Read today’s Kaiser Health News
In other news:
2025 Trends Shaping the Health Economy From Trilliant Health, Key Takeaways:
Inexplicable price variation contributes to high healthcare costs. Nationally, commercial negotiated rate for four distinct MS-DRGs vary by a factor of 8.5x, on average.
Upcoding in emergency departments (ED) results in higher spending. From 2018 to 2024, the share of ED visits coded at a higher complexity increased from 36.6% to 47.8% and 27.6% to 31.9%, respectively.
Inpatient surgical volume is threatened by the proposed IPO [inpatient only] List removal. After total knee arthroplasty (TKA) was removed from the IPO list in 2018, inpatient volumes declined by 17.9% from 2017 to 2018, with 2024 inpatient TKA volumes 85.4% below 2017.
Surgical procedures are imperiled by novel drugs. Between 2018 and 2023, GLP-1 patients increased by 744.6%, while bariatric surgery volume was flat to declining.
Price and quality for common services are not correlated. While the median negotiated rate for MS-DRG 193 in Miami is $22,255, the provider receiving the highest rate has the sixth-highest mortality rate out of the 15 hospitals.
About pharma
US relies heavily on China, other nations for antibiotics: The study, published late last week in JAMA Health Forum, found that annual importation of antibiotics increased approximately 26-fold from 1992 through 2024. One of the countries that has emerged as a major supplier is India, which has accounted for nearly one third of finished antibiotics imported to the United States since 2020. But of even greater concern is that China provides US domestic drug manufacturers with more than 60% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) needed to make the finished product.
About the public’s health
Acting CDC director calls to 'break up' the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine into three shots: Individual vaccines for each virus aren't available in the U.S., and no published scientific evidence shows a benefit to separating the combined vaccine.
Comment: RFK Jr wants to decrease the number of shots kids get. What’s going on?
About healthcare IT
Qualtrics to buy Press Ganey Forsta for $6.75B to expand its reach in healthcare: Customer engagement company Qualtrics has agreed to invest $6.75 billion to acquire Press Ganey Forsta, a healthcare market research company.
Qualtrics, a customer survey software maker owned by private equity firm Silver Lake, aims to combine its artificial intelligence technology with Press Ganey's extensive data, benchmarking and healthcare expertise to develop new AI-powered tools and services, the companies said in a press release.