About health insurance/insurers
National Health Expenditures In 2023: Faster Growth As Insurance Coverage And Utilization Increased “Health care spending in the US reached $4.9 trillion and increased 7.5 percent in 2023, growing from a rate of 4.6 percent in 2022. In 2023, the insured share of the population reached 92.5 percent, as enrollment in private health insurance increased at a strong rate for the second year in a row, and both private health insurance and Medicare spending grew faster than in 2022. For Medicaid, spending and enrollment growth slowed as the COVID-19 public health emergency ended. The health sector’s share of the economy in 2023 was 17.6 percent, which was similar to its share of 17.4 percent in 2022 but lower than in 2020 and 2021, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. State and local governments accounted for a higher share of spending in 2023 than in 2022, while the federal government share was lower as COVID-19-related funding declined and federal Medicaid spending growth slowed.”
Biden administration achieves fourth record-breaking ACA enrollment ahead of exit “The Biden administration has achieved a fourth consecutive record year in HealthCare.gov Marketplace enrollment, one week before the final sign-up deadline and its imminent exit from office.
Nearly 24 million people signed up for Affordable Care Act Marketplace plans for 2025, according to White House domestic policy adviser Neera Tanden, exceeding the 21.3 million people who signed up last year.”
Assessing the Effect of the Medicare Part D Redesign “…of most concern for policymakers, the Part D redesign puts upward pressure on Part D premiums. This upward pressure stems primarily from the combination of increasing plans’ financial responsibility and insulating beneficiaries from the highest out-of-pocket costs. Because the redesign limits plans’ ability to pass along their increased costs to beneficiaries who use high-cost drugs, plans may seek instead to pass those costs along to beneficiaries in the form of increased premiums. Congress foresaw this possibility, and the IRA limits the annual increase in the Part D base beneficiary premium. Because this provision applies specifically to the base beneficiary premium, however, many plan premiums have increased by more than the targeted amount. A Part D premium stabilization demonstration program may have moderated these effects for 2025.”
Healthcare consumers trust insurer AI tools, want more support: survey “Two-thirds of insured Americans say they would trust a health insurer’s artificial intelligence copilot to accurately inform them about a health plan’s benefits, a survey conducted by virtual care navigation platform Pager Health and market research firm The Harris Poll reveals.
Of the respondents, 66% believe AI can correctly personalize digital healthcare with the goals and needs of the member. Even more respondents think AI can find doctors accepting new members and schedule appointments.”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
Bipartisan Senate report slams private equity's "detrimental effects" on hospitals “Two private equity firms' efforts to wring profits out of hospitals in underserved communities put patients in danger, according to a new report released Tuesday by a powerful Senate committee…
And its findings add to a chorus of lawmakers trying to address the detrimental impact of private equity ownership on critical U.S. hospitals — a subject that has been the focus of a two-year CBS News investigation.”
About pharma
Drugs and dollars: Medication pricing in the US “A recent National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation webinar examined the future of prescription drug costs and access issues faced by Americans, and how obstacles may be removed so people can get the medicines they need.
Here are some key takeaways…
—the percentage of prescription drug costs as a share of overall insurance premiums is rising – it currently stands at 24%, compared with 22% about two years ago…
-…instead of collaborating with large firms to help them bring new medications to the market, smaller emerging firms are increasingly doing all of the heavy lifting themselves, from originating a product to gaining approval for it, then marketing it and reaping the revenue it generates.-In 2022, the breakdown of companies developing new drugs was 54% emerging firms, 13% small to medium firms and 32% large firms. That’s compared with 50%, 15% and 35%, respectively, in 2013.”
Wegovy and Zepbound tipped to fuel $20B boom in heart failure market “GlobalData has named heart failure as the next disease to feel the sales-boosting power of GLP-1 drugs. The analysts expect launches of medicines including Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy to help add $20 billion to the value of the market in a decade.”
About the public’s health
Trends in Screening for Social Risk in US Physician Practices “This cross-sectional study found that in 2022, 27% of physician practices reported systematically screening patients for 5 common social risks, a significant increase from 15% in 2017.”
Diet-wide analyses for risk of colorectal cancer: prospective study of 12,251 incident cases among 542,778 women in the UK “We showed a positive association [of colorectal cancer] with red and processed meat intake and weaker inverse associations with breakfast cereal, fruit, wholegrains, carbohydrates, fibre, total sugars, folate, and vitamin C. Genetically predicted milk consumption was inversely associated with risk of colorectal, colon, and rectal cancers. We conclude that dairy products help protect against colorectal cancer, and that this is driven largely or wholly by calcium.”
Coffee drinking timing and mortality in US adults “After adjustment for caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee intake amounts, sleep hours, and other confounders, the morning-type pattern, rather than the all-day-type pattern, was significantly associated with lower risks of all-cause (hazard ratio: .84; 95% confidential interval: .74–.95) and cardiovascular disease-specific (hazard ratio: .69; 95% confidential interval: .55–.87) mortality as compared with non-coffee drinking. Coffee drinking timing significantly modified the association between coffee intake amounts and all-cause mortality (P-interaction = .031); higher coffee intake amounts were significantly associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality in participants with morning-type pattern but not in those with all-day-type pattern.”
About healthcare IT
HHS proposes new cybersecurity requirements as first major HIPAA update in 10 years “The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed a rule days before the new year began that would hold healthcare organizations to a higher standard for protecting sensitive healthcare information from security threats like cyberattacks.
The proposal would require that entities covered by the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) achieve specific technical standards like encryption and multifactor authentication. The rule also holds business associates to higher security standards and emphasizes that group health plans have a responsibility to protect electronic health information”
FDA issues first guidance on AI in medicine development “The draft guidance – which is open for comment until 7th April – proposes a risk-based assessment framework that drug developers can use to establish the credibility of an AI model for its intended use. Examples of uses could include predicting patient outcomes, improving understanding of predictors of disease progression, and analysing large datasets from sources like real-world studies or digital health technologies.”