About healthcare quality
The Volume and Cost of Quality Metric Reporting “Preparing and reporting data for 162 unique quality metrics required an estimated 108 478 person-hours, costing an estimated $5 038 218.28 (2022 USD) in personnel costs plus an additional $602 730.66 in vendor fees. Claims-based and chart-abstracted metrics used the most resources per metric, while electronic metrics consumed far less.”
About health insurance/insurers
Appeals court to hear arguments about ObamaCare preventive coverage “A federal appeals court will hear arguments Tuesday about whether to continue a pause of a Texas district court’s ruling that struck down an ObamaCare provision requiring insurers to cover preventive services for free.
Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit temporarily paused Judge Reed O’Connor’s decision until a panel could hear oral arguments on whether the pause should be continued during the appeals process.”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
Capital Costs Rise For Critical-Access, Acute-Care Hospitals, Analysis Indicates “‘In a Modern Healthcare analysis of cost reports for hospitals filing from 2018 through 2022, median net capital costs for critical-access hospitals increased almost 17%, while those for acute-care hospitals rose only 1% over the same period.’ Meanwhile, ‘overall operating expenses for critical-access hospitals and acute-care hospitals increased at a faster rate than capital costs over the same period.’”
About pharma
Merck sues US government to halt Medicare drug price negotiation “Merck & Co sued the U.S. government on Tuesday, seeking to halt the Medicare drug price negotiation program contained in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which it argues violates the Fifth and First Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
This is the first attempt by a drugmaker to challenge the law, which the pharmaceutical industry says will result in a loss of profits that will force them to pull back on developing groundbreaking new treatments.”
About health technology
Illumina appeals FTC order to divest cancer test maker Grail “Illumina on Monday filed an appeal against a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) order, demanding that it divest cancer diagnostic test maker Grail over competition concerns in the U.S. market for cancer tests.”