6 races to watch that could shape health care policy FYI
About health insurance/insurers
Healthcare billing fraud: 10 recent cases Note the preponderance of federal programs being defrauded.
About hospitals and healthcare systems
23 systems delaying surgeries amid the IV shortage FYI
About pharma
Walgreens expands virtual healthcare services to 30 states, adds lab test orders and virtual STD treatments “Walgreens Virtual Healthcare is available in 30 states, up from its initial launch in nine states. This expansion aims to increase access to fast, reliable and affordable healthcare from the comfort of home by allowing patients to connect with doctors and nurse practitioners via virtual consultations, either through chat or video.”
Comment: This expansion is despite retrenchment of its VillageMD business.
Wegovy users drop $80,000 on plastic surgery to shed extra skin “Patients taking Wegovy, Zepbound and other new weight-loss drugs are finding that after losing 50 pounds, their skin sags over their stomachs, arms and buttocks. In the face and chest, the loss of elasticity can make someone look much older than they actually are or give a hollowed-out appearance that’s been dubbed “Ozempic face.”
This has turned into a gold mine for plastic surgeons.”
About the public’s health
Digital Hypertension Management Solutions “The solutions reviewed in this report were grouped on the basis of their approach to guiding clinician and patient actions:
1 Blood Pressure Monitoring solutions extend existing hypertension care beyond the clinical office by supporting patients’ home monitoring and delivering data back to the healthcare provider. Companies with solutions in this approach include AMC Health, Health Recovery Solutions (HRS), and VitalSight (Omron Healthcare).
2Medication Management solutions employ dedicated, virtual care teams to coordinate patients’ medication adjustments as a supplement to the patient’s main primary care team. Companies with solutions in this approach include Cadence, Ochsner Digital Medicine, and Story Health.
3 Behavior Change solutions deliver educational content, alerts, reminders, and virtual interactions with coaches (digital or human) or care teams to improvepatient’s self-management of their hypertension. Companies with solutions in this approach include DarioHealth, Hello Heart, Lark, Omada Health, and Teladoc Health (Livongo)…
Medication Management: Creating dedicated care teams to help adjust prescribing, the Medication Management approach has the highest quality evidence showing clinically meaningful improvements in SBP that are achieved more rapidly than with usual care. The review concluded that these solutions increase net health spending in the initial three-year budget window, but — because hypertension risks accrue over the long term — they have the potential to offset costs over a decade because of savings from avoided cardiovascular events…
Behavior Change approach provides limited incremental benefit in SBP compared with usual care.”
Mortality Rates From Early-Onset CRC Have Risen Considerably Over Last Two Decades “The mortality rate of early-onset colorectal cancer (EO-CRC) has increased considerably across the United States over the past two decades, with the effects most pronounced in those aged 20-44 years, according to a new analysis of the two largest US mortality databases…
Furthermore, the researchers reported that increased mortality occurred across all patients included in the study (aged 20-54) regardless of tumor stage at diagnosis.”
Health Literacy: How Well Can Older Adults Find, Understand, and Use Health Information?Key Findings
—20% of older adults are not confident they can identify health / medical misinformation.
—74% of adults age 50 and over would have very little or no trust in health information generated by artificial intelligence (AI)”