About Covid-19
U.S. COVID public health emergency to stay in place “The public health emergency was initially declared in January 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic began, and has been renewed each quarter since for 90 days. But the government in August began signaling it planned to let it expire in January.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has promised to give states 60 days' notice before letting the emergency expire, which would have been on Friday if it did not plan on renewing it again in January. The agency did not provide such notice…”
Moderna says new booster increases protection against omicron subvariants “In blood drawn from people who received the bivalent booster, omicron-blocking antibody levels shot up 15 times higher than their pre-booster levels, Moderna said in a news release. The findings, which are not yet peer-reviewed, are similar to results Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, presented this month about their bivalent coronavirus vaccine booster.”
Lifting Universal Masking in Schools — Covid-19 Incidence among Students and Staff “Among school districts in the greater Boston area, the lifting of masking requirements was associated with an additional 44.9 Covid-19 cases per 1000 students and staff during the 15 weeks after the statewide masking policy was rescinded.”
Repeat COVID is riskier than first infection, study finds “Reinfected patients had a more than doubled risk of death and a more than tripled risk of hospitalization compared with those who were infected with COVID just once. They also had elevated risks for problems with lungs, heart, blood, kidneys, diabetes, mental health, bones and muscles, and neurological disorders, according to a report published in Nature Medicine.”
Some Employers Still Require COVID-19 Vaccines “Employer vaccination requirements decreased this year from 34 percent in 2021 to 32 percent, Mercer found in a survey of more than 700 employers. Fewer employers required one booster (16 percent) or two (11 percent).
If a spike in COVID-19 infections occurs this winter, 52 percent of surveyed businesses said they are providing additional paid time off for employees recovering from COVID-19.”
About health insurance/insurers
U.S. judge rejects Biden administration's LGBT health protections “A federal judge in Texas ruled on Friday that President Joe Biden's administration had wrongly interpreted an Obamacare provision as barring health care providers from discriminating against gay and transgender people.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo ruled that a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2020 holding that a law barring workplace discrimination protects gay and transgender employees did not apply to the healthcare law.”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
Hospital double whammy: Less cash in, more cash out “A nationwide healthcare worker shortage has increased the need for hospitals to rely on contract labor, resulting in a 37% increase per patient in labor costs for hospitals between 2019 and March 2022…
According to Crowe research, in the summer of 2021, hospitals on average had collected 97% of their expected cash within six months. During the same period in 2022, that percentage dropped to 94%. The three-percentage-point decrease in cash coupled with a more than 9% increase in expenses creates a minimum of a 12% negative impact on a health system’s finances…
Prior-authorization denials on inpatient accounts are a key driver behind the dollar value of denials increasing to 2.5% of gross revenue in August 2022 from 1.5% of gross revenue in January 2021. That’s an increase of 67%.”
And in a related article: Health system cash reserves plummet
Best Hospitals and Surgery Centers for Billing Ethics “…Money and The Leapfrog Group’s Best Hospitals and Surgery Centers for Billing Ethics… selected the facilities that are most likely to play fair with your bill.”
About pharma
Eli Lilly lost billions after fake Twitter account promotes free insulin “On Nov. 10, a verified Twitter account posed as Eli Lilly wrote in a viral tweet, "We are excited to announce insulin is free now." By the next day, the drugmaker's shares plunged by about $22 billion.
The fake account, which has since been taken down, had a verified blue check and a copy of the Indianapolis-based company's logo as its profile picture. Eli Lilly responded within two hours, but the tweet that stayed on the app for less than a day accumulated thousands of retweets.”
About the public’s health
Tobacco Product Use Among Middle and High School Students — United States, 2022 “In 2022, nearly one in nine (11.3%) middle and high school students reported current tobacco product use, including 13.5% of non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native students; 16.0% who identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual; 16.6% who identified as transgender; 18.3% who reported severe psychological distress; 12.5% with low family affluence; and 27.2% with low academic achievement.”
Trends in inequalities in the prevalence of dementia in the United States “The age-adjusted prevalence of dementia decreased from 12.2% in 2000 (95% CI, 11.7 to 12.7%) to 8.5% in 2016 (7.9 to 9.1%) in the 65+ population, a statistically significant decline of 3.7 percentage points or 30.1%. Females are more likely to live with dementia, but the sex difference has narrowed. In the male subsample, we found a reduction in inequalities across education, earnings, and racial and ethnic groups; among females, those inequalities also declined, but less strongly. We observed a substantial increase in the level of education between 2000 and 2016 in the sample. This compositional change can explain, in a statistical sense, about 40% of the reduction in dementia prevalence among men and 20% among women, whereas compositional changes in the older population by age, race and ethnicity, and cardiovascular risk factors mattered less.”
About healthcare personnel
Association of State Share of Nonphysician Practitioners With Diagnostic Imaging Ordering Among Emergency Department Visits for Medicare Beneficiaries “Question Are emergency department (ED) nonphysician practitioner (NPP) encounters associated with more imaging studies than physician encounters?
Findings In this cross-sectional study of 16 922 274 ED visits by Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries in 2005-2020, the presence of NPPs in the ED compared with no NPPs was associated with 5.3% more imaging studies per ED visit.”
About health technology
Referencing the Definition of "Device" in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act in Guidance, Regulatory Documents, Communications, and Other Public Documents The FDA is redefining “Device” and introducing the “Counterfeit device”. Prior to this action, the latter could fit the device definition and technically be “legal.”
About healthcare finance
Opiant, maker of Narcan, to be acquired in $145 million deal “Shares of Opiant Pharmaceuticals Inc. OPNT, 111.89% soared 120.8% in premarket trading on Monday after the company, which is best known for selling the opioid overdose treatment Narcan, said it will be acquired by Indivior PLC INDV, +2.36% for $145 million. The deal also includes additional potential milestone payments tied to revenue for a still investigational opioid overdose treatment.”
Ionis, Metagenomi pen Big Pharma-sized genetic target pact that could total almost $3B “Ionis Pharmaceuticals and budding gene editing company Metagenomi have penned a multi-target research collaboration that could total almost $3 billion in biobucks.
The gargantuan financial deal is astounding for two companies that are not heralded as large pharmas, but nonetheless, the announcement shows just how much the industry is betting on gene editing. The agreement is essentially split into two groups of four possible genetic targets—Ionis is paying $80 million for the first batch of four, with two of the targets being co-developed with Metagenomi.”
Lantheus promises up to $2B for 2 of the biotech's cancer radiopharmaceutical therapies “Lantheus is paying $260 million upfront for a double bill of licenses for two of POINT Biopharma’s radiopharmaceutical oncology candidates, with another $1.8 billion tied up in biobucks.
Under the agreements, POINT will continue to fund and complete its phase 3 SPLASH trial for PNT2002, a prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-targeting 177Lu-based radiopharmaceutical therapy for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. After that, Lantheus will work with POINT to file the therapy for FDA approval.
The other candidate is PNT2003, a somatostatin receptor-targeted radioligand in development for gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.”