The Wall Street Journal reports today that

As vaccinations speed up across the U.S., key Covid-19 metrics are declining from a record-setting fall surge. Newly reported cases fell below 100,000 for the first time this year. Hospitalizations dropped for the 26th day in a row, and the number of Covid-19 patients requiring intensive-care treatment fell to its lowest level since Nov. 19.

The country is now averaging about 1.4 million vaccinations a day, and nearly 10% of the U.S. population has been given at least one dose, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Demand is so high in some states it is overwhelming local providers and frustrating people seeking shots.

The Journal also offers an op-ed by former Food and Drug Commissioners and Doctors Scott Gottlieb and Mark McClellan recommending that the federal government start planning now for a potential “glut” of the COVID-19 vaccine beginning in the summer of this year. “It is essential to emphasize in public-health messaging that every adult can benefit and deserves the protections they can provide, and there will be no reason to forgo it once the scarcity problem is solved.”

Fierce Healthcare reports that

Healthcare spending is expected to balloon to $8.3 trillion by 2040, which is $3.5 trillion less than a federal government estimate, a new report from consulting firm Deloitte finds.

The reason for the discrepancy is that consumers will take a more active role in their healthcare and therefore help curb spending, including by getting early signals of disease and addressing them proactively, according to the report released Monday.

“We anticipate that emerging technologies, an ability to cure and prevent disease (or detect disease in the earliest stages), and highly engaged consumers will lead to a deceleration of health spending between now and 2040,” the report said.

Here’s hoping.

Health Payer Intelligence informs us that “Payers are not leveraging care management to its fullest capacity and they have an opportunity reform their care management programs to improve quality of care and return on investment, a report from McKinsey & Company (McKinsey) found.” The report recommends four steps which the article describes in more detail”

First, the report recommended that payers target high-potential sources of value.

Second, payers should leverage care management to address clinically inappropriate healthcare spending, instead of seeking only to reduce total healthcare spend.

Third, the researchers urged payers to embrace consumerism.

Finally, payers should adopt operational metrics and disciplines to govern their care management programs

In the FEHBlog’s experience, good advice, like this, is always worth consideration but also is easier said than done.

In other news —

• Politico recently reported that “Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, a longtime Democratic health policy expert, has emerged as the leading candidate to run President Joe Biden’s Medicare and Medicaid agency, according to three sources familiar with the Biden team’s discussions.”
• Reuters reported that a federal district judge has dismissed Walmart’s lawsuit, filed last October, “seeking to preemptively block the U.S. government from blaming the world’s largest retailer for its alleged role in fueling the nation’s opioid crisis. U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan said the government had not waived its sovereign immunity from Walmart’s “sweeping” challenge to the Department of Justice’s and Drug Enforcement Administration’s enforcement of laws governing opioid prescriptions by pharmacies and pharmacists.” Not surprisingly this lawsuit did not deter the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Walmart. Walmart plans to appeal this decision.
• The Internal Revenue released today the 2021 version of its popular Employer’s Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits (Publication 15-B).