Friday Stats and More

COVID-19

Friday Stats and More

David Ermer–CDC, Congress, COVID-19, Mental health care, U.S. Healthcare, Uncategorized–

Based on the CDC’s Cases in the U.S. website, here is the FEHBlog’s chart of new weekly COVID-19 cases and deaths over the 20th through 32nd weeks of this year (beginning May 14 and ending August 19; using Thursday as the first day of the week in order to facilitate this weekly update):

and here is the CDC’s latest overall weekly hospitalization rate chart for COVID-19:

It looks like we are on another downswing of COVID-19 cases and hopefully we all understand now the importance of social distancing, mask wearing, avoiding super spreader events so that the number of cases continues to trend down (in contrast to June and July).

The Salt Lake City Tribune reports that “Doctors from University of Utah Health and ARUP Laboratories announced Thursday that they will offer saliva testing for COVID-19 by September — after completing a study that found the spit test detected the virus as well as the traditional, and famously uncomfortable, nasal swab.”

Bill Phillips, founder of Spectrum Solutions, a company in Draper that manufactures saliva test kits, said the U.-ARUP study is in line with other research that shows the effectiveness of the spit test for detecting COVID-19. Such research, Phillips said, should promote broader acceptance of the saliva test over the nasopharyngal swab, both in and out of the medical community. Spectrum Solutions manufactures 100,000 saliva test kits a day in its Draper plant, Phillips said. The company is ramping up to produce 500,000 kits a day, using contractors in Wisconsin, North Carolina and California. Phillips’ company boasts a client list that includes the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Ski and Snowboard team, the Olympics, and several sports leagues. Last week, Spectrum Solutions became the test-kit supplier to Major League Baseball, with plans to produce 275,000 kits for the pandemic-shortened season.

Whoopee.

On the flip side, the Centers for Disease Control released a survey disclosing that during late June 2020 40% of Americans were struggling with mental illness or substance abuse due in large part to the great hunkering down.

No bueno.

The Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker has issued a report on how insured health plans are covering COVID-19 treatment during this public health emergency.

Yesterday, the FEHBlog wrote about Uber Health. Today, he points out a Fierce Healthcare story about its mega-competitor Lyft Health.

In a new study released Wednesday, Lyft offers a look at the performance of its partnership with AmeriHealth Caritas DC, which was facilitated by Access2Care. Lyft rides were made available to 11,400 for routine visits and urgent care, and between April 2018 and April 2019 emergency department visits dropped by 40% and ambulance utilization decreased by 12%. Amerigroup Tennessee, an Anthem company, similarly signed on with Lyft, launching a pilot in 2019 in Memphis. To date, it has seen a 44% increase in primary care visits and a 50% decrease in primary care gaps.

Finally Federal News Network reports on the Postmaster General’s testimony today before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The House is scheduled to consider a Postal Service bill (HR 8015) tomorrow. Here’s the version of the bill which the House Rules Committee approved today. The bill seeks to maintain the status quo in Postal Service operations retroactive to January 1, 2020 and provide the Postal Service with $25 billion. $15 million of this sum will go to the Postal Service Inspector General. House passage of this bill may lead to a compromise COVID-19 relief measure.

Thursday Miscellany

David Ermer–CDC, COVID-19, Electronic health records, Rx coverage–

The Wall Street Journal reports that “Around the country, medical centers have begun setting up clinics focused on evaluating and treating Covid-19 patients reporting symptoms that last weeks or months after their initial illness or diagnosis. But the clinics are relatively new and hospitals are still adding resources, so wait lists can stretch months at the ones that exist so far.”

Healthcare Dive informs us that

Rideshare giant Uber is entering the prescription drug delivery business through a new partnership with on-demand prescription platform NimbleRx, the two companies announced Thursday. The partnership is currently live in Seattle and Dallas, with plans to expand to other parts of the country in the coming months, per a release. Nimble and Uber have completed more than 15,000 deliveries since the pilot launched earlier this summer.

Digital delivery marketplace Nimble, based in Redwood City, Calif., is used by more than 700 pharmacies in 34 states, giving the new partnership significant room to scale. Through an integration with Uber Direct, Uber’s delivery platform, the rideshare behemoth’s fleet of drivers will now be another delivery option for consumers.

