HealthcareInsights will resume Monday, December 2.
Happy Thanksgiving!
About health insurance/insurers
CMS pitches major Medicare Advantage changes: 10 notes A great summery of recent activity
Highmark posts $22.1B in revenue through first 3 quarters of 2024 “Pittsburgh-based health insurer and provider Highmark Health has brought in $529 million in net income through the first three quarters of the year, according to its latest financial details released Tuesday.
That's on $22.1 billion in revenue through the first nine months of 2024 along with $273 million in operating gain.
Highmark said its financial performance is driven by its health plans along with increased volumes at its Allegheny Health Network (AHN). As of Sept. 30, the AHN saw a 3% increase in inpatient discharges and observations as well as 7% more outpatient registrations compared to the same time last year.”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
40 largest health systems in the US | 2024 FYI
Seventh Semi-Annual Hospital Price Transparency Report November 2024 “Our latest review, conducted nearly four years after the rule took effect, analyzed the websites of 2,000 U.S. hospitals and found only 21.1% of them (421) to be fully compliant with all requirements of the rule, a significant decrease from our last report’s compliance finding of 34.5% and from the highest observed rate in July 2023 of 36.0%. The widespread noncompliance of 78.9% of hospitals is due to files not having prices clearly associated with payer and plan names and not following required formats. All of the hospitals reviewed for this report posted a machine-readable file, though 532 hospitals’ files failed the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Validator Tool.”
About pharma
Same Drug, 2,200 Different Prices “The reason for the huge price differences: America’s complicated drug-reimbursement system, which uses middlemen to negotiate prices.
To control drug spending, these firms have created a pricing patchwork, negotiating different prices for different plans.”
The interstate and intrastate differences are astounding.
About the public’s health
HHS invests $44M in medical supply chain “The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, an HHS agency, is providing $44 million to bolster the U.S. public health supply chain.
Under the Defence Product Act, the agency greenlit $32.4 million for Manus Bio, a biomanufacturing company in Waltham, Mass., and up to $12 million for Antheia, an active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturer in Menlo Park, Calif.
With these funds, Manus and Antheia will focus on expanding capabilities to produce key starting materials and APIs for essential medicines…”
Pertussis Surveillance and Trends “In 2024, reported cases of pertussis increased across the United States, indicating a return to more typical trends. Preliminary data show that nearly six times as many cases have been reported as of week 46 reported on November 16, 2024, compared to the same time in 2023.”
I Ran Operation Warp Speed. I’m Concerned About Bird Flu A thoughtful and compelling article by former FDA Commissioner and public health expert Dr. David Kessler.
Americans are not getting seasonal vaccines ahead of the holidays As of this month, about 37 percent of adults 18 and older had received a seasonal flu shot, while 19 percent had received updated coronavirus vaccines and 40 percent of adults 75 and older — the group at greatest risk — got an RSV vaccine.
The vaccination rates are similar to last year’s figures, and the numbers reflect a persistent public health challenge achieving broader vaccine uptake for these illnesses.”
Trump picks Jay Bhattacharya to lead NIH, overseeing scientific research “President-elect Donald Trump selected Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford-trained physician and economist, on Tuesday to lead the National Institutes of Health, the nearly $50 billion agency that oversees the nation’s biomedical research…
Trump also announced Jim O’Neill, a Silicon Valley investor and former federal health official, as his selection to be HHS deputy secretary. That role would position O’Neill to help run day-to-day operations and shape policy at the nearly $2 trillion agency.”
Cervical Cancer Mortality Among US Women Younger Than 25 Years, 1992-2021 “This study found a steep decline in cervical cancer mortality among US women younger than 25 years between 2016 and 2021. This cohort of women is the first to be widely protected against cervical cancer by HPV vaccines. The findings from this study in the context of other published research suggest that HPV vaccination affected the sequential decline in HPV infection prevalence, cervical cancer incidence, and cervical cancer mortality. Since its introduction, HPV vaccination coverage (≥1 doses) has increased steadily, reaching 78.5% in 2021. The gradual decline in mortality observed from 1992 to 2015 was likely due to improved screening coverage and approaches.”