Catholic hospital system Ascension may have been a victim of a major cyberattack. It runs 139 hospitals and 40 senior living facilities across the country.
Additional article: https://www.modernhealthcare.com/cybersecurity/ascension-possible-data-breach-cyberattack
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#cyberattacks
The House Ways and Means Committee may pass a 2-year extension of telehealth as well as a 5-year extension of hospital at home. It would be paid for by some more moderate pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) reforms, including PBM transparency reporting and income based on service fees only.
Additional article: https://insidehealthpolicy.com/inside-drug-pricing-daily-news/wm-uses-patchwork-pbm-reforms-pay-telehealth-extenders-bill
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#pbms #hospitalathome #telehealth #medicare
The Medicare Part A Insurance Trust Fund will be solvent for longer than previously projected says the annual Medicare Trustees report. While there are “significant financing issues,” the program will be able to pay all scheduled benefits until 2036, five years longer than the last report. No one can take policy credit (even though the Biden administration will try to do so) for meaningfully adding years to Medicare’s life. It is all related to technical issues and occurrences. The truth is no party has a coherent policy to stabilize Medicare or entitlements for that matter. Benefit cuts or tax increases will be big if nothing is done.
Additional articles: https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/medicares-financial-picture-brightens-slightly.html and https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4647137-medicare-fund-economy-solvent-yellen/
#medicare #entitlements #healthcare
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payers/medicare-hospital-trust-fund-extended-five-years-2036
Under a new rule, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will make the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or dreamers eligible for Exchange enrollment. There are hundreds of thousands of Dreamers and the administration estimates that 100,000 will enroll.
Additional articles: https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/regulatory/daca-recipients-eligible-obamacare-under-cms-rule and https://www.modernhealthcare.com/politics-policy/biden-obamacare-access-daca-affordable-care-act-hhs-xavier-becerra
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#exchanges #aca #obamacare
https://thehill.com/latino/4639985-biden-obamacare-dreamers-affordable-care-act-daca/
Alignment Healthcare will report 165,000 increased enrollment at its Q1 2024 investor call, but a loss from operations of $41.1 million. This still means the insurtech likely is on its way to profitability.
#alignmenthealthcare #medicareadvantage
It was the roasting that was expected, with both sides of the aisle attacking Andrew Witty when he appeared on Capitol Hill. The United HealthGroup CEO made a stunning admission when he said that Change Healthcare had legacy architecture and technology based largely on internal data centers. It says it is rebuulding all of it on a cloud-based, modern infrastructure. This alone substantiates a lack of business continuity and disaster recovery readiness. In the last few days, United also admitted that simple multi-factor authentication was not in place and that is how the cyber criminals got into the Change platforms.
The testimony adds to my theory that when massive consolidation occurs, technology is not modernized and as I call it “spaghetti-ed together.” The testimony will lead to additional scrutiny of United, a review of vertical integration and consolidation in healthcare, as well as more lawsuits and eventual fines for United.
See my blog and podcast on the Change debacle: https://www.healthcarelabyrinth.com/17-what-happened-when-change-healthcare-suffered-a-major-cyberattack-and-what-will-it-mean-to-the-broader-healthcare-system-moving-forward/ and https://www.healthcarelabyrinth.com/the-change-healthcare-cyberattack-what-it-is-and-its-implications/
Additional articles: https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payers/too-big-fail-consolidation-concerns-loom-over-hearing-change-healthcare-cyberattack and https://www.modernhealthcare.com/politics-policy/unitedhealth-andrew-witty-change-healthcare-hearings and https://www.medpagetoday.com/washington-watch/washington-watch/109918 and https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/a-crisis-of-your-creating-unitedhealth-ceo-grilled-by-congress-on-cyberattack.html
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#changehealthcare #cyberattacks #unitedhealthcare
https://thehill.com/homenews/4635480-unitedhealth-ceo-heat-cyberattack-senate/
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
(Some articles may require a subscription.)
#changehealthcare #cyberattacks
A new study recommends a tiering of GLP-1 medication access based on health status. The problem is the price of the drugs are exorbitant compared with other developed countries. And wide access to the drugs is often only available in richer health plans. As such, the reasonable proposal is destined for the ash heap for now.
#weightlossdrugs #branddrugmakers #drugpricing
On a 3-2 vote, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) finalized a rule that extends the scope of its breach notification rule to include personal health information collected by health apps and other technology that are outside the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It is a very controversial move and may be beyond the FTC’s authority.
Additional article: https://insidehealthpolicy.com/daily-news/ftc-issues-controversial-breach-notification-rule-despite-two-commissioners-dissent
#cybersecurity #breaches
Finally, we are making some advances on biosimilar adoption. For awhile, pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) were teaming up with brand drug makers to stop the uptake of biosimilars through rebate arrangements. That still happens, but PBMs are seeing the light. Evernorth’s Accredo Specialty Pharmacy will make a Humira biosimilar available to patients with no cost-share. Evernorth is partnering to produce the biosimilar. The biosimilar price is about 85% lower than that of the brand.
#biosimilars #drugpricing #brandrugmakers #cigna #evernorth
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payers/evernorths-accredo-offer-humira-biosimilar-0-out-pocket