It’s a crowded space: Retail pharmacy giants CVS Health and Walgreens have invested heavily in prescription home delivery following Amazon’s acquisition of online pharmacy Pillpack two years ago. Established players and startups alike are vying for a cut of runaway drug spending, while pitching better medication maintenance

CVS Health / Caremark and Express Scripts, among other PBMs, offer programs to allow health plan members to receive mail order pharmacy pricing on 90 day maintenance prescriptions at the pharmacy.

The Centers for Disease Control today released “Prevention and Control of Seasonal Influenza with Vaccines: Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices — United States, 2020–21 Influenza Season.”

Routine annual influenza vaccination of all persons aged ≥6 months who do not have contraindications continues to be recommended. No preferential recommendation is made for one influenza vaccine product over another for persons for whom more than one licensed, recommended, and appropriate product is available.

Balancing considerations regarding the unpredictability of timing of onset of the influenza season and concerns that vaccine-induced immunity might wane over the course of a season, vaccination is recommended to be offered by the end of October [2020].

Efforts should be structured to optimize vaccination coverage before influenza activity in the community begins. Vaccination should continue to be offered as long as influenza viruses are circulating and unexpired vaccine is available.

In the same vein, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced yesterday the issuance of a “third amendment to the Declaration under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act) to increase access to lifesaving childhood vaccines and decrease the risk of vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks as children across the United States return to daycare, preschool and school. ‘Today’s action means easier access to lifesaving vaccines for our children, as we seek to ensure immunization rates remain high during the COVID-19 pandemic,’ said HHS Secretary Alex Azar. The amendment authorizes State-licensed pharmacists (and pharmacy interns acting under their supervision to administer vaccines, if the pharmacy intern is licensed or registered by his or her State board of pharmacy) to order and administer vaccines to individuals ages three through 18 years, subject to several requirements” described in the announcement. Pharmacies have become a convenient administration point for many vaccinations, such as the flu vaccine.

Health Payer Intelligence reminds us that “Although the interoperability rule will not be implemented until mid-2021, payers can be aware of what to expect regarding how this rule will change their processes, as outlined in a recent AHIP brief.” The rule generally applies to plans regulated by HHS. While FEHB plans are not subject to the rule, they can benefit from riding in the slip stream by benefitting from interoperability innovations, such as HL7’s FHIR API standard.

Midweek update

David Ermer–CDC, COVID-19, SCOTUS, U.S. Healthcare–

Healthcare Dive reports on the National Business Group on Health’s (“NBGH”) 2021 Large Employer Health Care Strategy and Plan Design Survey. This squib caught the FEHBlog’s eye:

Beyond expanding online mental health resources, respondents also mentioned interest in virtual care for musculoskeletal management conditions. Musculoskeletal conditions were most frequently cited by employers as contributing to rising health care costs, and 29% of those surveyed said they will offer musculoskeletal management virtually next year.

[NBGH President Ellen] Kelsay said virtual treatments for common joint conditions can help stave off unnecessary surgical interventions, and “now that we have a workforce that for many months has been working at home and probably not in the most ideal of ergonomic situations, we expect to see musculoskeletal conditions continue to worsen.”

If the FEHBlog were an employer in northeastern Ohio, he would jump at the new accountable care organization (“ACO”) that Aetna and the Cleveland Clinic have announced today. Here’s Beckers Payer Issues report on the arrangement. The FEHBlog loves the ACO concept.

The FEHBlog also has been intrigued by the research effort to develop convalescent plasma therapy for COVID-19. The AP reports today that the FDA is not ready to give emergency use authorization to this treatment because reliable evidence of efficacy has not emerged from currently reported studies. The FEHBlog was encouraged to find that yesterday “the National Institutes of Health awarded Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore a $4.3 million grant to support a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2 clinical trial that launched in April to evaluate the efficacy of convalescent plasma to treat COVID-19.” The public will be better served by waiting for the results of this study.

The FEHBlog ran across this CDC site on COVID-19 contact tracing, a topic that has been in the news lately. It may be helpful for health plans to share this information with their members.

Finally, the U.S. Supreme Court calendared the Texas v. California case for oral argument on November 10, 2020. This is the third case to present the issue of the Affordable Care Act’s constitutionality. In the FEHBlog’s legal opinion, the Supreme Court unanimously will support the ACA’s constitutionality in this case. The Supreme Court took this case to stop the Fifth Circuit court of appeals from slicing up the law based on a flawed severability analysis, not to strike the law down. The proof is in the pudding — the ACA marketplace did not fall apart without the individual mandate.

