About health insurance/insurers
Moody's: Insurers should expect slower earnings growth this year “The report found that earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization growth for publicly traded insurers was 12% for the full year 2022. Their financial performance got a boost from suspended Medicaid redeterminations, reduced COVID-19 costs and strong growth on the Affordable Care Act's (ACA's) exchanges.
The analysts expect that earnings growth this year will slow compared to 2022 as the redeterminations resume but that Medicare Advantage (MA) will remain a bright spot.”
Medicaid/CHIP Enrollment Will Grow To Nearly 95M by the End of March, Analysis Predicts “By the end of March, Medicaid/CHIP enrollment will have grown by 23.3 million members since the start of the pandemic, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report. This is largely due to the continuous enrollment provision enacted during the pandemic, which barred states from disenrolling members and is set to expire March 31.”
About pharma
Accelerated approval drug labels often lack information for clinical decision making “253 clinical indications corresponding to 146 drugs received accelerated approval. We identified a total of 110 accelerated approval indications across 62 drugs that had not received full approval by December 31, 2020. A total of 13% of labels for accelerated approved indications lacked sufficient information that approval was via the accelerated approval or based on surrogate outcome measures: 7% did not mention accelerated approval but described surrogate markers, 4% did not mention accelerated approval nor describe surrogate markers, and 2% mentioned accelerated approval but did not describe surrogate markers. No label described the clinical outcomes being evaluated in post-approval commitment trials.”
About the public’s health
Trust In US Federal, State, And Local Public Health Agencies During COVID-19: Responses And Policy Implications “Public health agencies’ ability to protect health in the wake of COVID-19 largely depends on public trust. In February 2022 we conducted a first-of-its-kind nationally representative survey of 4,208 US adults to learn the public’s reported reasons for trust in federal, state, and local public health agencies. Among respondents who expressed a ‘great deal’ of trust, that trust was not related primarily to agencies’ ability to control the spread of COVID-19 but, rather, to beliefs that those agencies made clear, science-based recommendations and provided protective resources. Scientific expertise was a more commonly reported reason for “a great deal” of trust at the federal level, whereas perceptions of hard work, compassionate policy, and direct services were emphasized more at the state and local levels. Although trust in public health agencies was not especially high, few respondents indicated that they had no trust. Lower trust was related primarily to respondents’ beliefs that health recommendations were politically influenced and inconsistent. The least trusting respondents also endorsed concerns about private-sector influence and excessive restrictions and had low trust in government overall. Our findings suggest the need to support a robust federal, state, and local public health communications infrastructure; ensure agencies’ authority to make science-based recommendations; and develop strategies for engaging different segments of the public.” Emphasis added.
About health technology
U.S. FDA clears Abbott's blood test for concussions “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared Abbott Laboratories' blood test that would help doctors assess traumatic brain injury (TBI), commonly known as concussions, the company said on Tuesday.
The clearance marks the first commercially available laboratory blood test for TBI, according to the company, helping the doctors to rule out need for a CT scan in patients with mild TBI.”