About Covid-19
This latest covid variant could be the best yet at evading immunity ICYMI: “While only about a dozen cases of the new BA.2.86 variant have been reported worldwide — including three in the United States — experts say this variant requires intense monitoring and vigilance that many of its predecessors did not. That’s because it has even greater potential to escape the antibodies that protect people from getting sick, even if you’ve recently been infected or vaccinated.
The latest variant does not appear to make people sicker than earlier iterations of the virus; antiviral treatments should still work against it and tests should still detect it, according to a risk assessment published Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s too soon to know whether the updated booster formula expected to come out next month that targets a different subvariant would be effective against this highly mutated one.”
About health insurance/insurers
Medicare Shared Savings Program Saves Medicare More Than $1.8 Billion in 2022 and Continues to Deliver High-quality Care From CMS: “…the program saved Medicare $1.8 billion in 2022 compared to spending targets for the year. This marks the sixth consecutive year the program has generated overall savings and high-quality performance results. This represents the second-highest annual savings accrued for Medicare since the program’s inception more than ten years ago.”
Cigna removes pre-authorization requirement for 25% of medical services The headline is the story.
About hospitals and healthcare systems
CDC launches new sepsis initiative for US hospitals “The CDC’s Hospital Sepsis Program Core Elements will act as a “manager’s guide” on how to organize staff and identify resources needed for bringing sepsis rates down, the agency said.
The initiative listed seven elements of a strong sepsis program: leadership commitment, accountability, multi-professional expertise, action, tracking, reporting, and education.”
Hospital Operating Margins Contract in July “Key trends for the month include:
Median hospital operating margins declined from June to July but held positive; the drop was the first since margins rose back into the black in March following more than a year of negative results
Non-labor expenses remained on the rise as inflation continued to drive sizable increases in hospitals’ supply, drug, and purchased services expenses compared to 2022
Patient volumes saw minimal movement across multiple metrics with changes in inpatient days, emergency, and surgery volumes nearly flat versus the same time last year
Investments needed to support physician practices continued to rise as practices felt the effects of ongoing expense increases occurring across the industry”
About pharma
Novo Nordisk's Wegovy offers "large" benefit to obese people with heart failure “Novo Nordisk said Friday that the use of Wegovy (semaglutide) in obese adults with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) led to "large" reductions in heart failure-related symptoms, physical limitations and improvements in exercise function, as well as greater weight loss, than placebo. The findings from the Phase III STEP HFpEF trial were presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) congress and published in the NEJM.”
J&J ends R&D at Janssen's infectious disease and vaccine unit “Multiple sources have told Fierce Biotech that the infectious disease and vaccine unit is closing completely, however, Janssen has insisted that the slimmed-down unit will continue operating. The company has previously declined to confirm layoffs associated with the move.”
About the public’s health
Vaccination Coverage Among Adolescents Aged 13–17 Years — National Immunization Survey–Teen, United States, 2022 “What is already known about this topic? Tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis vaccine, meningococcal conjugate vaccine, and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine are routinely recommended for children at age 11–12 years.
What is added by this report? Analyses of recent trends in routine vaccination coverage show declines in coverage by age 13 and 14 years among adolescents born in 2008. Among adolescents aged 13–17 years, routine vaccination coverage in 2022 was similar to coverage in 2021. Coverage with ≥1 HPV vaccine dose declined among adolescents insured by Medicaid.”
Lifestyle Behaviors and Cardiometabolic Diseases by Race and Ethnicity and Social Risk Factors Among US Young Adults, 2011 to 2018 “The prevalence of lifestyle risk factors and cardiometabolic diseases was high among US young adults and varied by race and ethnicity and social risk factors. Racial and ethnic disparities in the prevalence of cardiometabolic diseases were not fully explained by differences in social risk factors and lifestyle factors.”
About healthcare IT
Fewer, but larger, healthcare data breaches reported in 2023 with hackers often targeting 3rd parties “The healthcare industry has suffered fewer but larger cybersecurity breaches in the first half of 2023, suggesting a shift in targets and tactics among attackers, wrote cybersecurity firm Critical Insight in a new report.
The 308 healthcare data breaches reported to the federal government from January through June represent a 15% sequential decline from the back half of 2022’s 363, according to the report.
It puts the industry on pace to close the year with the fewest breaches since 2019, the firm wrote. The 202 reported breaches specifically targeting providers is similarly a cutback from the past three years’ breach frequency.
On the other hand, the number of individuals affected by these breaches has jumped from the 31 million of the second half of 2022 to a new record of 40 million, representing an average of 131,000 impacted individuals per breach…”