Tuesday Tidbits

David Ermer–CDC, Congress, COVID-19, SCOTUS, U.S. Healthcare–

Happy 100th anniversary of American women’s suffrage to all. It seems to the FEHBlog that the British women’s suffrage movement overshadows the American women’s suffrage movement in history. (Perhaps the FEHBlog watch too much English television). The FEHBlog was favorably struck by the fact that American women got the same right to vote as men about ten years before British women did.

The FEHBlog discovered today that the OPM Inspector General has posted his semi-annual report to Congress for the period ended March 31, 2020, and OPM has posted its management response thereto. The first page of the Inspector General’s report following the cover is particularly flashy.

The Department of Health and Human Services released today its Health People 2030 report which “features 355 core – or measurable – objectives with 10-year targets, new objectives related to opioid use disorder and youth e-cigarette use, and resources for adapting Healthy People 2030 to emerging public health threats like COVID-19. For the first time, Healthy People 2030 also sets 10-year targets for objectives related to social determinants of health.” Check it out.

In a related action, the Wall Street Journal reports that the federal government is in the midst of crafting its five year plan for American diets. The alcohol committee is proposing that men meet the same daily consumption standard set for women — one alcoholic beverage per individual. This reminds the FEHBlog of another action that happened a century ago but only lasted a thirteen years — prohibition. The Department of Agriculture will finalize the five year diet plan later this year.

On the prescription drug front —

  • Medscape offers a description of the 35 prescription drugs that the Food and Drug Administration has approved so far in 2020.
  • Drug Channels to the FEHBlog’s surprise informs us that “nine out of ten large hospitals now operate a specialty pharmacy. Hospitals and other healthcare providers account for one-third of all U.S. accredited specialty pharmacies. Clinical and general financial motivations are driving hospitals’ DIY specialty pharmacy growth. The enormous profit opportunities from the 340B Drug Pricing Program offer further encouragement for hospitals. In-house specialty pharmacies are also a valuable hedge against the potential loss of contract pharmacies.”

Speaking of hospitals, Beckers Hospital Review reports that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced yesterday that “Hospitals will get a [20%] payment boost on Sept. 1 for caring for Medicare beneficiaries diagnosed with COVID-19. A positive COVID-19 laboratory test must be documented in the patient’s medical record for the hospital to receive the higher payment.”

Finally, on the Postal Service front, the Federal News Network reports that “Postmaster General Louis DeJoy says the Postal Service will hold off on ‘longstanding operational initiatives’ to reduce costs until after this November’s election.” The Wall Street Journal adds that

The House plans to vote Saturday on a bill that would give $25 billion in additional funding to the agency, which is what the Postal Service requested to meet budget shortfalls and costs related to the coronavirus pandemic. The bill would also prohibit the agency from implementing any changes to operations or service levels it had in place on Jan.1 until the end of the Covid-19 emergency or Jan. 1, 2021, whichever comes later.

Senate Republicans are preparing a pared-down coronavirus aid package that would include $10 billion for the Postal Service as well as money for the unemployed and for testing and combating the coronavirus.

The Postmaster General will appear before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Friday August 21 at 9 am and the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Monday August 24 at 10 am.

Monday Roundup

David Ermer–CDC, Congress, COVID-19, Telehealth, U.S. Healthcare–

The Wall Street Journal reports that House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D CA) has decided to bring the House back for a vote later this week on a bill to protect the Postal Service. Of course because the House has approved remote voting during the continuing COVID-19 emergency members will not be required to return to DC.

It appears to the FEHBlog that the legislative vehicle for this action will be HR 8015 which House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney introduced last Tuesday. The bill’s title / purpose reads “To maintain prompt and reliable postal services during the COVID-19 health emergency, and for other purposes.” It has 37 co-sponsors. The Congressional Research Service summary and the text of the bill are not yet available but the FEHBlog has signed up for alerts on congress.gov.

