About health insurance/insurers
CVS warns it could lose up to 10% of its Medicare members next year “The company was $900 million short of its health care benefits estimates on its medical cost line. Within that $900 million, about $400 million was attributed to high utilization among outpatient services, outpatient pharmacy and behavioral mental health.”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
The cost of unnecessary hospital days in 8 numbers FYI- Well worth reading.
How a ransomware attack is affecting Ascension's facilities across the US FYI
Jefferson, Lehigh Valley Health Network ink definitive agreement to merge “Philadelphia-based Jefferson and Allentown, Pa.-based Lehigh Valley Health Network have signed a definitive agreement to merge into a 30-hospital system with more than 700 care sites.
Under the agreement, Jefferson and LVHN will integrate identity, clinical care and operations. The integrated system will comprise more than 65,000 employees and offer new educational opportunities to existing physicians and allow for recruitment opportunities, according to a joint May 15 news release.”
About pharma
Most Approved Cancer Drugs Don’t Improve Overall Survival [OS], Data Suggest “Of the 305 drugs that were approved based on a surrogate endpoint, 153 (50%) were later evaluated for OS, and 29 (8%) demonstrated an OS benefit.
Overall, 125 of the 392 drugs evaluated (32%) have demonstrated improvements in OS, and the remaining 267 drugs (68%) have not.”
About the public’s health
FDA approves self-collection screening tests for HPV, allowing women to avoid pelvic exams for cervical cancer “The FDA has approved two diagnostic devices that allow women to collect vaginal samples themselves for cervical cancer screening—a major step toward catching more early and potentially preventable cases without requiring an invasive gynecological exam.
The separate self-collection offerings from BD and Roche still need to be used in a healthcare setting—they have not received agency green lights for solo, at-home use—but the two companies said the move could improve access to screening by enabling HPV testing at locations such as retail pharmacies or mobile clinics.”
Study highlights inappropriate antibiotic prescribing in US emergency departments “A review of US emergency department (ED) visits involving antibiotic prescribing found that more than a quarter had inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions, and nearly half of those didn't even have a plausible indication for antibiotics, US researchers reported today in Antimicrobial Stewardship & Healthcare Epidemiology.”
CDC makes public influenza A wastewater data to assist bird flu probe “The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday released data on influenza A found in wastewater in a public dashboard that could assist in tracking the outbreak of H5N1 bird flu that has infected cattle herds.
Last week, an agency official told Reuters about U.S plans to make public data collected by its surveillance system.”
Drug overdose deaths fell for first time in five years, though still exceeded 100,000 “U.S. drug deaths decreased slightly in 2023, according to new data, the first decrease in five years.
Last year saw 107,543 U.S. drug overdose deaths, according to preliminary statistics released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly a 3% drop from 2022.”