• The Food and Drug Administration cleared Moderna Inc. and the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE’s omicron-specific COVID-19 booster vaccines for children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to approve the decision soon — the final step before the shots are available. (The Associated Press)
• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said there’s concern about how the Medicare Advantage program is spending money, but added that there’s only so much the agency can do to regulate it. Brooks-LaSure’s comments come amid criticism of aggressive marketing tactics in the program and overspending on plans. (Fierce Healthcare)
• A slow response and poor communication in the early days of the pandemic led to more U.S. COVID-19 deaths and an erosion in public trust in institutions, according to a new report from the Democratic staff of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The 242-page report detailed how statements from the White House often contradicted those of public health officials. (ABC News)
• Employers expect health benefit costs to increase by 5.4% next year, according to a Mercer poll of over 2,000 employers. Next year’s projected increase follows a 3.2% rise in costs this year. (Fierce Healthcare)

Worth watching today:

• The final day of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission’s December public meeting. Agenda items include assessing payment adequacy and updating payments for home health services and inpatient rehabilitation facility services.
• The final day of the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission’s December public meeting. Agenda items include a panel on the role of Medicaid in improving outcomes for adults leaving incarceration.
• The Alliance for Health Policy’s event on “Examining the Social Determinants of Health: Measures, Evidence, and Policy Solutions,” featuring Senior Advisor to the White House COVID-19 response team Bryant Cameron Webb.

How Much Could COVID-19 Vaccines Cost the U.S. After Commercialization?

Jennifer Kates et al., Kaiser Family Foundation

What happens when the COVID national emergency ends

Victoria Knight, Axios

While much has been made about the COVID-19 public health emergency, there’s another less-discussed emergency declaration that Republicans could target in the next Congress, bringing changes for employer-sponsored health plans, COBRA and flexible spending accounts.

The Covid Pandemic’s Hidden Casualties: Pregnant Women

Apoorva Mandavilli, The New York Times

Many expectant women have avoided vaccination, unaware that the virus poses great risks to both fetus and mother.

End of Covid Zero Threatens to Overwhelm China With Infections

Bloomberg

China faces a daunting task after abruptly giving up on Covid Zero, with infections set to surge and deaths predicted to top 2 million.

Long Covid is distorting the labor market — and that’s bad for the U.S. economy

Greg Iacurci, CNBC

The overall labor impact of long Covid is tough to quantify. Estimates suggest hundreds of thousands to millions may be out of work, at a time when there are historic levels of job openings.

Jynneos vaccine offers strong protection against mpox infection: CDC

Joseph Choi, The Hill

Vaccination with the Jynneos smallpox vaccine was found to offer strong protection against mpox infection after one or two doses, according to a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, providing some of the first clinical evidence on the efficacy of the shot used to fight back against the mpox outbreak this year.

Healthcare dealmaking will heat up in 2023 with plenty of corporate cash, PE ‘dry powder’

Heather Landi, Fierce Healthcare

Economic headwinds and recessionary fears will not slow down healthcare dealmaking next year coming off a robust M&A market in 2022.

Face masks come back to forefront amid triple threat of Covid-19, flu, RSV

Jacqueline Howard, CNN

Months after most mask requirements have come to an end and many people have stopped wearing them, some of the nation’s leading health experts are encouraging people to put their face masks back on – but this time, it’s not just because of Covid-19.

After breast cancer, women may safely stop long-term therapies to have a baby

Erika Edwards, NBC News

The first study to address head-on a major issue for young breast cancer survivors — the opportunity to have a baby — finds it’s safe, at least temporarily, to pause treatment in order to get pregnant.

LGBTQ Mental Health Gets Biden Push Amid Red State Attacks

Ian Lopez, Bloomberg Law

LGBTQ suicide prevention efforts are in line for Biden administration funding boosts as conservative state lawmakers launch legislative and political attacks that health experts say compromise queer and transgender mental health.

‘Eat what you kill’: How a fentanyl drugmaker bribed doctors, harmed patients and collected millions

Ken Alltucker, USA Today

Insys Therapeutics is the only drug marketer whose top executives were jailed as part of the opioid epidemic. The fallout from the company’s cash-for-scrips strategy that made it a Wall Street favorite reverberates today.

Senate Democrats introduce bill funding travel for abortions 

Julia Mueller, The Hill

Senate Democrats on Thursday introduced a bill that would help fund expenses for women who need to travel to undergo abortion procedures.

Indiana doctor who treated 10-year-old rape victim drops suit against state AG

Sareen Habeshian, Axios

Caitlin Bernard, the OB-GYN who provided an abortion on a 10-year-old girl from Ohio who was raped, dropped her lawsuit Thursday against Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita.

The (Incomplete) Revolution in Counting Abortions

Claire Cain Miller and Margot Sanger-Katz, The New York Times

Researchers know more than before, but incomplete data is still an issue as more women try to sidestep restrictions.

New York City Plan to Involuntarily Hospitalize Some Mentally Ill Homeless Faces Legal Challenge

Talal Ansari, The Wall Street Journal

Civil-rights groups are asking a federal judge to block New York City’s new policy to hospitalize homeless people who are severely mentally ill.

Medicare Payment Option May Empower Fraudsters, Democrats Warn

Alex Ruoff, Bloomberg Law

A Medicare pilot program could be letting health care companies with a history of defrauding the government “further encroach on the Medicare system,” congressional Democrats warn.

3 providers to pay $22.5M to settle Medicaid fraud allegations in California

Paige Minemyer, Fierce Healthcare

Three providers will pay out $22.5 million across two separate settlements to resolve false claims allegations in California, the Department of Justice announced.