This afternoon, a federal district court judge from Brooklyn, NY, issued a decision enjoining the recently revised ACA Section 1557’s rule’s “repeal” of the sex discrimination definition found in the Obama Administration’s Section 1557 rule. That definition offered express protection to transgendered people. The federal district court in Washington, DC, which is considering a challenge to the legality of the entire rule, hasn’t issued a ruling today. The rule’s effective date is tomorrow. Perhaps the Brooklyn district court’s action will cause HHS to re-evaluate the rule. In the FEHBlog’s view that would be the most sensible course of action in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Bostock County decision.m

On the COVID-19 front —

  • STAT News recounts what we know and don’t know about the COVID-19 virus from its standpoint. The article is worth a skim.
  • The Centers for Disease Control has released updated guidance on the duration of isolation and precautions for people who have been infected with COVID-19.
  • Managed Healthcare Executive reports that “The report on Deloitte’s biennial Center for Health Solutions Survey of U.S Consumers shows a significant increase in virtual care visits versus pre-pandemic trends, and a reversal in consumers’ willingness to share health data following the COVID-19 pandemic.” Silver lining?
  • Fierce Healthcare discusses “the unexpected ways [Artificial Intelligence] AI is impacting the delivery of care, including for COVID-19.” For example,

[A team lead by] Paul Friedman, M.D., the chairman of the cardiovascular department at Mayo Clinic * * * has trained an AI-algorithm embedded into standard electrocardiogram tests to detect which patients have weak heart pump, Friedman said speaking during a recent Fierce AI Week event. Five years later, the team discovered that the algorithm had made accurate predictions. “The physiological signals are affecting the electrocardiogram in subtle ways,” Friedman said. * * * So it looks like it’s looking into the future.”

Groovy.

Weekend update

David Ermer–Congress, COVID-19, COVID-19 testing, U.S. Healthcare, Uncategorized–

Because Congress is out of town until after Labor Day. let’s lead with the story that caused the FEHBlog to levitate out of his easy chair yesterday. The Yale News headline says it all — “Quick and affordable saliva-based COVID-19 test developed by Yale scientists receives FDA Emergency Use Authorization.”

A couple weeks ago the FEHBlog mentioned a USA Today story about an Xprize competition to find a quick and inexpensive COVID-19 test that would facilitate going back to work, school, etc. The Xprize competition’s first round closes next week and we already have one winner.

Check this out:

Wide-spread testing is critical for our control efforts. We simplified the test so that it only costs a couple of dollars for reagents, and we expect that labs will only charge about $10 per sample. If cheap alternatives like SalivaDirect can be implemented across the country, we may finally get a handle on this pandemic, even before a vaccine,” said [Yale Assistant Professor of Public Health Nathan] Grubaugh.

One of the team’s goals was to eliminate the expensive saliva collection tubes that other companies use to preserve the virus for detection. In a separate study led by Wyllie and the team at the Yale School of Public Health, and recently published on medRxiv, they found that SARS-CoV-2 is stable in saliva for prolonged periods at warm temperatures, and that preservatives or specialized tubes are not necessary for collection of saliva.

The Yale researchers validated their test with the cooperation of the National Basketball Association. It was interesting to watch this season’s opening Hard Knocks show on HBO which showed how NFL teams similarly are focused both on the team’s schedule and COVID-19.

In litigation news —

  • Last Friday, as Healthcare Dive reports, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed health insurers participating in the ACA’s marketplace another win against the federal government. This time the unpaid amounts involve reimbursable cost sharing reductions for low income marketplace participants.
  • On Tuesday, August 18, the Health and Human Services Department’s revised rule on the ACA’s individual non-discrimination provision, Section 1557, takes effect. The federal government, as requested by the Court, filed a sur-reply on the standing issue last Monday, and one of the plaintiff’s advised the Court on Wednesday that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has revived the dormant Franciscan Alliance case which is the granddaddy of challenges to the 1557 rule (although it was filed in an effort to challenge the Obama Administration’s versions of the rule.)

In other news, Health Payer Intelligence reports that

Payers can play a significant role in decreasing the expense and complexity of serious illness care for patients through whole person care and palliative care, a study from America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) found.

“Recognizing the difficulties of serious illness, health insurance providers have set out to help, support, and ease the journey for patients, caregivers and loved ones,” the AHIP study stated.

