About pharma
Top PBMs by 2023 market share
“CVS Caremark: 34%
Express Scripts: 23%
OptumRx (UnitedHealth): 22%
Humana Pharmacy Solutions: 7%
MedImpact Healthcare Systems: 5%
Prime Therapeutics: 3%
All other PBMs and cash pay: 6% “
About the public’s health
EPA to crack down on toxic emissions from more than 200 chemical plants “The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized rules Tuesday that it said would dramatically reduce the number of people facing elevated cancer risks because of their exposure to air pollution.
The number of people who have elevated cancer risks because they live within 6 miles of a chemical plant would drop by 96 percent, the EPA said. Cancer cases within about 31 miles of facilities that release toxic pollution into the air are expected to fall by about 60 percent under the rule.
That’s because the new regulations on 218 chemical plants are expected to cause them to reduce their releases of toxic pollution by more than 6,200 tons per year.”
In a first, EPA sets limit for ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water “The Environmental Protection Agency has finalized the nation’s first drinking water standard for “forever chemicals,” a group of persistent human-made chemicals that can pose a health risk to people at even the smallest detectable levels of exposure.
The new rules are part of the Biden administration’s efforts to limit pollution from these per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, which can persist in the environment for centuries. Exposure to PFAS has been linked to an increased risk of certain types of cancer, low birth weights, high cholesterol, and negative effects on the liver, thyroid and immune system.”
The Nature of the Rural-Urban Mortality Gap “The 2019 age-adjusted natural-cause mortality (NCM) rate for the prime working-age population (aged 25–54) was 43 percent higher in rural (nonmetropolitan) areas than in urban (metropolitan) areas. This is a shift from 25 years ago when NCM rates in urban and rural areas were similar for this age group. As a first step to understanding the increasing gap between rural and urban NCM rates, this report examines natural (disease-related) deaths for prime working-age adults in rural and urban areas between 1999 and 2019 using data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control’s Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiology Research (WONDER).”
Long-Term Effect of Salt Substitution for Cardiovascular Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis “Salt substitution may reduce all-cause or cardiovascular mortality, but the evidence for reducing cardiovascular events and for not increasing serious adverse events is uncertain, particularly for a Western population. The certainty of evidence is higher among populations at higher cardiovascular risk and/or following a Chinese diet.”
About healthcare IT
Healthcare Should Look to Other Industries to Drive Digital Transformation, J.D. Power Says “Navigating health insurance digital channels is not easy. A surprising 42% of insured adults say they have experienced a problem using their health insurance website and/or app the past 12 months,1 and according to the inaugural J.D. Power U.S. Healthcare Digital Experience Study,SM released today, the websites and digital apps provided by commercial member health plans and Medicare Advantage plans are not helping matters. In fact, nearly one-third (32%) of health insurance websites and apps don’t meet the foundational level of functionality and intuitive organization of information.”