OPM announced today that the next Federal Benefits Open Season will be held from November 14 through December 12, 2022. The announcement tells us that OPM expects to post 2023 FEHB and FEDVIP premiums on its website in “late September.”
From the Omicron and siblings front, the Wall Street Journal offers a helpful set of FAQs on the new bivalent mRNA boosters that are currently rolling out for administration.
From the monkeypox front, the Food and Drug Administration announced action to expand testing for the disease.
From the public health front, McKinsey and Company released its
United States of Health Dashboard. [McKinsey describes the tool as] an easy-to-use data visualization tool that enables users to explore the impact of disease and ill health within individual states, the dashboard is informed by key metrics encompassing maternal and neonatal health, behavioral health, communicable disease, chronic disease, and environmental health. It measures the total loss of healthy years of life, assuming full health (also known as “the burden of disease”), that affect a state’s population over the course of one year.
The dashboard is designed to help current and newly tapped state leaders, public-health agencies, and other stakeholders identify the highest-priority areas for investment by offering insights into key questions such as: How do behavioral health challenges affect a state’s population? How well is chronic disease managed and infectious disease controlled? How do mothers and their newborn infants fare? How well are health risks in the environment managed? And which populations are most significantly impacted by these metrics?
For example, here is a link to the Texas dashboard.
In other public health news, the American Hospital Association informs us
September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, with National Suicide Prevention Week running Sept. 4-10. In recognition of the effort to reduce the occurrence of suicide and destigmatize the conversation around it, AHA is proud to highlight resources available to our members and the public at large.
HR Director offers an interesting article about how HR professionals can approach this issue.
In the roughly dozen years since [he dealth with an employee suicide], [Matthew] Burr has advised every one of his clients (which include schools, financial firms and manufacturers, among other companies) to establish an EAP. Aside from a couple smaller companies, which have anywhere from five to 10 employees, every client has taken his advice. They were truly grateful to have done so ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic, so their employees had support systems already in place during the unprecedented time.
From the U.S. healthcare business front
- Healthcare Dive reports that Walmart and UnitedHealthcare have teamed up to offer a Medicare Advantage plan under a ten-year-long contract. “Ultimately, the goal is to serve hundreds of thousands of seniors and Medicare beneficiaries in value-based arrangements through multiple Medicare Advantage plans.
- Beckers Hospital Review tells us “Cost Plus Drug Co. founder Mark Cuban expects his online pharmacy to soon grow past 1 million customers, the billionaire of Shark Tank fame said Sept. 6 during Vox‘s Code Conference. ‘By the time I get back, we should, hopefully, be past a million patients in seven months,’ Mr. Cuban told Vox‘s Recode, referring to the late-January launch of Cost Plus Drug Co., according to CNET.”
- Reuters reports, not surprisingly, that “CVS Health Corp’s (CVS.N) plan to buy healthcare services company Signify Health for about $8 billion will face a tough U.S. antitrust review even though the two companies do not compete directly in any markets, three experts said Tuesday.”
From the Rx coverage, BioPharma Dive discusses the near term future of biosimilar drugs.
From the health savings account front, Voya Financial discusses “five HSA funding strategies companies [or FEHB plans’ can employ to help boost employee saving.”