About Covid-19
Biden Administration Plans to Offer Updated Booster Shots in September “The Biden administration now expects to begin a Covid-19 booster campaign with retooled vaccines in September because Pfizer and Moderna have promised that they can deliver doses by then, according to people familiar with the deliberations.
With updated formulations apparently close at hand, federal officials have decided against expanding eligibility for second boosters of the existing vaccines this summer. The new versions are expected to perform better against the now-dominant Omicron subvariant BA.5, although the data available so far is still preliminary.”
About health insurance
More in U.S. Retiring, or Planning to Retire, Later According to a recent Gallup poll:
”Average expected retirement age among nonretirees now 66, vs. 60 in 1995
Average retirement age among retirees up to 61, from 57 in the 1990s
Percentage of adults aged 55 to 74 who are retired is declining”
These findings are great news for funding the Medicare Part A fund and also delays Medicare expenses (since Medicare is secondary to employer-sponsored insurance.)
The Uninsured Rate Is Down, Just In Time For Congress To Debate Health Care Again “The percentage of Americans without health insurance has fallen again, according to a government study released early Thursday…
The study was a long-planned, regular update to the National Health Insurance Survey, one of several tools that government and independent researchers use to assess health coverage in America. The study found that the percentage of Americans without health insurance has declined by 1.5 percentage points in the past year, from 9.5% in the first quarter of 2021 to 8% in the first quarter of 2022.”
U.S. says insurers must still cover birth control after Supreme Court abortion ruling “The Biden administration on Thursday warned U.S. businesses and health insurance providers that limiting coverage of contraceptives, after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned the constitutional right to abortion, would violate federal law.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued guidance clarifying that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly known as Obamacare, requires insurance plans to provide free birth control and family-planning counseling to insured individuals and their dependents.”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
HCA hit with SEC complaint, antitrust suit “On July 27, the city of Asheville, N.C., and Buncombe County filed a lawsuit against HCA and Mission Health, which is owned by HCA. The lawsuit alleges the health systems have engaged in anti-competitive practices. It is the third lawsuit of its kind filed against HCA and Mission in less than a year by entities in Western North Carolina, according to the Citizen Times.”
CMS Reported Collecting Just Over Half of the $498 Million in Medicare Overpayments Identified by OIG Audits “Of the $498 million in Medicare overpayments identified in HHS-OIG audit reports issued during our audit period that CMS sustained, CMS reported that it had collected only $272 million (55 percent) and that it had not collected $226 million (45 percent). Further, CMS provided documentation sufficient to support that it had collected only $120 million of the $272 million. CMS did not provide adequate documentation to support that it had collected the remaining $152 million….
In addition, CMS did not take corrective action in response to all of the recommendations made in our prior audit report, Obstacles to Collection of Millions in Medicare Overpayments. In that audit report, issued on May 18, 2012, we made six recommendations (listed in Appendix D) and CMS agreed to implement four of them. Of those four recommendations, CMS implemented two, partially implemented one, and did not implement one.”
CMS did not agree with the report, resulting in more back and forth between it and the OIG.
About pharma
Vizient Projects 3.26% Drug Price Inflation Rate for 2023 in Latest Pharmacy Market Outlook Read the entire report for details; one bright spot for cost savings is the coming generics and biosimilar/biobetters. Still, biologicals are driving increased costs overall.
Pfizer posts record quarterly sales, driven by Comirnaty, Paxlovid The article has a breakdown of sales by products.
Customers are interested in routine healthcare services at their pharmacies: Among pharmacy customers who are interested in receiving routine healthcare services, 33% are interested in vision and hearing services and 27% are interested in physical exams and routine lab tests at their local retail pharmacies. However, most customers recognize their pharmacies are not currently offering these services.
Health and wellness service utilization associated with higher loyalty and brand advocacy: On average, 52% of customers who rely on their pharmacies for health and wellness services say they will not switch pharmacies. This compares with just 45% among those who have not used their pharmacy’s health and wellness services. Likewise, Net Promoter Scores®[3] are 14 points higher when customers use health and wellness services.
Watch out for Amazon: Nearly two-thirds (66%) of brick-and-mortar pharmacy customers currently have an Amazon Prime account and nearly half (48%) of pharmacy customers are aware of pharmacy services offered by Amazon. To date, 14% of those who are aware of Amazon’s Pharmacy Services have used Pill Pack filled through Amazon Pharmacy. Of that group, 38% say they “definitely will” switch pharmacies in the next 12 months.
Mobile apps could become prescription management battleground: Among brick-and-mortar customers who use their pharmacy’s mobile app, 59% use the app to manage prescription refills and 57% use the app to view prescriptions. Overall satisfaction among those who have used their pharmacy’s mobile app six or more times in the past 12 months is 715 (on a 1,000-point scale), which is 32 points higher than among those who used the app up to five times. Frequent app users are also less likely to say they will switch pharmacy providers.”
See the report for preferred pharmacy rankings.
About the public’s health
Association of Ultraprocessed Food Consumption With Risk of Dementia Another cohort study by this group, using the UK biobank. (See yesterday’s post about activity and dementia).
”There has been a growing body of evidence associating consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) with adverse health outcomes including depression, cardiovascular disease, all-cause mortality. However, whether UPF are associated with dementia is unknown….
In this prospective cohort study, higher consumption of UPF was associated with higher risk of dementia, while substituting unprocessed or minimally processed foods for UPF was associated lower risk of dementia.”
Chronic Conditions Among Adults Aged 18─34 Years — United States, 2019 Despite the date, the CDC published this report today.
”In 2019, 53.8% of adults aged 18─34 years had at least one chronic condition, and 22.3% had more than one condition. Prevalence of any as well as specific chronic conditions varied by population subgroup.”
Specifics about the conditions are in the article.
Assessment of Lung Cancer Risk Among Smokers for Whom Annual Screening Is Not Recommended “What is the risk of lung cancer among smokers for whom annual low-dose computed tomography screening is not recommended?
In this cohort study of 4279 individuals 65 years and older who were followed up for a median (IQR) of 13.3 (7.9-18.8) years, former smokers with a 20 pack-year or greater smoking history who quit 15 or more years before baseline and current smokers with less than 20 pack-years of smoking (2 groups not recommended for lung cancer screening) had a 10-fold greater risk of lung cancer than never smokers.
These findings suggest that there is a need to develop and test prediction models to identify high-risk subsets of these smokers for lung cancer screening and highlight the importance of abstinence and early cessation.”
About healthcare IT
Amazon.com Announces Second Quarter Results Highlights:
Operating cash flow decreased 40% to $35.6 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $59.3 billion for the trailing twelve months ended June 30, 2021.
Net sales increased 7% to $121.2 billion in the second quarter, compared with $113.1 billion in second quarter 2021. Excluding the $3.6 billion unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales increased 10% compared with second quarter 2021.
Operating income decreased to $3.3 billion in the second quarter, compared with $7.7 billion in second quarter 2021.
Net loss was $2.0 billion in the second quarter, or $0.20 per diluted share, compared with net income of $7.8 billion, or $0.76 per diluted share, in second quarter 2021. Second quarter 2022 net loss includes a pre-tax valuation loss of $3.9 billion included in non-operating expense from our common stock investment in Rivian Automotive, Inc.”