About hospitals and healthcare systems
America's Best Hospitals2023 America's 250 Best Hospitals Latest from Healthgrades.
100 of the largest hospitals and health systems in America | 2023 FYI
Dual-eligible patients impact hospitals' star ratings, but blanket methodology adjustments aren't the answer, researchers say “By comparing the average scores of over 3,000 facilities for each of the five measure groups [mortality, readmission, patient experience, safety, and timely and efficient care], policy researchers found that worse scores weren’t a constant across hospitals with higher portions of dual-eligible patients (those eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid).
Specifically, while readmission and patient experience scores were worse among hospitals with the highest proportion of dual-eligibles, the analysis also found that these hospitals scored higher on average across CMS’ mortality measures in 2021. Performances across the remaining two measures were ‘generally similar’ with a slight edge to hospitals with very small proportions of dual-eligibles.”
Read the entire article for the “full picture.”
2022 M&A in Review: Regaining Momentum “With 17 announced transactions, the fourth quarter of 2022 was one of the most active quarters we have seen since the COVID-19 pandemic began near the end of Q1 2020. Four of the 17 announced transactions met our definition of “mega merger,” in which the smaller party has annual revenues in excess of $1 billion, and a fifth had a smaller party with revenues in the $500 million to $1 billion range. This was the third consecutive quarter in 2022 in which the average size of the smaller party across all announced transactions exceeded $800 million. As a result, the average smaller party size for the entire year reached an historic high of $852 million, well above 2021’s then-record size of $619 million.”
Read the rest of the article for stats on the entire year.
About pharma
Pfizer pledges to sell all its products at cost to poor countries “Pfizer has expanded its program to provide drugs at cost to the world’s poorest countries from 23 patented medicines to its entire suite of approximately 500 products.”
Protesting 'punitive' clawbacks, AbbVie and Eli Lilly bow out of British drug pricing scheme “AbbVie and Eli Lilly have exited the U.K.’s Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access (VPAS), a government-industry accord that traces its roots to NHS’ formation, according to local trade group The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI).
The move, which was prompted by a recent spike in government repayment rates, should send a ‘warning signal’ to the U.K. that pharma companies may be unwilling to shoulder ‘increasingly punitive revenue clawbacks,’ ABPI said in a release.”
Bayer cites "innovation unfriendly" Europe in pharma focus shift to US, China “Bayer's pharma division head Stefan Oelrich says ‘big mistakes’ by EU and UK policy makers are turning the continent into an ‘innovation unfriendly’ place to do business, and prompting the company to shift the focus of its drug unit elsewhere instead, according to a report in the Financial Times. ‘European governments are trying to create incentives for research investments, but they are making our lives miserable on the commercial side,’ Oelrich said, adding ‘if you have no sales, you can benefit on the cost side as much as you want, but it is not a good equation.’
As a result, Oelrich says Bayer is ‘deprioritising Europe to some degree’ and focusing on the US and China, where the company's pharma division has already established a sizeable presence.”
About healthcare personnel
Medical Residents Unionize Over Pay, Working Conditions “Physicians-in-training at top teaching hospitals across the country are joining unions, demanding higher pay and better working conditions.
The Committee of Interns and Residents, the largest group representing doctors in residency and fellowship programs, said it added chapters at five teaching hospitals last year and two in 2021, up from a prepandemic pace of roughly one a year. CIR, which is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, said it represents about 15% of the nation’s 140,000 residents and fellows.”