healthy muse healthcare news.
USPS and delayed drug delivery.
The USPS’ recent delivery and funding struggles have big implications for the prescription drug market.
- Express Scripts, CVS, and OptumRx all use the USPS for their mail orders for prescription drug deliveries.
- Mail-order drugs comprise just 5% of total prescriptions but 25% (!!) of all drug spending
- The USPS is responsible for 90% of all mail-order prescriptions for Veterans
- During the pandemic, the influx of mail-order requests for prescriptions has brought USPS to its knees, causing service delays and wait times of up to 25% longer.
Meanwhile, ride-sharing services continue to enter the healthcare market. Specifically, Uber is taking advantage of the USPS’ woes by entering the home prescription delivery business through a recently acquired subsidiary, NimbleRx.
- And a recent blog post from Lyft indicates that the non-emergency riding services it provides to Medicaid is improving access to care for recipients.
Pharmacists can now give shots to kids.
HHS announced a directive Wednesday to allow pharmacists to give children’s vaccines to kids over the age of 3. This initiative is an important step to increase access – childhood vaccines have dropped during the pandemic.
- Details: Pharmacists can now administer FDA approved vaccines to any child over the age of 3, overriding 22 states that previously had restrictions on pharmacist-led vaccinations.
Highlights from the Dem Convention.
Democrats hit the Trump administration hard on healthcare during their convention last week. The party’s healthcare message is its bread and butter right now, especially after the 2018 midterm election results.
- Biden in particular attacked Trump on his handling of the pandemic along with his intention to expand the ACA while contrasting that with Trump’s attempts to dismantle the ACA and replace the healthcare law.
Other big policy news: The Supreme Court will hear the big ACA court case on November 10 – a week after the election. It’ll last 80 minutes.
- More politics: Here’s a pretty good summary of the Republican healthcare platform, from Health Affairs.
Coronavirus updates.
U.S. Latest #’s: Cases = 5,704,505. Deaths = 176,809. Recoveries = 1,997,761. Daily cases have now fallen below 50,000 for seven straight days, mostly due to effective restriction in place.
- Scientists are seeing signs of lasting immunity to COVID-19.
- In slight contrast, researchers in Hong Kong found that reinfection may be possible in rare cases.
- Trump and HHS announced emergency authorization for a new convalescent plasma treatment. Although the treatment has potential, the data supporting this hasn’t been publicly released. To add to this oddity, HHS is receiving flak for approving the treatment faster than the FDA really desired.
- The Trump administration is planning a broader overhaul to digitize health data reporting after getting plagued with data reporting issues during COVID-19.
- Out today: the Trump administration is reportedly considering fast-tracking the AstraZeneca vaccine prior to the November 3 election.
- Drug costs at hospitals are dropping, which indicates advancements in COVID treatment, shorter length of stay, and use of cheaper generic drugs.
- Interestingly, Fitbit released data this week from a study that indicates the wearable can detect 50% of COVID cases about a day prior to symptoms.
Quick Hits
Biz Hits
- M&A rumor mill: Two mental and behavioral health EHR firms, Carelogic and Credible, are planning to merge, per source. The merger would create one of the largest mental health EHRs and is expected to be announced later this week.
- At-home dialysis company Outset Medical has filed for IPO. It’s good timing as the push for dialysis homecare continues to ramp up. A potential competitor to the dialysis duopoly?
- Hospital operating margins have fallen 96% compared to last year, according to the latest Kaufman Hall flash report.
- Three Orthopedic practices in Tennessee are merging to create one of the nation’s largest orthopedic physician networks – over 104 practicing physicians and 27 locations.
- The previously announced Beaumont/Advocate Aurora merger is getting delayed amid pushback by the system physicians.
- Universal Health Services is transitioning to Epic and plans to install the EHR at 400 locations.
Policy Hits
- Under the CMS’ proposed 2021 physician fee schedule, radiology evaluation codes are getting slashed substantially to make room for increased reimbursement for established patient visits.
- HHS released its health goals to achieve by 2030. Highlights include addressing social factors that impact people’s health, health access, and health literacy.
- Less than 20% of Medicare spending is value-based.
- COVID-19, mental health, and the 2020 election: a review of candidate platforms.
Other Hits
- States are asking for $26.4 billion in damages from companies involved in the opioid crisis. It really seems like this is never going to end.
- The Commonwealth Fund takes a look into the ‘cost of speed’ – analyzing the FDA’s relaxed rules during the pandemic.
- More people are paying for direct access to their doctors amidst the pandemic – AKA, concierge medicine.
- Read this very long analysis about the math of ACOs – how they work – by McKinsey.
- Patients are growing increasingly open with their health data in order to take advantage of telemedicine during the pandemic. Speaking of telemedicine, the AHA wants HHS to make the telehealth changes more permanent.
Thought-Provoking Editorials
- Lyft wants to solidify its place in healthcare. Meet its new policy guru.
- How Teladoc won: The inside story of how well-timed bets propelled it ahead of the competition. (Stat Plus paywall)
Healthy Muse Top Picks
My top read this week centers around ‘Superspreaders’ of bogus health news on Facebook. These people spreading misinformation racked up 3.8 BILLION views on Facebook.
- As someone who is trying to properly educate people on what’s going on in our industry, this article is pretty alarming
Thanks for reading.
Save yourself some time by subscribing to our all-in-one newsletter. Subscribers get the first edition – every Monday night.
About the Healthy Muse.
The Healthy Muse was created to educate people on the healthcare system. It’s one weekly e-mail updating you on all the major election news, broader trends, big stories, and policy updates. Learn more about our vision here.
Get smarter and sign up below today.