From Washington, DC,
- Yesterday, OPM’s Office of Inspector General posted its Semi-annual Report to Congress for September 30, 2023. OPM has not yet posted its Management Response thereto.
- The HHS Office of Inspector General also issued its latest Semi-annual Report to Congress.
- Federal News Network reports that federal employees in Japan continue to experience healthcare access problems.
- The Director of HHS’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality explains how the Biden Administration is tackling financial strains on healthcare consumers.
From the public health and medical research front,
- Beckers Clinical Leadership tells us,
- “CDC Director Mandy Cohen, MD, said the season of respiratory syncytial virus is in “full swing” as flu slowly begins and COVID-19 leads the most hospitalizations and deaths, CNN reported Nov. 30.
- “What to know about COVID-19, RSV and flu:
- “COVID-19: Dr. Cohen said while COVID-19 is “relatively low,” it remains the primary reason for new respiratory admissions and deaths. In November, each week saw between 14,000 and 18,000 hospitalizations and about 1,000 deaths.
- “The CDC revealed a new wastewater data tracking dashboard to track local and national trends per variant, and the dashboard also tracks mpox viruses.
- “Between Nov. 1 and Nov. 20, the most recent CDC information available, the proportion of wastewater sites reporting high increases of SARS-CoV-2 samples grew from 22% to 32%. During the same time, the proportion of wastewater sites finding decreasing samples slimmed from 60% to 49%.
- RSV: “Hospitalizations for RSV have been slightly rising, with RSV accounting for 0.5% of all hospitalizations in late October and 0.8% as of Nov. 18, according to the CDC. Ten states and New York City are reporting high levels of respiratory virus activity. Louisiana and South Carolina reported “very high” respiratory virus activity levels and Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas are seeing “high” levels.
- Flu: “The flu season is beginning as national estimates reveal 3.9% of healthcare visits were for flu for the week ending Nov. 25, a 0.2 percentage point increase from the prior week. Most of the U.S. is reporting an increase in flu, with hot spots appearing in the South Central, Southeast, Mountain and West Coast regions. Twenty-five states and territories are reporting minimal flu activity.
- “Hospitalizations for flu have grown for the third consecutive week.”
- “COVID-19: Dr. Cohen said while COVID-19 is “relatively low,” it remains the primary reason for new respiratory admissions and deaths. In November, each week saw between 14,000 and 18,000 hospitalizations and about 1,000 deaths.
- The Wall Street Journal reports,
- “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging people to avoid eating certain cantaloupe products amid a salmonella outbreak that has resulted in at least two deaths in the U.S.
- “At least 117 people across 34 states have become sick after eating contaminated cantaloupe since mid-October, according to the CDC. At least 61 people have been hospitalized and two have died in Minnesota. The federal agency said the number of people sickened by the outbreak is likely much higher.
- “The agency said it’s particularly concerned about the outbreak because the illnesses have been severe and some have occurred in long-term-care facilities and child-care centers. Fourteen people in long-term-care facilities and seven children who attended child-care facilities have been sickened, the CDC said.”
- STAT News informs us,
- “Advances in treatments for congenital heart abnormalities mean more patients are living into adulthood, with over 2 million adults estimated to have the condition in the U.S. But that means more are also developing heart failure as they grow older — and many aren’t receiving proper care.
- “A new study published this week in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that while hospitalizations of adults with congenital heart disease stayed stable from 2010 to 2020, the proportion of admissions for those who have heart failure more than doubled from 6.6% to 14%.
- “These patients with heart failure also had worse outcomes after hospitalization, with an 86% higher risk of death, a 73% higher risk of major heart and brain complications, and a 26% higher risk of hospital readmission.
- “The findings suggest that adults with congenital heart disease who also have heart failure are an especially high-risk population, and they may need closer monitoring and unique treatment regimens.”
- Health Day offers these key takeaways from recent study results:
- “Sticking to your scheduled mammograms can significantly reduce your risk of death from breast cancer
- “Women who got all their scheduled mammograms had a 66% to 72% reduced risk of breast cancer death
- “Regular mammograms make it more likely that breast cancers can be caught early, when they are more treatable.”
- Mercer Consulting discusses why an end to HIV in our country is in sight and shares five ways to address HIV in the workplace.
- The American Hospital Association News adds
- “Nine out of 10 people receiving medical care for HIV through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program in 2022 were virally suppressed, meaning they cannot sexually transmit the virus if they take their HIV medication as prescribed, according to the latest annual data from the Health Resources and Services Administration program.”
From the U.S. healthcare business front,
- EBRI posted Fast Facts about the changing nature of primary care in our country.
- “Among users of primary care, 95–97 percent utilized it in an office setting prior to 2020, but only 86 percent did so from 2020–2021 as employees began using telemedicine (7–8 percent) and urgent care clinics (3–4 percent) with greater frequency due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- “There has been a consistent downward trend in the share of employees whose primary care office visits are at a general/family practice, falling from 42 percent in 2013 to 37 percent in 2021. In addition, primary care office visits at internal medicine providers have fallen from 21 percent in 2013 to 17 percent in 2021.
- “Finally, the provision of primary care by a medical doctor has fallen from 9 percent in 2013 to 4 percent in 2021. In contrast, primary are provision by nurse practitioners and physician assistants has risen over time. The share of employees whose primary care office visits have been with a physician assistant rose from 2 percent in 2013 to 6 percent in 2021.
- “The corresponding change for nurse practitioners has been from 4 percent in 2013 to 16 percent in 2021.”
- BioPharma Dive lets us know,
- “Pfizer will not advance a twice-daily dose of an experimental obesity drug into further testing after results from a mid-stage study showed high rates of gastrointestinal side effects and participant dropout.
- “Treatment did lead to significant weight loss compared to placebo over the course of the Phase 2b study. Placebo-adjusted reductions in body weight ranged from 8% to 13% at 32 weeks, Pfizer said in a statement Friday. Discontinuation rates were more than 50% on some drug doses, however.
- “Moving forward, Pfizer will turn its focus to a once-daily version that’s currently being tested in a study meant to determine how the drug’s processed by the body. Data are expected in the first half of next year.”
- Healthcare Dive reports,
- “Community Health Systems announced on Friday it has completed the sale of three Florida hospitals to Tampa General Hospital for about $294 million in cash.
- “The deal includes 120-bed Bravera Health Brooksville, 124-bed Bravera Health Spring Hill and 128-bed Bravera Health Seven Rivers, as well as their associated assets, physician clinic operations and outpatient services, according to a press release.
- “The sale allows the for-profit hospital operator to “deliberately focus our resources in markets that we deem as most investable and that can produce greater growth and returns over the long term,” CHS CEO Tim Hingtgen said during a call with investors shortly after the divestiture was announced this summer.”
- MedCity News explains how payers can break down barriers that prevent access to value-based virtual care.
- Per Fierce Healthcare,
- Daniel Jones, who pens the investment newsletter Crude Value Insights, wrote in an analysis that because Cigna and Humana have fairly different focuses despite both being large health plans, there is potential that the merger could be viewed as more of a vertical deal than a horizontal one, which is less likely to stymie competition.
- Cigna is a far smaller player in the Medicare Advantage space while Humana’s insurance business is overwhelmingly centered in MA. Humana, meanwhile, has limited reach in the commercial market, where Cigna has a far greater footprint.