Centene sells Magellan Rx to Prime Therapeutics

Lauren Berryman, Modern Healthcare

Centene has finalized a deal to sell Magellan Rx to pharmacy benefit manager Prime Therapeutics for $1.35 billion, the companies announced Monday.

Hospitals in the US are the fullest they’ve been throughout the pandemic – but it’s not just Covid

Deidre McPhillips, CNN

Hospitals are more full than they’ve been throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a CNN analysis of data from the US Department of Health and Human Services. But as respiratory virus season surges across the US, it’s much more than Covid that’s filling beds this year.

Hospital Financial Decisions Play a Role in the Critical Shortage of Pediatric Beds for RSV Patients

Liz Szabo, Kaiser Health News

The dire shortage of pediatric hospital beds plaguing the nation this fall is a byproduct of financial decisions made by hospitals over the past decade, as they shuttered children’s wards, which often operate in the red, and expanded the number of beds available for more profitable endeavors like joint replacements and cancer care.

Medicare Panel Mulls Call for Extra Pay for Safety Net Providers

Tony Pugh, Bloomberg Law

A prominent congressional advisory commission is mulling formal recommendations to increase Medicare payments in 2024 for physicians and hospitals that serve large numbers of low-income beneficiaries.

A Rural Hospital’s Excruciating Choice: $3.2 Million a Year or Inpatient Care?

Emily Baumgaertner, The New York Times

A new federal program offers hefty payments to small hospitals at risk of closing. But it comes with a bewildering requirement: to end all inpatient care.

Patient selection for AstraZeneca, Daiichi breast cancer drug needs improvement, experts say

Nancy Lapid, Reuters

The rush to use AstraZeneca and Daiichi-Sankyo’s drug Enhertu to treat certain types of breast cancer has far outpaced doctors’ ability to determine with certainty which patients might benefit, experts said this week at a meeting of breast cancer doctors.

Medicare chief: ‘Door is really open’ on coverage for new Alzheimer’s drug

Bob Herman, Stat News

Medicare is willing to reevaluate its coverage of Alzheimer’s drugs in light of a new therapy, called lecanemab, that has shown potentially more promising patient data than its controversial predecessor, Aduhelm, according to the official who oversees the program.

Regeneron’s Yancopoulos draws boos as he touts pharma innovation over cost considerations

Annalee Armstrong, Fierce Biotech

“Please God, society, give us a cure for Alzheimer’s” is certainly a statement that most people can get on board with, but the remark from Regeneron’s George Yancopoulos, M.D., Ph.D., landed amid a heated discussion at the Milken Institute conference in which he interrupted the moderator and described her question about paying for experimental, costly treatments as “ludicrous.”

Vertex invests in a rare disease drug and its developer

Jacob Bell, BioPharma Dive

Vertex Pharmaceuticals said Thursday it’s collaborating with a fellow Boston-based biotechnology company to develop new treatments for a rare muscle disease known as myotonic dystrophy type 1, or DM1.

Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug partners with employer group

Alex Kacik, Modern Healthcare

The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co. and the Purchaser Business Group on Health’s EmansaRx are partnering to provide discounted prescription drugs to self-insured employers.

‘All the tech in the world doesn’t solve this’: Rare disease experts push biopharma on equity

Ambar Castillo, Stat News

Rare disease experts at the Milken Institute Future of Health Summit on Tuesday had words of warning for biopharma: Don’t let equity efforts peter out.

Novartis gets second trial win for blockbuster hopeful

Kristin Jensen, BioPharma Dive

The Swiss drugmaker tested the medicine, iptacopan, in patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, or PNH, a disorder in which defective red blood cells are prone to premature destruction, leaving patients anemic, fatigued or suffering from blood clots.

Experimental Drugs to Get New Reporting System With FDA Proposal

Celine Castronuovo, Bloomberg Law

Sponsors of investigational drugs would need to comply with an internationally adopted standard for annual reporting under a new rule proposed by the FDA Thursday.

Edwards CEO Mussallem to retire, Bernard Zovighian named successor

Elise Reuter, MedTech Dive

Michael Mussallem will step down in May after leading the company for more than 20 years

GE Healthcare Plans to Reduce Debt and Costs, Pursue Tuck-In Acquisitions

Nina Trentmann, The Wall Street Journal

General Electric Co.’s healthcare division plans to cut debt, bring down costs and pursue tuck-in acquisitions after its spinoff in early January, finance chief Helmut Zodl said Thursday at an investor event in New York.

5 ways health tech companies can make their products more equitable

Mohana Ravindranath, Stat News

Companies selling sleek and convenient digital health services like virtual doctors’ visits or apps to manage diabetes often struggle to get them into the hands of the patients who could benefit the most: people who don’t have primary care doctors, or those who can’t take time off work or struggle to access transportation for in-person appointments.

Amid growing concern about data privacy, Invitae shines spotlight on how it uses de-identified health data

Annie Burky, Fierce Healthcare

Medical genetics company Invitae released a first-of-its-kind data use transparency and impact report today detailing the impact of patient data on genetic research. The report comes as concerns about data privacy and the security of protected health information surround pending legislation and recent data breaches.

Closing the Gap in Cancer Genomic Testing

Richard L. Schilsky and Dan L. Longo, The New England Journal of Medicine

Genomic analysis of tumor tissue and circulating tumor DNA is an increasingly important component of cancer care. But evidence indicates underutilization of tumor genomic testing.