Biden’s top science adviser bullied and demeaned subordinates, according to White House investigation: “President Joe Biden’s top science adviser, Eric Lander, bullied and demeaned his subordinates and violated the White House’s workplace policy, an internal White House investigation recently concluded, according to interviews and an audio recording obtained by POLITICO”
The investigation led to Lander’s resignation last night..
Press Ganey Announces Plans to Acquire Forsta -- a Leader in the 2021 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Voice of the Customer -- to Accelerate Innovation in the Global Healthcare Experience Industry: “Press Ganey, a renowned leader in patient, member, employee and consumer experience across the healthcare ecosystem, today announced its plans to acquire Forsta, an industry-leading global provider of customer experience and market research technology. Forsta is named a Leader in the 2021 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Voice of the Customer. The transaction is expected to close in the first or second calendar quarter of 2022, and is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.”
About Covid-19
Biden officials trying to recalculate U.S. Covid-19 hospitalizations: “A task force comprised of scientists and data specialists at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are working with hospitals nationwide to improve Covid-19 reporting. The group is asking hospitals to report numbers of patients who go to the facility because they have Covid-19 and separate those from individuals who go in for other reasons and test positive after being admitted…”
Pharmacies feel stiffed on COVID pill payments: “Some pharmacies are getting paid as little as $1 to dispense the COVID antiviral pills made by Pfizer and Merck.” Dispensing fees from commercial insurers are all “lower than the federal government's dispensing fee for uninsured patients, which is $12.”
”Why it matters: Most pharmacies want to offer the drugs, especially the one from Pfizer that drastically cuts the odds of hospitalization and death. But low payments could hurt Americans' ability to access the pills in some areas if pharmacies decide they can't afford to stock them.”
CMS Issues Over-the-Counter Coronavirus Testing Guidance: “CMS released guidance around the over-the-counter coronavirus testing requirement, providing greater clarity regarding what kinds of direct-to-consumer access mechanisms fall under compliance and answering questions related to testing shortages and fraud.
The guidance explained that the requirement to provide adequate access to over-the-counter coronavirus tests entails establishing an in-person method of receiving the tests and a direct-to-consumer shipping option.”
Durability of Anti-Spike Antibodies in Infants After Maternal COVID-19 Vaccination or Natural Infection: “This study found that the majority of infants born to COVID-vaccinated mothers had persistent anti-S antibodies at 6 months, compared with infants born to mothers with SARS-CoV-2 infection.” Another piece of evidence that Covid-19 vaccination can afford better protection than natural infection.”
CDC to recommend faster Covid-19 boosters for certain immunocompromised people: “The CDC has been recommending that immunocompromised people who got an mRNA vaccine get an additional booster, a fourth shot, at least five months after their third shot. It's going to revise these guidelines to encourage a booster at three months instead. This applies to people 18 and older who got the Moderna vaccine and people 12 and older who got the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.”
Governors in 4 states plan for end to school mask mandates: “The governors of four states announced plans Monday to lift statewide mask requirements in schools by the end of February or March, citing the rapid easing of COVID-19′s omicron surge.
The decisions in Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey and Oregon were announced as state and local governments grapple with which virus restrictions to jettison and which ones to keep in place. The changes also come amid a growing sense that the virus is never going to go away and Americans need to find a way to coexist with it.”
About health insurance
Centene hits $126B in 2021 revenue, up 13%: 10 things to know: Some highlights: “Centene hit the top end of its 2021 revenue outlook, landing at $126 billion largely thanks to Medicare and Medicaid growth….
The revenue growth was attributed to both Medicare and Medicaid membership growth, as well as acquiring Pantherx and Circle Health….
Revenue growth contributed to a reported $598 million in fourth quarter profits and $3 billion in year-end profit.”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
Healthgrades Announces 2022 America's Best Hospitals™: Check the website for state-by-state listings in different categories.
States Move to Protect Hospital Patients from Heavy Medical Debt: “More states are imposing new limits on hospital billing practices, making fresh attempts to help patients avoid heavy medical debts.
At least 10 states, including Connecticut, Maryland, New Mexico and Maine, enacted laws last year with a range of provisions affecting healthcare providers and collection agencies, including requirements for hospitals to provide financial assistance to people with low incomes or limit aggressive debt-collection practices. Other states, including Washington and Vermont, are currently considering bills to add or bolster consumer medical-billing protections.”
Tenet sees annual profit more than double, plans to retire $700M of debt: “Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare ended 2021 with a net income from continuing operations of $915 million, more than doubling the $399 million recorded the same period one year before.
The for-profit hospital operator said its results for the year ending Dec. 31, 2021, included a pre-tax gain of $406 million associated with the divestiture of five Miami-area hospitals, as well as stimulus funds totaling $205 million. In 2020, Tenet recorded grant income of $899 million.”
