COVID-19 vaccines

• The Food and Drug Administration directed health care workers not to alter COVID-19 vaccine dosing regimens, in response to suggestions that limited doses be cut in half, delayed or mixed and matched in order to quickly vaccinate more people.

• The incoming administration plans to release nearly every available dose of COVID-19 vaccines in an effort to quickly shore up immunization efforts, a spokesperson for President-elect Joe Biden’s transition said. The plan breaks from the Trump administration’s strategy of holding back half of doses to ensure people who got their first shot can get their second, and the spokesperson said Biden would share additional details of the vaccination plan this week.

• The Trump administration is accelerating efforts to make COVID-19 vaccines available in pharmacies, beginning with an estimated 3,000 to 6,000 pharmacies, a senior Health and Human Services Department official said.

• HHS Secretary Alex Azar urged states to begin offering COVID-19 vaccines to a broader range of people, including seniors and high-risk groups, in order to speed up the pace of immunizations and prevent doses from going to waste.

• Moderna Inc. said it will produce 600 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine this year, up from its previous commitment of 500 million doses, as the biotech company ramps up to its goal of 1 billion doses in 2021. Moderna, which has supplied 18 million doses to the U.S. government so far, said 200 million total doses could be available to Americans by the second quarter.

• The COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE appears effective against new variants of the virus that have sprung up in the United Kingdom and South Africa, according to researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch, who found antibodies in the blood of vaccinated people neutralized a lab-created version of the mutant virus.

Deals

• UnitedHealth Group Inc. will buy Change Healthcare Inc. in a $13 billion deal that will combine the health technology company with UnitedHealth’s OptumInsight unit to offer software, data analytics and other behind-the-scenes services for health care organizations. The acquisition, which values Change Healthcare at about $8 billion and takes on the company’s more than $5 billion in debt, is one of UnitedHealth’s largest.

• Centene Corp. will buy Magellan Health Inc. in a $2.2 billion deal that executives said will allow the health insurer to take a more integrated approach to behavioral health care. Magellan, which manages speciality care for mental health issues and substance use disorders, will operate independently within Centene after the deal closes.

• AmerisourceBergen Corp. will buy Alliance Healthcare, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.’s drug distribution unit, for $6.5 billion in an effort to expand its global operations. Alliance Healthcare is one of the largest pharmaceutical wholesalers in Europe.

Closures

• Haven, the joint venture from Amazon.com Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. to lower employee health care costs and improve outcomes, will shutter three years after it formed. People with knowledge of the matter said that while Haven provided ideas, the three companies pursued projects independently with their own employees, underscoring the superfluousness of having a joint company.

• The Senate and the House are scheduled to be in state and district work periods, but a potential vote on the impeachment of President Donald Trump as soon as midweek could bring lawmakers back to town.

• The J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference runs Wednesday through Saturday, with keynotes from Dr. Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and GlaxoSmithKline PLC Chief Executive Emma Walmsley.

• The Kaiser Family Foundation will hold a webinar titled “A Shot in the Arm For Long-Term Care Facilities? Early Lessons from the COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout to High Priority Populations” at 12 p.m. on Thursday.

• The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission Meeting will meet Thursday and Friday.

1) Federal Data Reveal Which Hospitals Are Dangerously Full This Week. Is Yours?
Sean Mcminn and Audrey Carlsen, NPR News

2) More Than 17.5 Million Shots Given: Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker
Bloomberg

3) UnitedHealth to Purchase Change Healthcare for $8 Billion
John Tozzi, Bloomberg

4) Trump administration speeds up plan to deliver Covid shots in pharmacies
Rachel Roubein, Politico

5) Feds may cut Moderna vaccine doses in half so more people get shots, Warp Speed adviser says
Brianna Ehley, Politico

6) States Urged to Widen Vaccination Pool Amid Slow U.S. Start
Angelica LaVito, Bloomberg

7) Inside the collapse of a disrupter: How Haven’s high hopes of redefining health care came to a crashing halt
Erin Brodwin and Casey Ross, Stat News

8) Hospital Prices Just Got a Lot More Transparent. What Does This Mean for You?
Julie Appleby, Kaiser Health News

9) Haven, the Amazon-Berkshire-JPMorgan venture to disrupt health care, is disbanding after 3 years
Hugh Son, CNBC

10) With New Majority, Here’s What Democrats Can (and Can’t) Do on Health Care
Sarah Kliff and Margot Sanger-Katz, The New York Times