Morning Consult Health Presented by Dialysis Patient Citizens: Study Finds Link Between COVID-19, Elevated Alzheimer’s Risk for Seniors
 

Health

Essential health care industry news & intel to start your day.
September 16, 2022
Twitter Email
 

Today’s Top News

  • Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researchers found that Americans over 65 who have had COVID-19 faced a higher risk within a year of being newly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The study, which was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and analyzed electronic health records of more than 6 million people older than 65, noted that the findings do not show that COVID-19 causes Alzheimer’s. (The Washington Post)
  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a new program to direct up to 50,000 doses of the Jynneos monkeypox vaccine from Bavarian Nordic A/S to hard-hit populations that have faced hurdles in accessing the shots, as data shows white men have received at least twice as many doses as Black or Hispanic men. (Axios) The Food and Drug Administration warned that Tpoxx should be prescribed to treat monkeypox judiciously since a single molecular change to the disease “could have a large impact on the antiviral activity” of the drug, while the CDC said that it should not be given to patients with healthy immune systems that are not suffering from severe symptoms. (The Associated Press)
  • About 1 in 4 hospitals will not be assessed penalties for readmissions for the coming fiscal year, and those that fell short of the Medicare benchmark over the past few years will receive lower reimbursement cuts, per preliminary data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. CMS for the first time used pandemic-era data to calculate payment adjustments, and for fiscal year 2023, 25.33% of hospitals will not face readmissions penalties, up from 17.81% the previous year. (Modern Healthcare)
  • A report on climate change’s impact on health systems released by the House Ways and Means Committee found that medical centers across the country have battled extreme weather such as fires, flooding and heat waves, events that have resulted in compromised medical services and facility closures. Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), chairman of the committee, asked CMS to issue guidance to health systems to monitor and report their carbon dioxide emissions, as the health care system accounts for roughly 10% of CO2 emitted annually in the country. (The Associated Press)

 

Worth watching today (all times local): 

 

Chart Review

 
 

What Else You Need to Know

Coronavirus
 

Joe Biden’s Covid-19 tsar warns millions risk losing access to treatment 

Kiran Stacey and Jamie Smyth, Financial Times 

Ashish Jha says vaccines and drugs will be limited if Congress fails to approve further funding.

 

GSK, Regeneron Covid Antibody Drugs Unlikely to Work for Omicron, WHO Says 

Marthe Fourcade, Bloomberg 

The antibody drugs GSK Plc and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. developed against Covid don’t appear to work for omicron and its subvariants, a panel of experts advising the World Health Organization said, recommending against the use of the medicines.

 

First vaccination ads for updated Covid-19 booster target adults 50 and older 

Jacqueline Howard, CNN 

As part of the White House’s Covid-19 response plan for the fall, the US Department of Health and Human Services is debuting a video ad to encourage people to get the updated Covid-19 booster shot – especially those who are 50 and older.

 

These are the most common side effects to expect from your updated COVID booster 

Chloe Taylor, Fortune 

Both updated boosters appeared to cause mild side effects in some individuals who participated in human testing.

 
General
 

A Vaccine in Each Arm Could Be a Painful Mistake 

Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic 

At a press briefing earlier this month, Ashish Jha, the White House’s COVID czar, laid out some pretty lofty expectations for America’s immunity this fall. “Millions” of Americans, he said, would be flocking to pharmacies for the newest version of the COVID vaccine in September and October, at the same appointment where they’d get their yearly flu shot. “It’s actually a good idea,” he told the press. “I really believe this is why God gave us two arms.”

 

Biden’s monkeypox adviser is managing a virus alongside conservative fascination in his Instagram feed 

Eugene Daniels, Politico

Demetre Daskalakis has become caricatured as a tattooed oddity among buttoned-up bureaucrats. The truth is far different. “I wish I were that interesting,” he says.

 

Worries over stigma are driving a push to rename monkeypox, but the process is slow 

Jen Christensen, CNN 

Since the beginning of the monkeypox outbreak, scientists and activists have pushed for the name of the virus and the disease to be changed to something “non-discriminatory” and “non-stigmatizing.”

 

Healthcare plays by CVS, Walgreens and Amazon will drive more partnerships, tech investment, experts say 

Heather Landi, Fierce Healthcare 

CVS, Walgreens and Amazon are ramping up their focus on in-home medical services and primary care and it will cause major disruptions for more traditional brick-and-mortar providers, industry experts say.

