speakerjohnson

November 15, 2023

Great Series on America’s Long-Term Care Problem Congratulations to the Kaiser Family Foundation and The New York Times on the first in a series of articles on America’s long-term care crisis. America needs an aging policy. The series shows real-life examples of the impact of not having a national agenda on aging. It clearly shows that the lack of adequate supports for the elderly also impacts other generations, including children’s loss of income to take care of an elderly loved one. In my book (available for purchase on this website), I devote a chapter to aging and recommend ways to make services available to all in an income-based buy-in strategy. Not addressing aging will only drive long-term care and medical costs even higher in the future. In addition to the NYT story and press release at the link below, here is a link to the KFF summary of a survey

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November 14, 2023

Health Tech Still Growing Despite some notable failures in the health tech world and tightness in equity markets, deals and mergers continue. Two notable examples in this article. #digitalhealth #healthtech Link to Article Kaiser Sees Deep Drop in Star Scores Kaiser Permanente saw deep drops in its Medicare Advantage Star scores for 2024, with four of its seven plans losing out on bonus payments (dropped below 4 Star). The CMO of Kaiser discusses this in the article below. Plans big and small suffered the past two years (2023 and 2024 Star Years). While achieving and maintaining high scores has always been a challenge, that a strong integrated system’s plans was a victim speaks volumes. You could always count on most Kaiser plans to be 5 Stars. Weighting, statistical changes, and new complex measures are catching plans by surprise. Based on the Stars road map, this will continue. Plans need data-driven

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November 13, 2023

Startup PBMs See Growth in Price Transparency A series of startup PBMs are seeing some success signing up health plans by riding the price transparency train. They have even set up their own trade group to differentiate themselves from traditional PBM lobbying efforts. An interesting development, but one that will take time to break the dominance of the three giants, which control about 80% of all the business. (may require subscription) #medicareadvantage #commercial #medicaid #pbms #pricetransparency Link to Article Health Affairs Forefront Blog on FDA Process I am a notable critic of the FDA. I see it as a revolving door agency (FDA to brand PhRMA and back again) and dominated by pressure from the drug industry to approve drugs that are not often ready for launch. In fairness to the FDA, here is a good article on the process and challenges FDA has, including from advocates. (may require subscription)

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