“Ensuring access to tools, education, and services for patients and their loved ones during a difficult time can provide the opportunity to plan, allow patients to maintain their dignity and choice, and support loved ones to know their role and how best they can help.”

Check it out.

Finally, the Federal News Network informs us that the General Services Administration made no changes to the current standard per diem rates for hotels, meals, and incidental expenses of federal employee business travel within the contiguous United States effective for the next federal fiscal year beginning October 1, 2020. What’s more,

There are, however 319 non-standard areas (NSAs), which have higher per diem rates than the standard CONUS allowance. GSA added one area, Albuquerque, New Mexico, as a new NSA location this year. Four locations came off the NSA list from 2020 and will now receive the standard per diem rate: Gainesville, FL; Atlantic City, NJ; College Station, NJ, and Abingdon, VA.

These rates also apply to government contracts such as experience rated FEHB carriers that are subject to the Federal Acquisition Regulation’s Cost Principle. The GSA assumes, of course, that business travel will resume next year, and in view of the low cost saliva test, it just might.

Friday Stats and More

David Ermer–CDC, COVID-19, HSA, U.S. Healthcare, Uncategorized–

Based on the CDC’s Cases in the U.S. website, here is the FEHBlog’s chart of new weekly COVID-19 cases and deaths over the 20th through 32nd weeks of this year (beginning May 14 and ending August 12; using Thursday as the first day of the week in order to facilitate this weekly update):

and here is the CDC’s latest overall weekly hospitalization rate chart for COVID-19:

Beckers Hospital Review reports that

The U.S. government is working with commercial health insurers to make future COVID-19 vaccines free of charge with no copay, an HHS official told The Wall Street Journal.

Paul Mango, deputy chief of staff for policy at HHS, said government health insurance programs such as Medicare and Medicaid will cover the cost of administering COVID-19 vaccines, and a federal fund created by the CARES Act will provide the shots free for uninsured people.

A collaboration between the federal government and the healthcare industry will handle the distribution of the vaccines, and the government will announce distributor contracts soon, Mr. Mango told the Journal.

Indeed, the Wall Street Journal reports this afternoon that

McKesson Corp., MCK 4.26% one of the world’s largest drug wholesalers and the biggest vaccine middleman in the U.S., will be a main distributor of Covid-19 vaccines nationwide should the shots prove to work safely, federal health officials said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is exercising an option in an existing 2016 contract with McKesson for the distribution of a vaccine in the event of a pandemic, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department said Friday.

A friend of the FEHBlog shared this link to an interesting Harvard Business Review article from July 24 discussing the following three scenarios in which the COVID-19 emergency may play out.

1.A dream case in which everything goes as well as could reasonably be expected.
2.A catastrophic case in which everything goes badly.
3.A middle case in which some things go well, but others don’t.

It strikes that FEHBlog that we have been in the midst of scenario three since March. The FEHBlog does not think it can get worse, while he thinks that it may get better.

The FEHBlog was pleased to run across these DOL Office of Federal Contractor Compliance Program’s FAQs on its recent final rule exempting TRICARE but not FEHBP providers from its affirmative action rules.

If my company participates in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), are we covered under the amended regulations?

OFCCP did not adopt any regulatory changes related to FEHBP providers. OFCCP plans to issue sub-regulatory guidance to address concerns regarding FEHBP providers.

That’s a clearer update than what the FEHBlog noticed in the preamble to the final rule. The TRICARE exemption likely will not be useful to providers unless the FEHBP also is exempted, in the FEHBlog’s opinion.

The Congressional Research Service has updated its helpful report on Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). CRS reports that for tax year 2017 the IRS processed 11 million tax returns showing employer or employee contributions to HSAs.

Thursday Miscellany

David Ermer–COVID-19, COVID-19 testing, OPM, Rx coverage–

The FEHBlog generally writes his posts at home in the evening, and he has been noting when it has been raining in Bethesda as it has been quite a rainy summer. This evening features blue skies (although it did rain this morning.)

On the COVID-19 front, the Department of Health and Human Services announced today

combined investments of $6.5 million in two commercial diagnostic laboratories to expand capacity to conduct up to 4 million additional SARS-CoV-2 per month. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19. The investments in Aegis Sciences Corporation and in Sonic Healthcare USA will provide critical laboratory equipment supplied by Beckman Coulter Life Sciences and Thermo Fisher Scientific and increase staffing and infrastructure to allow the U.S. to perform an additional 1 million tests each week by early October.

