About Covid-19
Fla. judge rules DeSantis administration cannot restrict school districts’ mask mandates: “Judge John C. Cooper of Florida’s 2nd Circuit sided with parents from six Florida counties who challenged DeSantis (R) and state education officials in court this week, arguing that the governor’s order infringes on classroom safety guaranteed by the state’s constitution.”
Warnings About the Sturgis Rally Have Come Tragically True: The story is as close to a controlled trial as you can ethically get. It compares the unprotected Sturgis motorcycle rally with the highly controlled Lollapalooza music festival with respect to Covid-19 cases.
Adults Reporting Symptoms of Anxiety or Depressive Disorder During COVID-19 Pandemic: Texas is 12 and Florida is 36. Maybe that finding is the problem- not worried enough about their health?
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: August 24, 2021: “FDA updated the Pfizer-BioNTech emergency use authorization (EUA) to support the extension of shelf-life of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine stored at -90 degrees to -60 degrees Celsius from 6 months to 9 months.”
About the public’s health
Seasonal Malaria Vaccination with or without Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention: “Administration of RTS,S/AS01E [a vaccine] was noninferior to chemoprevention in preventing uncomplicated malaria. The combination of these interventions resulted in a substantially lower incidence of uncomplicated malaria, severe malaria, and death from malaria than either intervention alone.”
In talc case, reorg ruling goes Johnson & Johnson’s way, keeping bankruptcy in play: ”With 25,000 unresolved lawsuits alleging that its talcum products cause cancer, Johnson & Johnson is considering a legal maneuver sometimes referred to as the Texas two-step.
On Thursday, a U.S. judge declined to block the move, giving the pharmaceutical giant the option to create a new business to absorb liabilities associated with the litigation and then seek bankruptcy protection.”
About pharma
Samsung Bioepis Scoops First EU Lucentis Biosimilar As 2022 Date Looms: “Samsung Bioepis has seen a positive opinion in the EU for its Byooviz (ranibizumab) biosimilar treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration turned into final approval by the European Commission. The company is also leading the pack in the US.” Lucentis is so expensive, many ophthalmologists use small doses of Avastin instead. Approval in the US of a biogenetic may change that practice depending on the new pricing dynamic.
About health insurance
Business Groups Withdraw Suit Challenging Health-Price Transparency Rule: “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a Texas affiliate withdrew a suit filed to block parts of a federal rule requiring insurers and employers to disclose prices they pay for healthcare services and drugs.
The withdrawal, in a filing late Wednesday, came after the Biden administration delayed enforcement of provisions of the rule that were the focus of the suit.”
Six things to know about prior authorization for ambulances: CMS plans to begin a six-phase rollout of prior authorization for non-emergency ambulance transportation on December 1; total implementation is expected by August 1, 2022.
In studies leading up to this plan, prior authorization “diminished pointless ambulance transportation and spending by over 70%…, reducing complete Medicare spending by 2.4%. There weren’t any notable results on well being outcomes…”
Mississippi Pharmacist and Louisiana Marketer Plead Guilty to More Than $180 Million Health Care Fraud Scheme: “According to court documents, Mitchell ‘Chad’ Barrett…participated in a scheme to defraud TRICARE and other health care benefit programs by distributing medically unnecessary compounded medications. Barrett is licensed as a pharmacist in Mississippi and was a co-owner of various compounding pharmacies. As part of this scheme, Barrett adjusted prescription formulas to ensure the highest reimbursement without regard to efficacy. He solicited recruiters to procure prescriptions for high margin compounded medications and paid those recruiters commissions based on the percentage of reimbursements paid by pharmacy benefit managers and health care benefit programs, including commissions on claims reimbursed by TRICARE. He further routinely and systematically waived and/or reduced copayments to be paid by beneficiaries and members, and utilized a purported copayment assistance program to falsely make it appear as if his pharmacy and its affiliate compounding pharmacies had been collecting copayments.”
Cigna to expand ACA exchange footprint to 3 new states, 93 counties: “Cigna is planning to expand its footprint on the Affordable Care Act's (ACA's) exchanges into three new states and 93 new counties for the 2022 plan year, the insurer announced Thursday.
Cigna said it plans to enter the markets in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Mississippi and new counties in Florida, Arizona and Virginia. The new regions could reach an additional 1.5 million customers, according to the announcement.
The new markets will bring the insurer's total footprint to 313 counties across 13 states.”
About healthcare IT
Alphabet's Verily, Mayo Clinic team up on decision support tech for cardiovascular care: “The two organizations struck a strategic two-year collaboration focused on the development of a digital point-of-care resource to support an individualized approach to patient care. The tool will provide contextualized and validated insight on disease management, care guidelines and treatment to help clinicians make decisions, the organizations said.
Teaming up with the Mayo Clinic, Verily will pull in the hospital's clinical content and apply advanced clinical analytics and user-centered design to deliver care insights that are integrated into the healthcare provider workflow, the companies announced…”
About medical devices
Medtronic's miniaturized, leadless implant improves long-term safety over traditional pacemakers in real-world study: “Through an analysis of Medicare claims data spanning more than 16,000 beneficiaries, researchers found the leadless device delivered a 38% drop in reinterventions and a 31% reduction in chronic complications compared to transvenous pacemakers, according to Medtronic, which described the effort as the largest evaluation of leadless pacemakers to date.”
About hospitals and health systems
New Jersey hospitals take rare step in merger fight with FTC: “Edison, N.J.-based Hackensack Meridian Health and Englewood (N.J.) Health are taking their case to the appellate court after their proposed merger was temporarily halted amid a challenge from the Federal Trade Commission. An appeal is a rare step at this stage of an FTC action…”
Ascension settles federal discrimination claims: “The settlement, announced Aug. 25, came after the Justice Department determined that Ascension automatically requested that its non-U.S. citizen employees present new documents to prove their continued work authorization even in situations where it wasn't required. The Justice Department said its investigation found that the health system improperly programmed software to send automated emails requesting proof of continued work authorization to all non-U.S. citizen employees. Ascension didn't program software to send emails to employees who were U.S. citizens, the Justice Department said.”
About hospitals and health systems
UPMC posts $605M profit in first half of 2021 as insurance business dips: “The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) posted a $605 million profit for the first half of the year, a massive $433 million increase compared to the same period in 2020.
The nonprofit system generated $12.1 billion in operating revenue for the first half compared with $11.1 billion in 2020 during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. But while patient service revenue increased in the first half as volumes rebounded, the system’s insurance business declined by $146 million in the first half compared to the same period in 2020 due to higher claims and expenses.”