About Covid-19
Moderna seeks FDA authorization for second COVID booster for all adults: “Moderna Inc on late Thursday sought emergency use authorization from U.S. health regulators for a second COVID-19 booster shot, as a surge in cases in some parts of the world fuels fears of another wave of the pandemic.”
EMA expects data on Omicron-specific vaccine as early as April: “The European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) leading vaccine expert said that data on COVID-19 vaccines tailored for the Omicron variant should be available between April and July this year, potentially paving the way for a decision by the summer.”
Biden administration (finally) elevates healthy buildings as part of national Covid strategy: “The White House announcement on Thursday that it is elevating ‘clean air in buildings’ as a key pillar in the national Covid-19 response is nothing short of a landmark shift in the response.
How so? The country has made enormous gains in its Covid fight along several axes — vaccines and boosters, rapid tests and treatments, and the recent release of N95 masks to the public. But there was one element that was still lacking more than two years into the pandemic: ventilation and filtration. That has now changed.”
About health insurance
Analysis of Value-Based Payment and Acute Care Use Among Medicare Advantage Beneficiaries: “In this study of MA beneficiaries, advanced value-based payment arrangements (ie, 2-sided risk models) were associated with lower rates of acute care use, especially those events that are potentially avoidable. These findings are consistent with evaluations of value-based payment in traditional Medicare and serve to expand the evidence base around value-based payment models in Medicare Advantage. The lack of significant differences between FFS and upside-only risk models suggests that downside financial risk may play a key role in effective value-based payment arrangements.”
Nothing new here in the general principle- risk-based (downside) contracts result in better performance.
Look at the Table for more details on differences.
These 12 states had uninsured rates higher than 10%, new census data shows: “The U.S. Census Bureau released new American Community Survey health coverage data March 17 that shows which states have the largest uninsured populations as a percentage of their total population.
The data was collected over a five-year period from 2016-20.
Twelve states had an uninsured rate of higher than 10 percent: Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Wyoming.”
Trends in High-Severity Billing of Hospitalized Medicare Beneficiaries Treated by Hospitalists vs Nonhospitalists: “In this cohort study of 4 071 241 Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries treated in hospitals between 2009 and 2018, hospitalists billed a significantly higher proportion of their initial, subsequent, and discharge encounters of Medicare beneficiaries as high-severity compared with nonhospitalists, even after accounting for patient complexity, and this gap is growing over time…
The growing number of hospitalists that are increasingly caring for Medicare beneficiaries and billing for higher-severity encounters may be an important driver of rising hospital costs nationally.”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
How the 2 largest nonprofit health systems fared in Q2: For Ascension: “After factoring in nonoperating gains, the health system ended the second quarter of fiscal year 2022 with net income of $949.5 million, down from $2.6 billion a year earlier.”
For CommonSpirit Health: “After factoring in nonoperating income, the health system reported net income of $118 million, down from $1.9 billion in the same period a year earlier.”
Banner Health's operating income slides 59% in 2021: “Banner's operating income was $126.7 million in 2021, a 59.2 percent decrease from 2020 at $310.9 million. Its operating margin was 1 percent for 2021 and 3 percent for 2020.
The system attributed the decrease in operating income to challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly with the labor market. It used $136 million in provider relief fund dollars to offset external contract labor, mostly in the first half of the year. It took on $800 million in external contract labor costs in 2021…”
Moody's: Shift away from inpatient care will continue to shrink hospital margins: “A drop in inpatient care is expected due to a number of factors including changing reimbursement models, advances in drugs and medical devices and growing investment in outpatient services. This shift, however, will be partially offset by an aging population and demand for higher-acuity care by patients whose care was delayed by the pandemic.
Even before COVID-19, hospital admission rates were generally flat, according to Moody’s; now, virtual care options and fewer visits to the emergency room have accelerated the shift away from inpatient care. The use of telehealth will likely remain higher than before COVID, particularly among certain specialties…
Outpatient revenue has exceeded inpatient revenue in the past few years, according to Moody's analysis.”