 

National Cancer Institute Wants $10 Billion for Fiscal Year 2024

Jeannie Baumann, Bloomberg Law 

The National Cancer Institute laid out a $10 billion spending plan for fiscal year 2024, marking one of its most ambitious budget proposals that calls for a more than 30% increase over last year’s request.

 

Preparing for monkeypox on college campuses

Arielle Dreher, Axios 

As monkeypox cases decline, public health officials are shifting their focus to college campuses, where students are returning to communal living arrangements that could sustain the outbreak.

 

Montana judge blocks anti-trans birth certificate law

Oriana Gonzalez, Axios 

A Montana state judge on Thursday blocked a 2021 state law that would have barred transgender people from changing the gender listed on their birth certificate unless they have undergone gender-affirming surgery.

 

Indiana’s abortion ban goes into effect, shuttering clinics 

Mary Claire Molloy and Molly Hennessy-Fiske, The Washington Post 

It was the last day for abortions at Women’s Med clinic this week, and patients arrived anxious, hoping to get treated before a state abortion ban took effect Thursday.

 

Two powerful drugs are making their way into the illicit drug supply

Erika Edwards, NBC News

An animal tranquilizer called xylazine and powerful synthetic opioids called nitazenes are increasingly linked to overdoses.

 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom Signs Law Requiring Social Media Companies to Consider Children’s Health

Meghan Bobrowsky, The Wall Street Journal

Social-media companies that operate in California will have to consider the health and well-being of children under a first-of-its-kind bill signed into law Thursday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

 
Payers
 

Humana projects growth in Medicare Advantage 

Bob Herman, Stat News

Humana is targeting ambitious growth of its Medicare Advantage plans and primary care clinics over the next three years, which executives said Thursday will significantly propel Humana’s profitability. Humana’s stock price ended the day up 8%, valuing the company at $63 billion.

 

UnitedHealth Beats Class Suit Over Office Surgery Facility Fees

Jacklyn Wille, Bloomberg Law 

UnitedHealth Group. Inc. defeated a class action by more than 200 doctors who say they weren’t paid facility fees for office-based surgeries, when a New York federal judge ruled that the insurer used reasonable payment systems and followed ERISA plan terms.

 

Medicare Enrollees Struggle With Opioid Abuse, Treatment Access

Tony Pugh, Bloomberg Law 

More than 1 million Medicare beneficiaries were diagnosed with opioid use disorder in 2021, but fewer than 20% received medication to treat their disorder, a federal watchdog agency reported Thursday.

 

Court Ruling May Spur Competitive Health Plans to Bring Back Copays for Preventive Services

Harris Meyer, Kaiser Health News 

Now health plans and self-insured employers — those that pay workers’ and dependents’ medical costs themselves — may consider imposing cost sharing for preventive services on their members and workers. That’s because of a federal judge’s Sept. 7 ruling in a Texas lawsuit filed by conservative groups claiming that the ACA’s mandate that health plans pay the full cost of preventive services, often called first-dollar coverage, is unconstitutional.

 
Providers
 

More Than Half of US Hospitals Expect to Lose Money This Year 

Lauren Coleman-Lochner, Bloomberg 

More than half — 53% — of US hospitals expect to lose money this year, according to the report prepared by consulting firm Kaufman Hall for the American Hospital Association. Facilities are scrambling not only to fill jobs but to cope with sharply higher costs for labor and supplies, all while treating Covid-19 and other patients, many of whom arrive sicker because they have put off treatment. 

 

Physician burnout higher in 2021 than 2020, study shows 

Shannon Muchmore, Healthcare Dive 

About 63% of physicians surveyed experienced at least one manifestation of burnout in 2021, shooting up from 38% in 2020 and representing the highest amount in a decade of recurring survey findings, according to an article published this week in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

 

New Abortion Laws Jeopardize Cancer Treatment for Pregnant Patients 

Charlotte Huff, Kaiser Health News 

As abortion bans go into effect across a contiguous swath of the South, cancer physicians are wrestling with how new state laws will influence their discussions with pregnant patients about what treatment options they can offer.

