AHIP To Go On Offensive On Medicare Advantage
With Medicare Advantage (MA) facing huge financial difficulties due to lower rates and crippling government regulatory changes, AHIP, the health plan lobby, is underwriting a seven-figure lobbying and advertising campaign to call attention to the challenges, obtain higher rates, and explain the major benefits for Medicare enrollees.
Additional article: https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2024/08/top-health-insurance-group-outlines-plans-to-protect-medicare-advantage-00173713
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#medicareadvantage
https://www.beckerspayer.com/payer/payers-plan-medicare-advantage-lobbying-blitz.html
Kaiser Reports Good Financial Results
Kaiser Permanente wrapped reported $908 million of operating income (3.1% operating margin) and more than $2.1 billion of net income in Q2 2024. It had $29.1 billion in revenue in the quarter. The numbers were up from a year ago. It had a good 1H 2024 and is overcoming its earlier troubles.
Additional article: https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/providers/kaiser-permanente-posts-31-operating-margin-21b-net-income-q2-2024
#kaiserpermanente
Mark Cuban Tells Daily Show He Wants To Shake Up Healthcare
Mark Cuban appeared on The Daily Show to declare that he wants to shake up healthcare. On the show, he told John Stewart the following:
- He is dedicated to transparency and public contracts.
- He thinks pharmacy benefits managers are the issue.
#cuban #drugpricing #healthcare
https://www.modernhealthcare.com/insurance/mark-cuban-daily-show-interview-cost-plus-drugs
Sanders Calls For Caps On Inhalers
Senate HELP Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-VT) called on GlaxoSmithKline and Prasco Laboratories to cap the price of the authorized generic version of Flovent, an inhaler covering many children, at $35.
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#drugpricing #sanders #branddrugmakers
Think Tank Has Model Legislation On Consolidation
Kudos to the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP), which has done stellar work over the years encouraging reform of healthcare at the state level. The latest endeavor is a model bill that would empower state attorneys general and health officials to impose conditions on or veto consolidation transactions. Notwithstanding positive momentum at the federal level, this is important.
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#antitrust #consolidation #mergers #acquisitions
Majority Of Weight-Loss Drugs Tied To Commercial Insurance
A new study in JAMA Forum finds that more than 61% of Ozempic prescriptions in 2023 went to those with commercial health insurance and less than 10% of all such semaglutide drugs went to Medicaid enrollees. The findings are not unexpected as commercial plans offer more liberal coverage of expensive weight-loss drugs. Medicare and Medicaid tend to restrict coverage to those with certain disease states.
#weightlossdrugs #drugpricing
— Marc S. Ryan
