Tomorrow, April 22, 2023, is Earth day
About health insurance/insurers
Insurers say free preventive care will continue while lawsuit is appealed “‘The overwhelming majority [of our members] do not anticipate making changes to no-cost share preventive services, and do not expect disruptions in coverage of preventive care, while the case proceeds through the courts,’ according to the letter signed groups such as America’s Health Insurance Plans, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and the American Benefits Council.”
100 things to know about Blue Cross Blue Shield FYI
Criminal Charges Filed in Southern California Against Medical Professional, Owner of Medical Businesses, and Others for COVID-19 Fraud Schemes “The Department of Justice today announced criminal charges against 18 defendants in nine federal districts across the United States for their alleged participation in various fraud schemes involving health care services that exploited the COVID-19 pandemic and allegedly resulted in over $490 million in COVID-19 related false billings to federal programs and theft from federally funded pandemic programs.”
Read the article for more details. It gives more evidence that the federal government oversight of Covid-19 funding was inadequate.
About hospitals and healthcare systems
For the First Time, HHS Is Making Ownership Data for All Medicare-Certified Hospice and Home Health Agencies Publicly Available Yesterday, “in support of the President’s Executive Order on promoting competition and the Administration’s commitment to transparency, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is releasing ownership data for all Medicare-certified hospice and home health agencies. For the first time, anyone can now review detailed information on the ownership of more than 6,000 hospices and 11,000 home health agencies certified to participate in the Medicare program on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) website.”
About pharma
The top 20 pharma companies by 2022 revenue “For the first time in biopharma history, a company has topped the $100 billion mark in annual revenue. Pfizer passed that milestone, propelled by its massive haul from its COVID-19 products. Its BioNTech-partnered vaccine, Comirnaty, raked in $37.8 billion, and oral antiviral Paxlovid made $18.9 billion.
Subtract the COVID treatments from Pfizer’s top line and its revenue would be $43 billion, which is right in line with the company’s pre-pandemic sales. The Big Pharma's sales gradually increased from $40.8 billion in 2018 to $41.6 billion in 2020.
With its windfall, Pfizer displaced Johnson & Johnson as the industry’s No. 1 revenue generator. J&J had occupied that position for a decade and had been closing in on the $100 billion mark. Sales for 2021 and 2022 came in at $93.8 billion and $94.9 billion, respectively.”
Express Scripts aims to boost independent pharmacists in rural areas “The pharmacy benefit management giant said Thursday that the IndependentRx Initiative is designed to build on a slew of recently announced updates to its model that put a focus on greater transparency. The PBM said it will boost reimbursement to independent pharmacies that are the only location within 10 or more miles of an Express Scripts customer.”
About the public’s health
US traffic deaths drop slightly in 2022 but still a ‘crisis’ “The number of people killed on U.S. roadways decreased slightly last year, but government officials said the 42,795 people who died is still a national crisis.
Estimates by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showed that the number of fatalities dropped 0.3% from the 42,939 killed in 2021. Traffic deaths declined slightly in the fourth quarter, the third straight quarterly drop.
But they’re still close to 2021 numbers, which were the highest in 16 years.”