The American Hospital Association, the American College of Surgeons, and other major provider organizations have updated their roadmap for performing essential surgeries during the COVID-19 emergency. This may be helpful to health plan utilization review units.

A Wall Street Journal op-ed piece points out that

More than 500 clinical trials are under way world-wide in the race to find an effective treatment for Covid-19. Everybody wants it; nobody has it—yet. But one of the most promising therapies for Covid-19 patients uses “medicinal signaling cells,” or MSCs, which are found on blood vessels throughout the body.

In preliminary studies, these cells cut the death rate significantly, particularly in the sickest patients. With a powerful 1-2-3 punch, these cells eliminate the virus, calm the immune overreaction known as a cytokine storm, and repair damaged lung tissue—a combination offered by no other drug. This type of regenerative medicine could be as revolutionary as Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine.

Here’s a link to a STAT News report on newly released information on a study of convalescent plasma to treat COVID-19. Something has to pay off soon, right?

In general prescription drug news, GoodRx lists the twenty most expensive medicines in the U.S. The list identifies the manufacturer assistance program associated with each drug.

In other healthcare news —

  • Becker’s Hospital Review reports that UnitedHealthcare is resuming its COVID-19 delay effort to stop sending paper benefit checks to network providers. UHC plans to rely entirely on electronic payments. Smart move.
  • The Affordable Care Act provided government funding to create new CO-OP health plans. The FEHBlog criticized the decision as unnecessary. At on point there were 23 CO-OP plans and OPM was enlisting them for their ACA create Multi-State Program (“MSP”). ThinkAdvisor informs us that the New Mexico Co-op plan is shutting down at the end of this year which will leave three Co-ops operating in Maine and the Midwest. The MSP similarly failed because it was over-complicated and unnecessary.

Midweek Update

David Ermer–CDC, COVID-19 testing, COVID-19 vaccine, Medicare, Rx coverage–

It’s another rainy night in Bethesda.

Fierce Pharma reports that “the U.S. has ordered 800 million doses [of various COVID-19 vaccines currently in phase 3 testing] for a country with a population of about 330 million, likely under the assumption that some vaccines won’t make it through clinical testing. The government is “assembling a broad portfolio of vaccines to increase the odds that we will have at least one safe, effective vaccine as soon as the end of this year,” HHS secretary Alex Azar said in a statement.”

The Wall Street Journal informs us that

Doctors, nursing homes and federal officials are scrambling to get rapid-response Covid-19 antigen testing supplies from the two companies that secured emergency approval to produce them, as cases continue to rise in the U.S.

Rapid-response antigen tests make up a small but growing area of Covid-19 testing in the U.S. and are seen as helpful in tamping down outbreaks because they offer faster results than many molecular tests that must be sent to labs for processing. The tests search for virus proteins while other tests look for the virus’s genetic material.

Quidel Corp. QDEL 4.36% and Becton Dickinson & Co., the only companies that so far have federal emergency authorization to supply such diagnostic tests, also make machines that process them. The boxlike test-analyzers, which before the pandemic processed tests for ailments such as the flu, are found in doctors’ offices and nursing homes, allowing facilities to avoid shipping samples to commercial labs for processing. They can deliver results in about 15 minutes and process dozens of samples an hour.

Quidel is struggling to produce enough analyzers to meet demand, while Becton Dickinson’s challenge is making enough tests, the companies say. * * *

Public health officials have raised some concerns that rapid antigen tests deliver false-negative results at a higher rate than other tests. But federal officials have said that, as these tests become more widespread, they appear equal in sensitivity to the more broadly used polymerase chain reaction diagnostic tests.

Perhaps Kodak can help (FEHBlog humor).

Fierce Healthcare lets us know that “According to the J.D. Power 2020 U.S. Pharmacy study, the expansion of pharmacy companies into the primary care realm has driven ‘significant increases in both satisfaction and consumer spending.'” On a related note, Forbes reports that “CVS Health is back on track with the rollout its new health hub concept to 1,500 stores across the U.S. within the next two years despite the continuing spread of the coronavirus strain Covid-19. CVS Health currently has 205 HealthHubs opened in 22 states. “CVS HealthHubs dedicate more than 20% of the store to health services that include new durable medical equipment, supplies and various new product and service combinations. CVS is adding thousands of new personal care items as well as additional services at its MinuteClinics in the HealthHub stores.”

