About Covid-19
Study Finds Paxlovid Treatment Does Not Reduce Risk of Long COVID “A team of researchers from UC San Francisco has found that Paxlovid (Nirmatrelvir-ritonavir) did not reduce the risk of developing long COVID for vaccinated, non-hospitalized individuals during their first COVID-19 infection. They also found a higher proportion of individuals than previously reported with rebound symptoms and test-positivity after taking Paxlovid.
The study appears Jan. 4, 2024, in the Journal of Medical Virology.”
Inpatient Costs of Treating Patients With COVID-19 “Findings In this cross-sectional study of more than 1.3 million inpatient stays across the US, the adjusted direct cost to provide treatment increased from $10 394 at the end of March 2020 to $13 072 by March 2022, on average, adjusting for patient, stay, and hospital-level characteristics. Significant heterogeneity in costs by the comorbid conditions across US geographic regions and by patient discharge status were observed.
Meaning The findings of this study suggest that average hospital cost to provide inpatient treatment during the largest pandemic in more than 100 years in the US increased 26% over a 2-year period; costs to provide inpatient care increased even as care practices changed, vaccination rates increased, and the variants of concern evolved.”
About health insurance/insurers
Elevance's deal to buy Paragon Healthcare valued at over $1 billion “Elevance Health will buy private firm Paragon Healthcare for more than $1 billion, according to three people familiar with the matter, Axios reported on Thursday.
The health insurer had said earlier on Thursday it would acquire Paragon Healthcare, but did not disclose the financials of the deal.
After the acquisition, Paragon, which provides drug infusion services to patients at home and at its centres, will operate as part of CarelonRx, the pharmacy services segment within Elevance's health services division, Carelon.”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
Hospitals face more credit rating downgrades ahead, Fitch says “While 2023 didn’t face the same intensity of challenges as its predecessor, namely higher labor costs and disappointing revenues, not-for-profit hospitals are still a ways off from being stable, Fitch Ratings senior director Kevin Holloran said during a presentation Thursday…
About two-thirds of the operators Holloran speaks with are meeting or exceeding pre-pandemic patient admittance levels, he said. But more of those beds are filled with sick patients, rather than those who are there for more profitable, elective surgeries.
’We’re not seeing improvements in margins fast enough,’ he said, and operating margins are still below the 3% level that allows hospitals to pay bills and bondholders, invest in capital projects and put some money aside.
The biggest reason for the delayed recovery is still labor shortages, not only for nurses but also for other essential staff like laboratory workers. As the population ages, the need for these critical roles continues to mount.”
Hospital, payer price transparency compliance improves, but new requirements are kicking in this year “Across a total of 6,357 hospitals, 5,763 (90.7%) posted a machine-readable file (MRF) with at least some necessary service rates in 2023. This was an increase of 562 hospitals over the end of 2022, with Turquoise noting that most of the additions ‘were individual hospitals, often with unique MRF formats.’
Turquoise gave 2,634 of the hospitals posting MRFs a five-star rating for publishing ‘a complete MRF that contains cash, list and negotiated rates for a significant quantity of items and services,’ the group wrote. That list of top scorers grew 24% from the end of 2022, and now represent more than half of the total hospital field.
Specifically, Turquoise found that 83.1% of all hospitals have posted negotiated rates, 77.3% cash rates, 80.4% surgery rates, 80.8% imaging rates, 81.3% “BUCAH” rates (those from major insurers BCBS, United Healthcare, Cigna, Aetna and Humana) and 65.1% diagnostic-related group rates.”
About pharma
FDA approves Florida's plan to import cheaper drugs from Canada “The Food and Drug Administration says it has authorized Florida's proposed program to import selected drugs.
Under federal law, any state or tribe can submit a proposal for importation, and a few have. The law allows importation of certain prescription drugs in bulk if doing so would save Americans money without adding safety risks. The FDA also has to give its blessing…
The state has to clear a lot more hurdles, however, before imports could begin. Among other things, it has to specify which drugs it wants to import, verify that they meet FDA's standards and relabel them.”
Eli Lilly to sell weight loss drugs directly to consumers; warns against 'cosmetic' usage “Eli Lilly has launched a new website for customers with migraines, obesity and diabetes to order prescription drugs directly from the manufacturer, including weight loss medications such as Zepbound.
LillyDirect now offers disease management resources, including access to virtual or in-person provider support, and direct home delivery of prescriptions through third-party services, according to a Jan. 4 news release. Prescription deliveries will take place through LillyDirect Pharmacy Solutions, the manufacturer's digital pharmacy, and will have no shipping costs.”
Q1 2024 Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc Earnings Call Among the highlights are:
1. Boots continues to perform very well. Comment: Wonder why the division is for sale.
2. Plans to implement a cost-plus basis for drugs. Comment: Guess they are listening to Mark Cuban.
3. Completing planned closures of some VillageMD sites with plans to expand market penetration at the remaining offices. Comment: Nothing was revealed about how the company plans to improve its performance with financial risk models.
About healthcare finance
Healthcare Dealmakers — Jefferson Health, LVHN's $14B merger; Cigna's M&A shuffle and more A good recap of these deals.