A Peak At United HealthGroup CEO’s Planned Testimony
The United HealthGroup CEO plans on giving detailed testimony this week on Capitol Hill. His testimony outlines how the cyberattackers got in, which may point to a security flaw in Change Healthcare’s system. United has funneled $6.5 billion to providers impacted so far.
Additional article here: https://www.modernhealthcare.com/politics-policy/unitedhealth-andrew-witty-congress-change-healthcare-outage
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#changehealthcare #cyberattacks
Walmart To Exit Primary Care Market
Shocking announcement by Walmart that it will exit the primary care health market, including virtual care, as it has not been profitable. It will close its Walmart Health locations that have opened. At one time “retail meets healthcare” was thought to be the future for many retail companies. While there have been some successes, there are also big failures. This exit could change many plans to tie healthcare settings to retail ones. In related news, the Walmart co-branded Medicare Advantage (MA) plan with United will end as well.
Additional articles: https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/providers/walmart-shuttering-all-51-health-centers-virtual-care and https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4632752-walmart-closing-health-care-clinics-ending-virtual-services/ and https://www.managedhealthcareexecutive.com/view/walmart-closes-health-and-virtual-care-centers and https://www.beckerspayer.com/payer/unitedhealth-walmart-halt-shared-medicare-advantage-plan.html and https://www.modernhealthcare.com/providers/walmart-health-clinic-closings
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#walmart #primarycare #healthcare
https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/walmart-health-shut-down/714671
Lawmakers Ask For SEC Probe Of United Healthcare Stock Sales
Democratic lawmakers are asking for a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) probe of United HealthGroup executives who sold stock after notice of an antitrust probe but before it became public.
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#unitedhealthcare #antitrust
Federal Court Throws Out Drug Makers’ Suits Against Drug Negotiations
Additional wins by the Biden administration on the Medicare drug price negotiation front. A federal court just issued summary judgments in two cases in favor of the government and against Johnson & Johnson and Bristol Myers Squibb. The court found that the law does not violate several constitutional provisions. So far four cases have been thrown out, with five left.
Additional article: https://insidehealthpolicy.com/daily-news/nj-judge-deals-blow-ongoing-ira-litigation-efforts-rules-gov-t-favor
In related news, a Health Affairs Forefront blog outlines how the price negotiations could be made more public and disclose the various factors used to make a decision on price: https://www.healthaffairs.org/content/forefront/price-controls-robust-public-conversation-cms-can-move-drug-price-negotiation-into
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#ira #drugpricing #branddrugmakers
— Marc S. Ryan
