About Covid-19
Congress breaks for recess with $10B COVID-19 aid in limbo “U.S. lawmakers began their two-week recess without acting on a $10 billion COVID-19 relief package, which was agreed to by Senate negotiators and then blocked by Republican lawmakers the next day.
Senate negotiators agreed to a $10 billion COVID-19 aid package April 4, repurposing earlier unused COVID-19 funds. A day later, the legislative package was complicated by conflict over President Biden's immigration policy, with Republican senators calling for a vote on an amendment that would keep in place the Title 42 border restrictions, which allows limits on immigration due to the pandemic. The bill can't proceed without the vote, they say.”
Impact of U.S. COVID-19 Vaccination Efforts: An Update on Averted Deaths, Hospitalizations, and Health Care Costs Through March 2022 An update from the Commonwealth Fund: “Through March 2022, we estimate that COVID-19 vaccination efforts in the U.S. prevented over 2 million deaths and 17 million hospitalizations... There would have been an estimated 66 million additional infections and nearly $900 billion in associated health care costs in the absence of vaccination.”
Federal appeals court upholds Biden vaccine mandate for federal workers “A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled to uphold the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for federal workers, ordering that a preliminary injunction issued against the requirement be eliminated.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals’s 2-1 ruling reversed an earlier ruling by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown, a Trump appointee in Texas, who in January blocked the mandate for federal workers. The 5th Circuit Court further ordered that the district court dismiss the case.
Judge Carl Stewart, writing for the majority opinion, said plaintiffs in the case could have challenged the vaccine mandate through the federal government’s internal process for federal workers.”
About health insurance
Medicare finalizes its restrictions on new Alzheimer’s drug, despite pressure from drugmakers “Medicare on Thursday finalized its plan to restrict coverage for the controversial, pricey Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm to patients participating in clinical trials.
The decision marks the end of an intense pressure campaign from drugmakers and some patient groups who wanted Medicare to reverse its initial proposal and pay for the drug for more patients. As clinical trials are usually run out of major medical centers, the decision will likely mean some interested patients won’t be able to access the drug. However, Medicare isn’t explicitly requiring that patients be treated at hospital-based clinics like the initial proposal.”
CVS sells off health savings account arm PayFlex “CVS Health is selling off its health savings account business PayFlex to Millennium Trust, a bank that already offers retirement and financial services, but wants to expand into healthcare and benefits accounts.
PlayFlex covers 2.4 million members and 2,500 clients. With the deal, Millennium will reach 5 million individual client accounts and $47 billion in assets under administration.”
What if the American Rescue Plan Act Premium Tax Credits Expire? Another prediction/update on the impact of the tax credit expiration from the RWJ Foundation:
”Key Findings
Over 3 million more people (3.1M) could be uninsured in 2023 if the PTCs expire at the end of 2022, as planned.
Non-Hispanic Black individuals, young adults, and people with incomes between 138 and 400 percent of the federal poverty line would experience the largest coverage losses.
Individuals and families enrolled in the Marketplaces or other nongroup coverage will pay hundreds of dollars more per person each year in premiums if the PTCs expire. People currently eligible for PTCs with incomes between 150 and 400 percent of the federal poverty level would pay over $1,000 more per person for a silver plan. People with incomes above 400 percent of the federal poverty level who lose eligibility would pay roughly $2,000 more per year.
Extending the enhanced PTCs will increase the federal deficit by $305 billion over 10 years, unless legislation extending the PTCs includes raising revenue.
About hospitals and healthcare systems
M&A Quarterly Activity Report: Q1 2022 From KaufmanHall: “The size of the transactions was smaller than usual and represented a departure from what we have seen during most of the pandemic. For all of 2021, the average size of the seller or smaller party to the transaction reached a historic high of $619 million, driven by the highest percentage of mega transactions seen in the past six years. For Q1 2022, average size of the smaller party was $246 million (Figure 2). In addition to the four transactions with smaller party revenues below $100 million, another six had revenues between $100 million and $500 million, and two had revenues between $500 million and $1 billion.”
The number of mergers and acquisitions is the lowest of any first quarter since tracking started in 2016.
About the public’s health
U.S. life expectancy continued to drop in 2021, new analysis shows “Life expectancy in the United States, which declined dramatically in 2020 as the coronavirus slammed into the country, continued to go down in 2021, according to a new analysis that shows the United States faring worse during the pandemic than 19 other wealthy countries — and failing to see a life expectancy rebound despite the arrival of effective vaccines.
The study, written by public health experts in Colorado, Virginia and D.C. and posted online but not yet peer-reviewed, found that the continued decline in life expectancy in 2021 came largely among White Americans.”
Fertility Rates: Declined for Younger Women, Increased for Older Women “The analysis, which looked at Census Bureau and National Center for Health Statistics data, shows fertility rates of women ages 20-24 declined by 43%, while those of women ages 35-39 increased by 67% during the roughly 30-year period.”
About healthcare personnel
Nurse Practitioner, No. 1 Ranked Health Care Job, Reports Increase in Numbers “The American Association of Nurse Practitioners® (AANP) today released new data showing the current number of nurse practitioners (NPs) licensed to practice in the United States has risen to more than 355,000, an increase of 9% from the estimated 325,000 reported in May 2021…
By 2026, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the NP role will have grown by 36%.”
About healthcare finance
Pfizer boosts respiratory drug portfolio with ReViral purchase “Pfizer Inc said on Thursday it would buy privately-held ReViral Ltd in a deal worth as much as $525 million including milestone payments, to gain access to experimental drugs against the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
The deal marks the U.S. drugmaker's second acquisition in less than six months to boost its drug portfolio, after a $6.7 billion takeover of Arena Pharmaceuticals in December.”
AmerisourceBergen launches $150M venture fund for emerging healthcare companies “The wholesale giant's new VC fund, called AB Health Ventures, will initially look to invest in early to midstage health-related startups both in the U.S. and abroad. The fund will prioritize investments in startups focused on innovation in pharmacy and distribution, clinical development and commercialization of pharmaceuticals, practice solutions for healthcare providers and animal health, executives said in a press release.”