Risant Health launches with Geisinger “In an innovative move designed to improve the health of communities, achieve better health care outcomes, and improve health care affordability, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Geisinger Health are announcing the launch of Risant Health and a definitive agreement to make Geisinger the first health system to join Risant Health to expand access to value-based care in more communities across the country. Upon regulatory approval, Geisinger becomes part of the new organization through acquisition.
Risant Health is a new nonprofit organization, created by Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, to expand and accelerate the adoption of value-based care in diverse, multi-payer, multi-provider, community-based health system environments. Risant Health’s vision is to improve the health of millions of people by increasing access to value-based care and coverage and raising the bar for value-based approaches that prioritize patient quality outcomes. In addition to Geisinger, Risant Health will grow its impact by acquiring and connecting a portfolio of like-minded, nonprofit, value-oriented community-based health systems anchored in their respective communities.
Health systems that become part of Risant Health will continue to operate as regional or community-based health systems serving and meeting the needs of their communities, providers and health plans while gaining expertise, resources, and support through Risant Health’s value-based platform. Risant Health will operate separately and distinctly from Kaiser Permanente’s core integrated care and coverage model while building upon Kaiser Permanente’s 80 years of expertise in value-based care.”
About health insurance/insurers
Humana posts stronger-than-expected Q1 earnings with robust membership growth “Humana had a strong start to 2023 bringing in $1.2 billion in net income, or $9.87 a share, in the first quarter, up from $930 million, or $7.29 a share, a year ago…
Humana said in a statement that its first-quarter 2023 performance was underpinned by robust membership growth and favorable inpatient utilization trends in the individual Medicare Advantage (MA) business.”
Medicaid work requirements could toss 600,000 enrollees off insurance “Roughly 600,000 low-income Americans could lose their health insurance if House Republicans' proposal to require certain Medicaid enrollees to work is signed into law, according to new estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.
The provision, included in GOP leadership’s bill to raise the debt ceiling, would save the federal government about $109 billion over the next decade, according to a letter nonpartisan congressional scorekeepers sent to House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington(R-Tex.) yesterday.
By the numbers:
—The nonpartisan agency estimates that roughly 15 million Medicaid enrollees would be subject to the work requirement, though many would qualify for an exemption.
—An average of 1.5 million adults are predicted to fail to meet the work requirement
—Of them, the CBO expects that about 900,000 enrollees live in states that would likely foot the bill to preserve their coverage.
—The remaining 600,000 are estimated to become uninsured.”
And in a related story:
White House warns 21 million Americans at risk of losing Medicaid under GOP proposal “As many as 21 million Americans could be at risk of losing their Medicaid coverage under the House GOP’s work requirement proposal, according to a new Biden administration analysis shared exclusively with Vox.
The projections are both a warning about the potential consequences of the strict reporting requirements Republicans are contemplating and ammunition for Democrats in the upcoming negotiations over raising the federal debt limit.
The House’s work requirement proposal — dubbed a “community engagement” requirement in the bill’s text — would mandate that many Medicaid recipients work, look for work, or participate in another kind of community service for at least 20 hours per week (though some conservatives want that number to be even higher).”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
Universal Health Services boasts $163M profit in Q1 driven by acute, behavioral volume increases “Major volume gains across both its acute and behavioral care businesses led Universal Health Services (UHS) to a $163.1 million profit for the opening frame of 2023, the King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based company announced Tuesday after market close.
The for-profit’s latest numbers are a $9.2 million boost over the first quarter of 2022’s $153.9 million net income…
The revenue and volume gains put UHS in line with fellow for-profits HCA Healthcare and Tenet Healthcare. Both companies enjoyed stronger-than-expected performances during the first quarter and have updated their full-year guidance to reflect what they described as continued recovery momentum.”
About pharma
Quantity of Melatonin and CBD in Melatonin Gummies Sold in the US This article highlights the great variance in OTC product ingredients.
“…25 products were analyzed. One product did not contain detectable levels of melatonin but did contain 31.3 mg of CBD. In the remaining products, the quantity of melatonin ranged from 1.3 mg to 13.1 mg per serving size. In products that contained melatonin, the actual quantity of melatonin ranged from 74% to 347% of the labeled quantity. Twenty-two of 25 products (88%) were inaccurately labeled, and only 3 products (12%) contained a quantity of melatonin that was within ±10% of the declared quantity. Five products declared CBD as an ingredient, and the quantity of CBD ranged from 10.6 mg to 31.3 mg per serving. The actual quantity of CBD ranged from 104% to 118% of the labeled quantity.”
National trends in prescription drug expenditures and projections for 2023 “For 2023, we expect overall prescription drug spending to rise by 6.0% to 8.0%, whereas in clinics and hospitals we anticipate increases of 8.0% to 10.0% and 1.0% to 3.0%, respectively, compared to 2022. These national estimates of future pharmaceutical expenditure growth may not be representative of any particular health system because of the myriad of local factors that influence actual spending.”
About the public’s health
How and why does exercise improve cognitive function? “Recently, researchers conducted a series of in vitro experiments — experiments in cell cultures — to understand how exercise changes hippocampal cells.”
“They found that contracting muscle cells release chemical signals that increase neuronal growth and firing.
They also found that support cells known as astrocytes prevent neurons exposed to chemical signals from muscle cells from excessive electrical signaling.”
About healthcare IT
Healthcare Cybersecurity Benchmarking Study (Select Download Whitepaper) A great review of this topic. The big takeaway is that cyber security is so much more than addressing email hacking and organizations are usually reactive than proactive.
”Survey results indicate that healthcare organizations are still mostly reactive rather than proactive when it comes to cybersecurity, especially when it comes to identifying cybersecurity risks. Of the six categories within the Identify function, organizations have particularly low coverage in Supply Chain Risk Management, Asset Management, and Risk Management. More than 40% of organizations are not compliant with conducting response and recovery planning with suppliers and third-party providers…
[For example:] Regardless of size, organizations report the highest coverage for email protection. For most of the metrics that fall under email protection, more than half of organizations report 100% coverage. On the other hand, medical device security is an area of industry-wide vulnerability, with average coverage barely over 50%.”
Black Book Rankings of Virtual Healthcare Platforms Select the top tab. Also check out the other rankings. You do not have to sign up, just select the X in the upper right hand corner.
About health technology
GE HealthCare shares slide despite revenue growth An addendum to yesterday’s report on this topic:
GE HealthCare, the medical device and software company that recently spun off from parent company General Electric, saw revenue beat Wall Street's expectations and grow 8% to $4.7 billion year over year. But net income was down to $372 million in the first quarter from $389 million a year ago. Profit margins fell to 7.9%, which the company says was primarily caused by interest expenses related to GE HealthCare's long-term debt. When GE HealthCare spun off from General Electric at the beginning of the year, it disclosed it carried $10.25 billion in debt.”