About Covid-19
With COVID on the rise, your at-home test may be taking longer to show a positive result “It used to be that someone might test positive for the coronavirus one or two days after the onset of symptoms using a rapid test, Hudson said. Now, positive results might not show up until the fourth day after symptoms start.
The delay in accurate test results is probably a result of people having accumulated immunity from COVID-19 over the years, whether from vaccinations or previous infections.”
About health insurance/insurers
Medicaid Enrollment and Unwinding Tracker “At least 14,377,000 Medicaid enrollees have been disenrolled as of January 9, 2024, based on the most current data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia…
There is wide variation in disenrollment rates across reporting states, ranging from 62% in Texas to 10% in Maine…
Across all states with available data, 71% of all people disenrolled had their coverage terminated for procedural reasons.”
CMS rejected 1 in 3 Medicare Advantage ads in 2023 “The agency told Politico around 80% of the rejected ads were from third-party marketing organizations.
2023 was the first year CMS required advertisers to submit television spots to the agency for prior approval to prevent misleading marketing. Over 9,500 advertisements for Medicare Advantage plans appear on the airwaves each day during the open enrollment period, according to KFF estimates.”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
DECEMBER 2023 National Hospital Flash Report “Key Takeaways
1. Hospital performance in November signals continued stabilization and growth. Operating margins improved compared to the previous month and last year, and other data points indicate movement towards recovery, though the gap between high and low performers remains quite wide.
2. Revenue per adjusted discharge has increased while total expense per adjusted discharge has
decreased month-over-month and year-over-year—a sign of financial recovery. This reflects the
efforts organizations have taken to deliver care in the most effective settings and reduce reliance on
contract labor where possible.
3. Average length of stay declined indicating a shift towards more normal patient acuity.
Organizations that have adopted value-based and bundled payment models will benefit further as
they transition and provide care at the appropriate clinical setting.”
About pharma
Rite Aid gets court approval for $575 million Elixir sale “Pharmacy chain Rite Aid Corp… received bankruptcy court approval to sell its Elixir pharmacy benefit manager business for $575 million.
Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy in October with an agreement to sell the Elixir business to pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) MedImpact Healthcare Systems for that price.”
About the public’s health
Researchers find a massive number of plastic particles in bottled water “Microscopic pieces of plastic are everywhere. Now, they've been found in bottled water in concentrations 10 to 100 times more than previously estimated.
Researchers from Columbia University and Rutgers University found roughly 240,000 detectable plastic fragments in a typical liter of bottled water. The study was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”
Biden administration rescinds much of Trump ‘conscience’ rule for health workers “The Biden administration will largely undo a Trump-era rule that boosted the rights of medical workers to refuse to perform abortions or other services that conflicted with their religious or moral beliefs.
The final rule released Tuesday partially rescinds the Trump administration’s 2019 policy that would have stripped federal funding from health facilities that required workers to provide any service they objected to, such as abortions, contraception, gender-affirming care and sterilization.”
About healthcare IT
In the fight over abortion rights, the government bans its first company from tracking medical visits “The Biden administration stopped a company from selling data on people’s medical visits on Tuesday, its first settlement on a privacy issue that has many Americans concerned about who can see their most sensitive personal data — particularly visits to abortion providers.
After an investigation, the Federal Trade Commission said it had reached a settlement with Outlogic, a location data broker formerly known as X-Mode Social, which had been collecting information on people’s visits to medical centers…
According to the FTC, in one contract, Outlogic collected location data on people who visited certain medical facilities and then went to pharmacies or specialty infusion centers, and the data broker then shared its information with a clinical research company for marketing and advertising.”
About healthcare personnel
Multistate Licensure for Docs, Others Continues to Gain Steam “For physicians, the ability to practice in multiple states has been simplified through the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact (IMLC), a project coordinated in part by the Federation of State Medical Boards. A total of 39 states as well as Guam and the District of Columbia currently participate in the compact, which "is an agreement among participating U.S. states and territories to work together to significantly streamline the licensing process for physicians who want to practice in multiple states," according to the IMLC Commission…
In 2022, more than 17% of all licenses issued to physicians were issued through the compact process, according to the commission's fiscal year 2023 annual reportopens in a new tab or window. In fiscal year 2023, the compact processed more than 19,000 applications, and nearly 31,000 licenses were issued through the compact's process.”
About health technology
The Future of People-Centred Health Innovation OECD High-Level Policy Forum 22 January 2024, available by signing up for remote viewing.
Nanowear gets FDA clearance for undergarment that estimates blood pressure “Dive Brief:
Nanowear has received 510(k) clearance for AI-enabled software that allows its wearable undergarment to estimate blood pressure.
The Food and Drug Administration decision covers software that processes electrocardiogram (ECG) data, heart sounds and thoracic impedance captured by the Simplesense wearable device to monitor blood pressure at home, in healthcare facilities and during medical research.
Nanowear is pitching the software as the “first non-invasive, cuffless, continuous blood pressure monitor, and diagnostic.” The company cited Biobeat Technologies’ wrist and chest monitor as a predicate blood pressure device in its 510(k) filing.”
About healthcare finance
Payer M&A deals to watch in 2024 FYI