About pharma
FDA Resumes Domestic Inspections: “The FDA resumed normal domestic inspections of device facilities yesterday, citing the declining rates of COVID-19 cases across the country.
The FDA had announced on Dec. 29 that it was temporarily suspending many of its domestic and foreign inspections due to fast-spreading SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant. The agency said it will continue to use a variety of tools to conduct both domestic and foreign mission-critical inspections, including remote assessments.”
CVS teams with Medable to expand access to clinical trials: “CVS Health is teaming up with Medable to access and engage around clinical trials at select MinuteClinics, the healthcare giant announced Monday.
CVS Health Clinical Trial Services, a new arm at the company launched last May, will harness Medable's software platform to deliver clinical trials with a focus on accessibility and retention to enhance the effectiveness of research, according to the announcement.”
PBMs ranked by market share: CVS Caremark is No. 1: “Three companies dominate the pharmacy benefit manager market, accounting for 79 percent of all prescription claims in 2020, according to data from Health Industries Research Companies, an independent, non-partisan market research firm.”
About the public’s health
Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking: A fascinating bipartisan report sponsored by a number of governmental agencies. The Commission notes that illegal use has moved from prescription opioids, to heroin, to synthetics, especially fentanyl. The latter is easier and cheaper to produce than the other opioids.
To put the problem in perspective: “Higher potency allows cartels [mostly Mexican] to reduce volume and increase profits. The Commission estimated that only 3 to 5 metric tons of pure fentanyl is needed to satisfy the entire annual U.S. consumption of illegally supplied opioids—a fraction of the estimated 47 metric tons of heroin and 145 metric tons of cocaine that were consumed in the United States in 2016.” If you download the pdf, see Fig. S1 on page XV for a summary of recommendations.
In a related article: Texas Strikes $225M Deal With Teva Over Opioid Crisis
Inactivated and live-attenuated seasonal influenza vaccines boost broadly neutralizing antibodies in children: “Repeated seasonal vaccination results in significant boosting of a durable bNAb [broadly neutralizing antibodies] response. Boosting of serological bNAb titers is comparable within inactivated and live attenuated (LAIV) vaccinees and declines with age.”
Effectiveness of e-cigarettes as aids for smoking cessation: evidence from the PATH Study cohort, 2017–2019: “Sales increases in high nicotine e- cigarettes in 2017 did not translate to more smokers using these e-cigarettes to quit smoking. On average, using e-cigarettes for cessation in 2017 did not improve successful quitting or prevent relapse.”
Treatment of Tobacco Smoking: A Review: “Approximately 34 million people in the US smoke cigarettes and could potentially gain up to a decade of life expectancy by stopping smoking. First-line therapy should include both pharmacotherapy and behavioral support, with varenicline or combination NRT as preferred initial interventions.”
About healthcare IT
How NFTs could transform health information exchange: “Personal (sometimes called “protected”) health information (PHI) is highly valued (1) and will become centrally important as big data and machine learning move to the forefront of health care and translational research. The current health information exchange (HIE) market is dominated by commercial and (to a lesser extent) not-for-profit entities and typically excludes patients. This can serve to undermine trust and create incentives for sharing data (2). Patients have limited agency in deciding which of their data is shared, with whom, and under what conditions. Within this context, new forms of digital ownership can inspire a digital marketplace for patient-controlled health data. We argue that nonfungible tokens (NFTs) or NFT-like frameworks can help incentivize a more democratized, transparent, and efficient system for HIE in which patients participate in decisions about how and with whom their PHI is shared.”
Amazon Care rolls out telehealth services nationwide: “Amazon Care’s virtual health services are now available nationwide, and its in-person services will be rolled out in more than 20 new cities in 2022, Amazon said Feb. 8 in a post on its website.”
About health technology
Activity-dependent spinal cord neuromodulation rapidly restores trunk and leg motor functions after complete paralysis: “Here, we hypothesized that an arrangement of electrodes targeting the ensemble of dorsal roots involved in leg and trunk movements would result in superior efficacy, restoring more diverse motor activities after the most severe SCI. To test this hypothesis, we established a computational framework that informed the optimal arrangement of electrodes on a new paddle lead and guided its neurosurgical positioning. We also developed software supporting the rapid configuration of activity-specific stimulation programs that reproduced the natural activation of motor neurons underlying each activity. We tested these neurotechnologies in three individuals with complete sensorimotor paralysis as part of an ongoing clinical trial (www.clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT02936453). Within a single day, activity-specific stimulation programs enabled these three individuals to stand, walk, cycle, swim and control trunk movements. Neurorehabilitation mediated sufficient improvement to restore these activities in community settings, opening a realistic path to support everyday mobility with EES in people with SCI.”
This technique is an extremely important innovation.