, 47% of Black and 56% of Hispanic adults -- say the cost of healthcare causes them daily stress.”
About health insurance
CMS to launch new special enrollment period in late March: “The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services plans in late March to launch at the federally facilitated health insurance marketplace a new monthly special enrollment period for consumers with household incomes below 150% of the federal poverty level who aren’t eligible for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program.”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
Medicare Paid $6.6 Billion In Non-Hospice Care For Hospice Patients: “Medicare may be paying twice for some items and services provided to hospice patients, according to a Health and Human Services Department Office of Inspector General report Wednesday.
Medicare claims data shows the government paid out $6.6 billion in non-hospice claims for hospice patients between 2010 and 2019, primarily from costs associated with for-profit hospices. The findings indicate that Medicare could be double paying for these services if providers bill for non-hospice items and services that should already be covered through the hospice bundle, the OIG report said.”
FTC, Rhode Island AG will sue to block Lifespan, Care New England merger: “Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha has denied the application for the proposed merger between Lifespan and Care New England and said he will join the Federal Trade Commission in filing a lawsuit challenging the deal…”
AHIP study claims hospitals charge double for specialty drugs compared to pharmacies: “Hospitals on average charge double the price for the same drugs compared to those offered by specialty pharmacies, according to a new insurer-funded study released as federal regulators ponder a probe into the pharmacy benefit management industry.
The study…, by insurance lobbying group AHIP, comes as specialty pharmacies have grown in use among PBMs and payers to dispense specialty products.”
About pharma
Pharmacy Middlemen Dodge FTC Competition Probe in Split Vote: “The Federal Trade Commission Thursday failed to reach consensus on launching a study into the reimbursement rates set by the entities that manage prescription drug benefits on behalf of health insurers and Medicare Part D plans.
The FTC in a 2-2 party-line vote decided to not open a probe into pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and whether their drug price setting practices unfairly favor PBM-affiliated pharmacies at the expense of independent or specialty ones.
The move comes despite fervent demands from pharmacy and patient advocacy groups to look into a complex component of the health-care industry that has traditionally remained without strong federal oversight.”
Teva Suffers Another Blow in ‘Skinny Labeling’ Case Against GSK: “A federal appeals court has upheld a decision ordering Teva Pharmaceuticals to pay $235.5 million to GlaxoSmithKline for infringing on the latter’s patent for its congestive heart failure drug Coreg (carvedilol).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in a 7-to-3 ruling, rejected Teva’s request to convene a new hearing on the case.
The decision has implications for the future of “skinny labeling” — a practice allowed under the Hatch-Waxman Act of 1984, which enables generics makers to manufacture a patented brand-name drug for certain narrow indications not covered by the patent.
Teva said it will seek a Supreme Court review of its case.”
BREAKING: Sacklers Offer Another $1.6B For Purdue Ch. 11 Settlement: The headline is the story.
About healthcare IT
Overuse and Underuse of Health Care: New Insights From Economics and Machine Learning: Read the whole article; but here are some good takeaways:
”Comparing algorithmic predictions to physicians’ decisions reveals substantial overtesting.1About two-thirds of tests were performed on patients with predictably low risk, making the tests extremely low value—some costing up to $1 million per life-year saved. But, critically, we also find substantial undertesting, with predictably high-risk patients going untested and then having adverse outcomes of missed ACS, including death. These findings suggest that reallocating low-value tests to high-risk untested patients could save lives, at a cost of only $46 017 per life-year…
So it is no surprise that higher across-the-board testing has little aggregate health benefit because most patients are low risk. But for the small fraction of predictably high-risk patients, we find a dramatic reduction in adverse events and death—34% lower 1-year mortality—when they arrive during higher-testing shifts.1 We estimate that the optimal policy would cut testing by 46.8% overall, but with a 62.4% reduction in the tests physicians currently do and a 15.6% increase in testing for patients who currently go untested.”
About health technology
Foundation Medicine’s FoundationOne Cancer Tracker Named Breakthrough Device: “Foundation Medicine’s circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) detection and molecular monitoring assay, FoundationOne Tracker, has been granted the FDA’s Breakthrough Device designation.
The assay uses algorithms to identify patient-specific variants that allows for the detection of ctDNA in plasma. The Breakthrough Device designation covers the assay’s use in the detection of residual disease in early-stage cancer after curative therapy.”