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced today its proposed national coverage decision that would allow local Medicare administrative contractors to make the initial decision on whether to cover an artificial heart or a ventricular assist device for Medicare beneficiaries with end stage heart disease. Currently the devices are treated as experimental treatments that CMS can cover on an exception basis. The CMS announcement explains that 6.5 million Americans “are living with heart failure.” A CMS decision whether or not to finalize the proposal will be made within 60 days following the end of the 30 day public comment period which began today.

Earlier this week the Centers for Disease Control announced their “Hear Her” campaign to reduce maternal mortality.

Over 700 women die each year in this country from problems related to pregnancy or delivery complications. Every death is a tragedy, especially when we know that two thirds of pregnancy-related deaths could be prevented. As many as 50,000 women experience severe, unexpected health problems related to pregnancy that may have long-term health consequences.

CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health is committed to healthy pregnancies and deliveries for every woman. The Hear Her campaign supports CDC’s efforts to prevent pregnancy-related deaths by sharing potentially life-saving messages about urgent warning signs.

Women know their own bodies better than anyone and can often tell when something does not feel right. The campaign seeks to encourage partners, friends, family, coworkers, and providers—anyone who supports pregnant and postpartum women—to really listen when she tells you something doesn’t feel right. Acting quickly could help save her life.

How true. This campaign deserves support from health plans as well as healthcare providers.

Monday Roundup

David Ermer–Congress, COVID-19, U.S. Healthcare–

The Washington Examiner reports that the House Majority Leader announced today that the House, which currently is in recess, will be in session for three weeks beginning September 14 (unless required to address COVID emergency relief legislation). Beginning no later than October 2, the House will recess for the November 3 election. The House will commence a lame duck session on November 13. A short term continuing resolution to fund the federal government past September 30 is looking like a sure thing.

Healthcare Dive informs us that the large for profit hospital chains, like the large health insurers, are reporting profitable second quarter results.

“[Federal relief funding for healthcare providers in] The CARES Act was instrumental ensuring we did not have a financial crisis while we were fighting the pandemic crisis,” Tenet CEO Ron Rittenmeyer said during last week’s earnings call with investors. A similar story emerged among Tenet’s competitors — volume plunged but profits did not.

Today, the Department of Health and Human Services made public all of the State COVID-19 testing plans through the end of 2020, which have received HHS oversight.

A multidisciplinary team of experts from HHS has completed a technical review for each jurisdictions’ plan to ensure that it is sufficient to mitigate the spread of the virus, protect vulnerable groups, and account for adequate testing supplies and reagents to reach jurisdiction testing goals. The review panel, chaired by the HHS Assistant Secretary for Health, includes subject matter experts from the Laboratory and Diagnostics Task Force within the Office of Assistant Secretary for Health, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), CDC, and other agencies. The panel also reviews state testing progress, needs assessment, and plans on a monthly basis to determine if modifications are required or additional assistance is needed. Modifications may be necessary if patterns of virus transmission change or are projected to change, case rates increase or additional types of testing and inventory of tests and reagents become available through the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) program at NIH or other sources.

In healthcare award news —

  • Fierce Health announced its choices of most influential minority healthcare executives. The award winner from the health insurance sector is AHIP’s Chief Operation Officer John Matthewson.
  • A friend of the FEHBlog pointed out that “The American Hospital Association (AHA) [on July 27, 2020] announced that it will honor five programs with the AHA Dick Davidson NOVA Award for their hospital-led collaborative efforts that improve community health. The winning programs are Eagle Valley Behavioral Health, Vail Health, Vail, Colo.; Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University, Edison, N.J.; Supportive Housing for the Homeless, Baltimore City Hospitals, Baltimore; Healthy Roanoke Valley, Carilion Clinic, Roanoke, Va.; and Mothers in Recovery, Memorial Healthcare System, Hollywood, Fla.

Congratulations to all of the award winners.

The FEHBlog recently noted that the federal government had awarded a large business loan to Kodak to uses its chemical expertise on drug manufacturing. Today the FEHBlog read in Fierce Pharma that the loan has been put on hold due to Congressional and SEC investigations.