 

Woman charged with bomb threat against children’s hospital 

The Associated Press

Federal authorities on Thursday arrested a woman accused of calling in a fake bomb threat at Boston Children’s Hospital amid a barrage of harassment and threats of violence over its surgical program for transgender youths.

 

LGBTQ+ Americans report more discrimination at the doctor, poll finds

Orion Rummler and Jasmine Mithani, The 19th

When LGBTQ+ people go to the doctor, they are more likely to be refused medical services, blamed for their health problems and discriminated against than cisgender and heterosexual people, a new 19th News/SurveyMonkey poll has found. 

 

Sexual assault victims billed for hospital exams that should be free

Aria Bendix, NBC News 

The average cost of emergency care related to sexual violence was more than $3,500 per patient in 2019, new research shows.

 
Pharma, Biotech and Devices
 

‘Gaming’ of U.S. patent system is keeping drug prices sky high, report says

Berkeley Lovelace Jr., NBC News  

Drugmakers are able to extend the patents on their drugs, keeping generics off the market, through a process known as “evergreening.”

 

ADHD Drug Adderall Runs Low at CVS, Walgreens as Demand Soars 

Ike Swetlitz, Bloomberg 

Adderall, the widely used drug for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, is experiencing shortages across the US, according to interviews with patients as well as major pharmacy chains that carry the pills.

 

Tying FDA Fees to Stopgap Bill Seen as Missed Chance for Change

Celine Castronuovo and Alex Ruoff, Bloomberg Law 

Health policy advocates are wary that a push to attach FDA user fee legislation to a government funding bill will deny the agency new drug approval oversight tools and other long-sought policy changes.

 

Medicare’s new powers to control drug prices to face lobbying and legal fights 

Leslie Walker and Dan Gorenstein, NPR News

Two of the biggest battlegrounds will be a pair of new powers that lawmakers gave Medicare, the federal insurance program that covers 64 million seniors and people with disabilities. Medicare’s roughly $180 billion annual drug budget accounts for more than a third of the country’s total drug spending.

 

Swiss authorities raid Novartis offices seeking info on patents 

Ed Silverman, Stat News

The Swiss Competition Commission has begun an investigation into Novartis over the possible unlawful use of a patent to block competitors for some of its medicines, the latest instance in which European authorities have probed drug companies for antitrust infractions.

 

Lupus patients go into remission borrowing CAR-T cancer therapy 

Isabella Cueto, Stat News

CAR-T therapy, a way of amplifying a person’s own immune power against a disease target, is the latest tool in this shared playbook. Half a dozen people with severe lupus have gone into remission from their disease after receiving CAR-T, a result that researchers say could usher in a new era for a whole suite of hard-to-treat autoimmune conditions. 

 
Health Technology
 

Location Data Rules Draw FTC’s Attention Post-Roe 

Jack Gillum and Brody Ford, Bloomberg Businessweek

The Supreme Court’s June decision to overturn Roe v. Wade set off widespread concerns that location data collected and shared by smartphones could be used to prosecute people who receive or provide abortions. There’s scant regulation of the industry built around the selling and buying of personal data, which IDC says generates $15 billion annually. That puts a lot of weight on the privacy protections set by location-data brokers themselves.

 

Period tracker Flo launches anonymous mode amid post-Roe privacy concerns 

Rebecca Pifer, Healthcare Dive 

Period tracking app Flo has rolled out an anonymous mode to protect users’ sensitive reproductive health data months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

 

CVS, UPMC and General Catalyst back Redesign Health’s series C

Heather Landi, Fierce Healthcare 

Redesign Health has built and launched 40 healthcare startups since 2018, and it nabbed $65 million in fresh funding to jump-start dozens more.

 

Savvier buyers threaten mental health tech’s momentum

Mario Aguilar, Stat News

When the pandemic exposed long-festering problems around access to mental health care, many organizations started panic shopping for apps and virtual services to address the needs of workers. Now, there are signs that some of that sales momentum may slow down as companies take a sober look at their budgets in the face of a rocky economy.

 
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
 

The New Covid Boosters Are Amazing News 

Zeynep Tufekci, The New York Times 

For the first time, the United States is rolling out Covid vaccines updated to match variants that are currently dominant, as well as the original strain. This bivalent character will provide a better response not just to the most threatening variants today but probably to future variants too, because when the immune system faces different versions of the same virus it generates broader protections overall.

 
Morning Consult