This week’s top healthcare news.
Market Update.
On to the headlines.
Price gouging?
Six Blue Cross Blue Shield divisions are suing CVS Health over price-fixing generic drugs.
- The TL;DR summary: CVS allegedly lied to BCBS about how much they were charging for generic drugs. As a result, they claim that CVS way overcharged BCBS for those drugs. Read the full lawsuit here.
W.H.Ooooooooo boy.
The White House is cutting ties with the World Health Organization, citing favoritism toward China.
What’s big tech up to these days?
A report published by CB insights took a dive into how Big Tech is entering healthcare.
Canceled hospital deals.
A slew of canceled hospital deals were announced this week.
In Michigan/Ohio, Beaumont and Summa Health called off their $6.1 billion merger.
- Then in Chicago, four safety net hospitals in Chicago called off a $1.1 billion combination. And finally, here’s a summary of 10 other hospital deals canceled in the past couple of months.
Many public operators mentioned that COVID-19 is greatly delaying dealmaking processes.
- Small business loans are keeping certain struggling operators afloat for now with much-needed cash, and business development representatives can’t meet with operators to get deals done either.
Policy and Politics.
CMS is capping out of pocket insulin costs at $35 per month, but it’s not as rosy sounding as you might think.
In other interesting news, CMS continues to expand telehealth coverage, easing telemedicine access to Medicare Advantage members living in more rural areas.
- Changes like these make me think that telehealth might have the best use-case in rural areas where physician coverage is much lower.
As far as the election goes, Trump and Biden appear to be taking opposing views on the coronavirus (WSJ paywall). We’ll see who it pays off for!
- Remember that we have an election healthcare HUB that provides an overview of the top issues headed into November.
House Democrats are investigating HHS. Specifically, they’re questioning the department’s methods of distributing the relief funding for providers.
Get an in-depth summary of all the legal action on Capitol Hill from JD Supra here.
Coronavirus latest.
Current numbers.
1,839,698 infected; 106,262 deaths in the U.S. (View the trend)
6,166,946 infected; 372,035 deaths globally. (View more data)
- From the NY Times: Here’s what we’ve learned so far 6 months into the coronavirus.
Notable stories.
- Almost one-third of all U.S. deaths came from nursing homes.
- Firms like CVS, Cigna, Encompass, and DaVita are returning their stimulus funds. They either don’t need it or don’t want the strings attached to it.
- Speaking of CVS, the retail drug/insurance giant is testing out self-driving prescription delivery.
- The CDC recommended broad changes this week to how U.S. offices should operate during the pandemic.
- Antibody tests are creating confusion and misrepresentation of data instead of being a helpful solution to the pandemic.
protests and pandemics are a bad combo.
- The protests couldn’t have come at a worse time from the pandemic perspective – they might have a big impact on controlling the coronavirus spread.
Interesting resources.
Strata’s national patient and procedure volume tracker analyzes weekly changes in hospital and outpatient volumes.
- The report is a great insight into how patient volumes have been affected nationwide.
Biz Hits
- A deep dive into how much for-profit hospitals are getting in bailout funds.
- Healthcare CEO pay outstrips infectious disease research, according to Axios.
State Hits
- Oklahoma no longer has the funds to expand Medicaid – as a result, the state withdrew its planned expansion.
- Molina, Centene are the biggest exchange winners in Kentucky’s Medicaid awards.
Other Hits
- “This Is a Time for Mourning”: Hospital Chaplaincy in the Age of Coronavirus (The Ringer)
- Healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente is considering building a private wireless LTE network
- Is police brutality a public health issue?
Thought-Provoking Editorials
- How fitness will change forever. (The Atlantic)
- The virus could cost states billions of dollars. (NY Times)
- The protest that ended social distancing (WSJ)
- Cutting ties with the WHO creates a scientific and leadership vacuum. (Stat)
My favorite reads from this week:
- Ill-timed buyouts bruise KKR and Blackstone. (WSJ)
- How COVID-19 stopped the flu. (Nature)
- Thanks for reading.
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.