Friday Factoids

David Ermer–Medical / Rx research, SDOH, U.S. Healthcare–
Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

From the U.S. healthcare business front –

  • Healthcare Dive tells us
    • “All eyes were on UnitedHealth’s medical costs when the health insurance giant reported second-quarter financial results on Friday, but rising outpatient utilization among seniors that spooked investors left the payer’s earnings largely unscathed.
    • “UnitedHealth’s medical loss ratio — the share of premiums spent on healthcare costs — was 83.2% in the quarter, higher than the 81.5% notched in the second quarter last year but lower than analyst expectations.
    • “In the second quarter, outpatient care activity among seniors was a few hundred basis points above our expectations,” UnitedHealth CFO John Rex said on a Friday morning call with investors. “Specific orthopedic and cardiac procedures have increased far above that level of variation.”
  • The Wall Street Journal adds
    • “Americans of all ages are seeking far more mental-health care for conditions including anxiety, depression and substance-use problems.
    • “UnitedHealth Group, parent of the nation’s biggest health insurer, said the percentage of people getting psychological visits and other services was up by double digits just since last year, and it believes the shift represents a long-term change. The company said people feel increasingly comfortable seeking help for behavioral-health issues, but it sees a continuing shortage of mental-health-care providers that is leading to problems with access.
    • “The rising use of behavioral-health care was one driver of higher healthcare costs flagged by the company during a call discussing its second-quarter financial results, which overall beat analysts’ expectations.”
  • BioPharma Dive reports
    • “Eli Lilly has agreed to acquire privately held biotechnology company Versanis in a deal that will add an experimental antibody to Lilly’s pipeline of medicines for obesity.
    • “The companies did not disclose a purchase price, but said in a statement Friday that upfront and milestone payments by Lilly to Versanis shareholders could be worth as much as $1.9 billion.
    • “Founded in 2021 by Aditum Bio, Versanis is built around a drug licensed from Novartis. The antibody, called bimagrumab, is designed to block cellular communication via two types of protein regulators and is being studied in people who are overweight or obese.”
  • Beckers Payer Issues points out that “Competition between Blue Cross Blue Shield companies is increasing after a 2022 antitrust settlement that struck down some agreements limiting competition between BCBS Association members, according to a July 13 report from Advisory Board.“
  • Per Reuters
    • “An influential U.S. drug pricing watchdog raised the price estimate of two experimental gene therapies from Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX.O)/CRISPR Therapeutics and bluebird bio (BLUE.O) to as much as $2.05 mln, saying the new price can be cost effective to treat sickle cell disease.
    • “A price of up to $2.05 million a year, higher than the prior estimate in April of up to $1.9 million would meet some commonly used thresholds for cost effectiveness, the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) said.”

From the SDOH front, Healthcare IT News notes “Without the need for deep learning and neural network models, researchers were able to use machine learning to extract social determinants of health information on housing challenges, financial stability and employment status from unstructured patient data in electronic health records, a new research report from Regenstrief Institute shows.”

From the plan design front —

  • HR Executive offers six ways to make a primary care strategy blossom. Check it out.
  • Fierce Healthcare lets us know
    • “The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) has released a request for information to design a future episode-based payment model.
    • “The center is looking for feedback on questions related to care delivery, incentive structure alignment, clinical episodes, participants, health equity, quality measures and multipayer alignment, payment methodology and structure, and model overlap, according to the request.
    • “Episode-based payment models intend to address inefficiencies in traditional Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries, where providers are paid for each item or service. This leads to “volume over value and fragment care,” according to the request.”

From the mental healthcare front,

  • KFF created a brief on the success to date of the 988 national suicide and crisis number.
    • Since its launch in July 2022, the 988 national suicide and crisis hotline has received about 4 million contacts, a 33 percent increase from the year before, according to a new KFF analysis of publicly available data through May 2023. The contacts include more than 2.6 million calls, over 740,000 chats, and more than 600,000 texts. The total number of contacts rises to almost 5 million when nearly 1 million additional contacts from the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) are included, which were reported by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), but aren’t yet publicly available.