About Covid-19
FDA restricts J&J’s COVID-19 vaccine due to blood clot risk “The Food and Drug Administration said the shot should only be given to adults who cannot receive a different vaccine or specifically request J&J’s vaccine. U.S. authorities for months have recommended that Americans get Pfizer or Moderna shots instead of J&J’s vaccine.
FDA’s vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks said the agency decided to restrict the vaccine after taking another look at the data on the risks of life-threatening blood clots and concluding that they are limited to J&J’s vaccine.”
About health insurance
UnitedHealthcare rolls out new virtual physical therapy program “UnitedHealthcare has partnered with Kaia Health on a new virtual physical therapy program.
The program aims to offer 24/7, on-demand exercise feedback to eligible members with musculoskeletal conditions, the health insurance giant said. Members who are recovering from surgery or an injury will be asked to complete an assessment of current issues and will be referred to the program based on that assessment.
Eligible members will then be able to download Kaia's app to access its physical therapy tools, which use artificial intelligence to support patients through physical therapy exercise and monitor progress.
The app tracks motion in real time to offer suggestions using the mobile phone's camera rather than a wearable device.”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
Sutter Health sees $95M operational profit in Q1 2022, but drops to a $184M loss after poor investments “Sutter Health kicked off the year’s first quarter with higher year-over-year operating revenues and operating income, but ultimately recorded a $184 million loss for the period thanks to a troubled investment market, according to financial statements for the three months ended March 31.
The Sacramento-based nonprofit increased its first-quarter total operating revenues 3.7% year over year ($126 million) to nearly $3.6 billion.”
This finding is unusual; more frequently hospitals have negative operating margins which are made up by investment gains and charitable donations. Therefore, the recent market declines could significantly affect hospitals’ financial ability to operate.
One Medical's Q1 revenue doubles as primary care company expands into chronic care, behavioral health This article is, unfortunately, too typical of reporting on such companies.
It starts out saying: “Tech-enabled primary care provider One Medical saw its total membership count jump nearly 30% to 767,000 by the end of March, a nearly 30% increase year over year.
The company's top line doubled from a year ago, as One Medical brought in $254 million in revenue in the first quarter, up 109% from $121 million in the first quarter of 2021. The company's first-quarter revenue exceeded the high end of its guidance range by more than $4 million.”
After more rosy reportage, 16 paragraphs later, the article explains: “Yet the primary care provider deepened its losses in the first quarter, with a loss of $91 million, or a loss per share of 47 cents, compared to a loss of $39 million, or 29 cents a share a year ago. One Medical's earnings missed Wall Street estimates, with analysts expecting a loss per share of 46 cents.
Adjusted EBITDA came in at a loss of $29 million in the quarter, compared to a gain of $4 million a year ago.”
6 WAYS TO REDUCE FINANCIAL DISTRESS IN HEALTHCARE From BDO. Two statistics I found particularly disturbing:
—“42% of healthcare CFOs have defaulted on their bond or loan covenants in the past 12 months. Interestingly, 25% say they have not defaulted but are concerned they will default in the next year…
—84% of healthcare CFOs say supply chain disruption is a risk in 2022.”
About pharma
After 2 years, Sanofi's drug ingredients spinoff takes flight “Two years and one pandemic after Sanofi unveiled plans to spin off its European drug ingredients business, EUROAPI has debuted on the Euronext exchange. Shares in the new active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) outfit rose more than 3% in early trading despite a wider market slump.
EUROAPI is touting its position as a ‘leading player’ on the API scene. Its launch comes as COVID-19 and, more recently, the war in Ukraine expose gaps in the world’s pharmaceutical supply chain. Many of the ingredients the pharmaceutical industry relies on are made in countries like China and India.”
Trends of Prescription Drug Manufacturer Rebates in Commercial Health Insurance Plans, 2015-2019 “Results of this economic evaluation show that from 2015 to 2019, the growth of prerebate prescription drug costs (used for patients’ cost sharing) outpaced the growth of postrebate drug costs for all 3 commercial plan types. The consistently negative association between prerebate drug cost PCL [per covered life] per year and Rebate% documented in this study might reflect the fact that many expensive drugs with little competition rarely offer large manufacturer rebates.”
About the public’s health
Age at Initiation of Lower Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and Colorectal Cancer Risk Among US Women “ In this cohort study of 111 801 US women, compared with no endoscopy, initiation of endoscopy before 50 years of age was associated with reduced risk of colorectal cancer and specifically colorectal cancer diagnosed before 55 years of age. Initiation of endoscopy from 45 to 49 years of age was associated with a greater reduction in the absolute risk of colorectal cancer through 60 years of age compared with initiation from 50 to 54 years of age…
These findings support guidelines recommending initiation of colorectal cancer screening before 50 years of age among women.”
About healthcare IT
Hospital, payer, IT groups urge Congress to overturn ban on unique patient identifier “Dive Brief:
Members of the healthcare industry are once again pressuring Congress to remove what they say is a major pain point in their operations and in the delivery of patient care: the ban on a nationwide unique patient identifier.
Almost 120 health IT groups, EHR vendors, hospitals, physicians and health insurers sent letters on Wednesday to House and Senateappropriators urging them to remove decades-old rider language in a 2023 appropriations bill that prevents the HHS from spending federal dollars to create or adopt a UPI standard.”