Thursday, September 13, 2018
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A coalition of major hospital systems and several philanthropic organizations have formed Civica Rx, an independent nonprofit that will make and market 14 common generic drugs that hospitals find in short supply. Because profit margins for generics are low, many are made in only one factory, threatening a ready supply and reasonable cost. Intermountain Healthcare, the Mayo Clinic and HCA Healthcare are among the governing board members. The company says its focus will be on transparency rather than profit.
(
San Diego Union
;
NPR
)
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If the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services docks Medicare Advantage insurers for forgetting a diagnostic code in a chart that it later bills for, it must similarly audit its own Medicare fee-for-service records, too. A federal judge ruled that UnitedHealthcare and other Medicare Advantage plans were unfairly required to return overpayments to the CMS within 60 days of identifying them, a move CMS hoped would help curb Medicare fraud and upcoding. But the agency’s actuarial standards weren’t equally applied to its own data on fee-for-service Medicare services—data that’s riddled with errors, UnitedHealthcare claimed. What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander; the judge ruled in favor of the health plans, noting that "the rates at which CMS pays Medicare Advantage insurers are based on flawed data across the millions of people in traditional Medicare.”
(
Modern Healthcare
)
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Innovation & Transformation
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Is a patient’s demand for painkillers a sign of drug dependence, or merely a response to pain? How should a doctor handle patient conversations about alcohol or drug addiction? Although a few dozen medical schools now offer an addiction medicine focus, too few doctors are trained to manage these tricky questions. But trying to combat the opioid crisis without an equipped provider workforce is “like trying to fight World War II with only the Coast Guard.” Only about one in 10 people with addiction involving alcohol or drugs (other than nicotine) receive treatment.
(
The New York Times
;
Center on Addiction report
)
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The Food and Drug Administration’s promise of a simpler software pre-certification pathway may not be as good for business as companies think. A year and a half after the FDA’s initial announcement, there are few details available about which products will be reviewed and which will not. The cost for company pre-certification is yet unknown, as are the standards for companies to qualify as “having a Culture of Quality and Organizational Excellence.” Epstein Becker & Green's Bradley Merrill Thompson expresses a fair measure of cynicism that the new process will benefit developers as much as they believe.
(
MobiHealthNews
)
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There’s a national shortage of EpiPens, the emergency epinephrine injectors needed by those with allergies to counteract a life-threatening reaction. Walgreens announced an agreement with drugmaker Kaleo to make its EpiPen alternative, Auvi-Qs, available in stores nationwide at no cost to consumers. A two-pack of injector devices costs $4,900 wholesale, but Kaleo has agreed to cover out-of-pocket costs insurance doesn’t cover.
(
Chicago Tribune
)
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Blue Cross Tennessee, which covers about 70 percent of the state’s insured, announced it would no longer pay for OxyContin prescriptions. Blue Cross follows Cigna and Florida Blue, which recently made the same decision. Older versions of OxyContin could be abused by grinding it into a powder, which destroyed the delayed release quality and increased its immediate potency and attraction for black market buyers. Blue Cross Tennessee will cover Xtampza and Morphabond as preferred alternatives; They are considered by the Food and Drug Administration as an “abuse-deterrent” formulation—alongside a newer version of OxyContin, its maker, Purdue Pharma, points out. Purdue is facing numerous lawsuits for OxyContin’s role in the opioid abuse and overdose epidemic.
(
Tennessean
)
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Cerner’s Burke to step down
:
Zane Burke, who has led health IT giant Cerner as president since 2013, announced he will leave the post Nov. 2. Cerner Executive Vice President John Peterzalek will take on the role. Cerner has been in the political crosshairs as it wrestles to field the new Department of Defense EHR system amid reports it’s “not operationally suitable; those reports released were just as it signed a contract to overhaul the VA’s EHR system."
(
Becker’s Health IT & CIO Report
)
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For-profit HCA buys non-profit Mission Health
:
HCA Healthcare, the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain, has acquired North Carolina’s Mission Health system, including a 763-bed hospital in A
shville, N.C. Miss
ion Health provided $100 million in charity care last year. It has consistently been recognized as among the nation’s top 15 health systems on the basis of clinical, operational and patient satisfaction data.
(
Healthcare Dive
)
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Are there peanuts in that?
Nima Labs launched a new smartphone device that scans food for evidence of peanut protein with 99.2 percent accuracy. The potentially lifesaving sensor will set users back
$289 for the device plus 12 testing capsules required to use it. (
MobiHealthNews
)
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Think that button in the airplane lavatory is a germ fest? Consider the gray security tubs in the TSA line. Research published last week in an infectious disease journal notes the airport security area is worse than the lavatory; it's a choke point for disease transmission. An aviation medicine specialist recommends taking precautions: “As soon as I get through security, I always sanitize my hands." (
NPR;
BMC Infectious Diseases
)
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MarketVoices...quotes worth reading
“The trick is to be mindful about not touching your face. Eighty percent of all infections are transmitted by your hands: You touch a surface that's contaminated with a virus and then introduce it into your body by touching your face. Humans touch their eyes, nose or mouth about 200 times a day."—Mark Gendreau, MD, of Beverly and Addison Gilbert Hospitals in Beverly, Mass., in an
NPR
story
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Editor
Sandy Mau
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