Medical Properties Trust Completes Hospital Partnership With Macquarie Asset Management: “Medical Properties Trust, Inc… announced that it has completed the previously announced transaction with Macquarie Infrastructure Partners V, a private fund managed by Macquarie Asset Management (“MAM”) to form a partnership pursuant to which a MAM controlled subsidiary has acquired a 50% interest in a portfolio of eight Massachusetts-based general acute care hospitals owned by MPT and operated by Steward Health Care System…”
About pharma
Prevalence of Third-party Tracking on Medical Journal Websites: “This cross-sectional study demonstrated that 99% of medical journals with an impact factor of 2.0 or higher expose visitors to third-party tracking by entities that work with pharmaceutical advertisers. Although similar levels of tracking have been found in health-related websites, tracking on journal websites raises distinctive policy concerns because it may facilitate targeted advertising to clinicians.”
Top 10 pharma R&D budgets in 2021: “Roche will not be beaten when it comes to pharma R&D. The company has topped our list of top pharma R&D budgets year after year, and 2021 was no different.
The Swiss pharma landed in the No. 1 slot with a budget of 14.8 billion Swiss francs ($16.1 billion), a 14% increase over 2020. Total revenue for the year was 65.9 billion Swiss francs ($71.4 billion), meaning Roche threw 23% of its haul at R&D. This was a massive spend even by Roche's industry-topping standards.”
See the article for more details about Roche and the other nine companies listed.
About the public’s health
Tobacco Product Use Among Adults — United States, 2020: “In 2020, 19.0% of U.S. adults (47.1 million) used any tobacco product. Cigarettes were the most commonly used tobacco product (12.5%), followed by e-cigarettes (3.7%). From 2019 to 2020, the prevalence of overall tobacco product use, combustible tobacco product use, cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and use of two or more tobacco products decreased.”
Biden outlines Cancer Moonshot program: 6 things to know: “President Joe Biden outlined initial steps on March 17 for the revival of the Cancer Moonshot program, which aims to reduce cancer deaths by 50 percent over the next 25 years and improve the experience of living with and surviving cancer…
Six things to know:
The administration is working to create a Cancer Moonshot Scholars program alongside a new early career fellowship program at the National Cancer Institute starting in fiscal year 2023.
The FDA is pursuing steps to "significantly reduce" tobacco-related morbidity and mortality.
The U.S. Defense Department is expanding a signature clinical research program to all of its hospitals.
The Veterans Administration is planning to propose a rule that will consider "presumptive service connection" for several rare respiratory cancers for some veterans.
The National Cancer Institute is connecting underrepresented populations to clinical trials and building capacity in cancer research in areas of poverty.
The Office of Science and Technology Policy will lead an effort to provide scientific support to assess and address cancer risks from air pollution.”
Medical Misinformation Runs Rampant, and Many Americans Have Trouble Identifying It: “Key takeaways:
Over 70% of people have been exposed to medical or health-related misinformation.
Of those exposed, almost half are not confident in their ability to discriminate between true health information and misinformation.
Social media is cited as the most common source of misinformation.”
Family and friends are also a significant source of misinformation.
About healthcare IT
Healthcare organizations now must report cyberattacks to DHS: “Healthcare organizations will be required to report any cyberattacks to the Department of Homeland Security, under a law signed March 15 by President Joe Biden…
The new law, which is part of a broader government funding package, requires organizations in "critical sectors," or sectors considered vital to the U.S. economy, public health and safety, to inform the government of any ransomware or hacks. These organizations must make the attacks known within 72 hours of discovery and 24 hours of ransom payment. However, which specific companies within each sector are affected by this law is unknown yet.”
Massive digital health system for veterans plagued by patient safety risks, watchdog finds: “More than a year after a disastrous deployment at its first hospital, the $16 billion effort to modernize veterans’ medical records still poses grave safety risks to patients, from medication errors to failures to safeguard patients at high danger of suicide, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ internal watchdog reported Thursday.
Three reports on the project’s rollout in Spokane, Wash., cast doubt on how smoothly it will expand next week, when VA plans to bring its digital health records system to a second Washington hospital in Walla Walla, then accelerate implementation at other hospitals and clinics in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere by December.”