Wednesday, February 7, 2018
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On the eve of its deadline, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a request for more information on the CVS Health-Aetna merger. The delay confirms that regulators aren’t ready to bless the marriage, and commentators note the administration blocked a vertical merger of AT&T with Time Warner last year; CVS and Aetna may encounter a similar roadblock. DOJ approval of the deal is only one of several hurdles the merger requires; in March, stockholders of both companies are scheduled to vote on the deal, too. (
Healthcare Finance News;
CNBC)
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Home- and community-based resources for the elderly are now on the radar for health care organizations looking to improve care and rein in costs. Rapid population growth in the over-65 age cohort fuels the drive to expand cost-saving solutions. Another driver is recognition of social factors that affect health—and health care costs. Cross-sector collaboration can reduce hospital readmission rates and avoid nursing home stays, the research shows. (
Health Affairs)
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Innovation & Transformation
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Telehealth companies reported a 300 percent increase in flu-related calls last month, vendors note. The uptick demonstrates patient acceptance of video visits—plus hospital personnel are, for the first time, beginning to recommend consumers use the services to reduce community exposure and increase convenience. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 7.1 percent of outpatient visits last week were for influenza, more than three times the national baseline. (
mobihealthnews;
CDC)
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Apple’s next operating system will include a consumer medical record app. Alphabet, Google’s parent, says it can predict possible death two days earlier than doctors and hospitals can. Its subsidiary, CityBlock Health, will hot-spot communities where care is needed and then deploy professionals to care for Medicaid patients this year. Last week, Amazon announced its collaboration to transform health care delivery. The $7 trillion health care market is ripe for disruption, with tech firms poised to use big data and machine learning, software and consumer-deployed hardware to create whole new channels for care delivery. (
The Economist)
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Whole-patient care requires providers to do more—and, when providers don’t share those tasks, burnout increases, new research finds. The survey of VA doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants found providers who don’t rely on support staff for tasks like education on changing lifestyle factors and tracking data also reported more burnout. "Expanding the roles of nurses and other health care professionals to assume responsibility for these tasks may ease PCP burden and reduce burnout," the authors note. (
AAFP)
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Accountable care organizations and bundled payments are two bright spots on the value-based health care horizon. Both have shown promise for reducing costs, although the evidence is scant that the programs are delivering better care, experts note. Other programs designed to improve quality, reduce waste and lower costs, have yet to deliver quantifiable results—among them the Choosing Wisely provider education campaign and the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program. (
MedPage Today)
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CMS cancels decision support model: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced it won’t test the Direct Decision Support Model, intended to provide Medicaid beneficiaries with treatment decision guidance outside the clinical setting. CMS said the requirement to create a network of support organizations was too significant, and the model too burdensome for beneficiaries. CMS earlier canceled the related Shared Decision Making Model because too few accountable care organizations showed interest in the clinically-based model. (
CMS.gov)
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Indiana gets nod for Medicaid work requirements: Indiana became the second state (after Kentucky) to receive approval for its Medicaid program to include a work requirement. The requirement applies to only a small segment of “work-capable adults.” Indiana’s waiver includes $240 million in funding to help Medicaid beneficiaries with substance abuse problems. Critics say the move will make it harder for low-income Indianans to access health care. (
MedPage Today)
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Cleveland judge moves to solve opioid crisis: U.S. District Judge Daniel Polster summoned pharma executives, law enforcement, government officials and lawyers to get into one room last week to try and forge a deal and resolve more than 200 lawsuits stemming from the opioid crisis. Attorneys general from six states also attended the settlement talks.(
Bloomberg;
ABC News)
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Fentanyl is deadly in even small quantities, and illegal drug makers are cutting heroin with it to boost potency. California and New York state health officials have started to provide rapid test strips to drug users when they go to needle exchange sites. Critics say the test strips, which are not approved for this experimental use, can produce false positive results. With three quarters of overdose deaths in 2016 chalked up to the synthetic opioid, public health officials back using the strips and educating addicts to save lives. (
Kaiser Health News)
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MarketVoices...quotes worth reading
"Anybody who tells you none of this stuff is working and we should throw up our hands, I would ignore them. But we have a lot of work to do, and we should expand and experiment much more." Ashish Jha, MD, MPH, of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, commenting on the pace of improvement of value-based models, as quoted by
MedPageToday.
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