The Healthcare Labyrinth Newsfeed Debuted This Week
Welcome to The Healthcare Labyrinth Newsfeed! Each weekday, I will review about two dozen healthcare websites for the most relevant information in the world of healthcare generally as well as managed care and health insurance specifically.
You can access the daily newsfeed in a few ways.
1 — Save this link in your favorites and visit each day
2 — If on LinkedIn, click on my daily post about the newsfeed and you will be redirected here.
3 — In the future, we will launch an email subscription (free) and we will email you each day on the newsfeed and other website activities.
Here is the rollout of the new Healthcare Labyrinth website:
November 6 — Newsfeed Debut
November 13 — Blog Debut
November 27 — Podcast Debut
I hope you enjoy the website and newsfeed.
Take care,
Marc
Best Buy Health and Mass General Brigham Enter Deal To Support Hospital At Home
Amazing development on two fronts. First, it shows hospital at home is becoming a reality and will expand nationwide over time. Mass General Brigham is a leader in this area. Second, another demonstrable example of how retail meets healthcare. Best Buy is reinventing itself and entering healthcare. It is using its tech savvy to team with healthcare providers to bring better tech to patient experience. Best Buy Health already has deals with Atrium Health and Geisinger Health.
#digitalhealth #hospitalathome #massgeneralbrigham #bestbuyhealth #medicare #retailmeetshealthcare
Another Example of “Retail Meets Healthcare” With Amazon One Medical
Amazon’s latest perk for Prime members will include discounted One Medical virtual care. Another example of retail meets healthcare
#retailmeetshealthcare #digitalhealth #amazon #onemedical
Humana To Expand Primary Care Investment
Humana has major growth ambitions for its CenterWell senior-focused primary care business. It will open 50 new centers by 2025. Humana’s move is smart for a few reasons. The risk model helps promote better Star and quality achievement as well as controls medical costs. In addition, health plans must push back on the acquisition of physicians by hospitals and public equity firms. Today, about 70% of all docs are owned by hospital systems or are PE backed.
#humana #riskmodels #centerwell
More PBM Reverberations
As Congress readies to close up for the year, massive and hurried work is occurring to move popular initiatives on dysfunctional Capitol Hill. PBMs have become the main target in healthcare, with few Republicans recognizing the real culprits are brand drug makers. Other PBM bills tackle spread pricing, delinking PBM compensation from drug prices, and new transparency requirements. This bill would limit clawbacks by PBMs and set Medicare Part D cost-sharing based on net pricing scenarios (crediting for rebates and other retrospective payments). The any-willing-provider requirement in my view is bad and could increase costs. (May require subscription)
#drugpricing #pbms #medicare #partd #medicareadvantage
Health Insurers’ Key Concerns and Focus From Q3 Earnings Calls
Good Healthcare Dive article wrapping up common themes from Q3 investor calls of the big plans. Key areas of focus are an increase in utilization and medical expense, a mixed report on Medicare Advantage Star performance, Medicaid redeterminations, an uptick in Exchange enrollment, higher drug expense, and biosimilars.
#healthinsurance #medicaid #medicare #redeterminations #aca #exchanges #obamacare #utilization #medicalexpense #stars #medicareadvantage #biosimilars
Wakely Analyzes Barriers of Price Transparency Files
Great analysis of the barriers researchers find when trying to analyze the price transparency files posted by hospitals and health plans. In this case, Wakely Consulting reviews the barriers in analyzing health plan data. CMS should do all it can to rationalize the price transparency data posted. It took a new step on hospitals recently, but must look closely at all findings and barriers on both hospital and health plan data.
#pricetransparency #hospitals #healthplans
U.S. Trails Developed World on Life Expectancy
Is there any doubt that we trail developed nations on life expectancy in part because of our dysfunctional healthcare system. We lack focus on wellness and prevention as well as affordable universal access to healthcare. This despite the fact that we spend the most on healthcare as a percentage of our gross domestic product.
#lifeexpectancy #healthcarereform #healthcarespending
FDA Approves Existing Diabetes Drug For Weight Loss
While off-label use has driven many to take diabetes drugs for weight loss already, the approval of one such drug by the FDA for actual use for weight loss will undoubtedly drive already surging demand and healthcare costs for such drugs.
#drugpricing
KFF Analyzes 2024 MA and PDP Offerings
The Kaiser Family Foundation has done its usual great job of analyzing product offerings in Medicare Advantage and standalone Part D plans. The 2024 assessment is complete. The press release is linked and inside the press release you can go to both the MA and Part D analyses. Summary: For MA, the typical beneficiary has a choice of 43 plans as an alternative to traditional Medicare. That is the same number available as in 2023, but more than double the number of plans offered in 2018. For PDP, the typical person covered under traditional Medicare can choose among 21 Medicare stand-alone plans.
#kff #medicare #medicareadvantage #partd #pdp #partc
— Marc S. Ryan
