Health Pricing Transparency Doesn’t Lead To Health Pricing Equivalence

Crain's Detroit Business: Hospitals Still Charge Wildly Different Amounts For Same Procedure, Even With More Transparency
For years, patients have complained they often do not know how much hospitals charge for healthcare services until they are billed, unlike other commercial products such as gasoline, clothes or housing. But published hospital prices show wide variations in prices — up to eight times — for the same care, demonstrating to advocates that price transparency can help consumers shop for the best prices. For example, the cash price for a hip or knee replacement is $17,448 at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and $12,035 at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. That same procedure is priced at $48,911 at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital Oakland in Pontiac and $49,265 at DMC's Harper-Hutzel Hospital in Detroit, according to Turquoise Health, a San Diego-based health technology company. (Greene, 10/22)

In other health care industry news —

Stat: Hospitals Sidestep Health Records Giants To Better Harness Patient Data
Seventeen major hospital networks with operations in 40 states have joined Truveta, a hospital-led company seeking to aggregate de-identified patient data and put it in a standardized format so it can be sold for medical research. A separate cluster of health systems has formed a nonprofit called Graphite Health to create a marketplace that would make it cheaper and easier to plug in novel software applications. “I’m sure the EHR vendors see [Truveta] as people stepping into their market space,” said Robin Damschroder, executive vice president and chief financial officer at Henry Ford Health System, a member of the new company. “Truveta probably wouldn’t need to exist if Epic and Cerner and every other medical record company had advanced interoperability and data sharing.” (Ross, 10/25)

The Atlantic: How Public Health Took Part In Its Own Downfall
By one telling, public health was a victim of its own success, its value shrouded by the complacency of good health. By a different account, the competing field of medicine actively suppressed public health, which threatened the financial model of treating illness in (insured) individuals. But these underdog narratives don’t capture the full story of how public health’s strength faded. In fact, “public health has actively participated in its own marginalization,” Daniel Goldberg, a historian of medicine at the University of Colorado, told me. As the 20th century progressed, the field moved away from the idea that social reforms were a necessary part of preventing disease and willingly silenced its own political voice. By swimming along with the changing currents of American ideology, it drowned many of the qualities that made it most effective. (Yong, 10/23)

Bloomberg: 23andMe To Buy Telehealth Provider Lemonaid In Care Expansion
Consumer DNA testing giant 23andMe Holding Co. agreed to purchase telehealth upstart and drug-delivery service Lemonaid Health Inc. in a bid to make its personalized genetics approach part of patients’ primary care. 23andMe will pay $400 million for Lemonaid, with 25% of the purchase price in cash and the rest in stock, according to a statement Friday. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the year. (Brown, 10/22)

Modern Healthcare: Cerner To Lay Off 150 Workers Next Month
New Cerner CEO Dr. David Feinberg on Thursday told employees that a set of layoffs will take place in November, a company spokesperson confirmed to Modern Healthcare. Feinberg, who took the helm as Cerner's CEO on Oct. 1 following nearly three years leading Google Health, sent an email to employees Thursday evening after noticing a comment on Reddit, according to the Kansas City Star, which first reported the news. The Reddit commenter had said they were a company employee that recently learned they would be laid off. (Kim Cohen, 10/22)

Modern Healthcare: Another Health Plan Targets Dual-Eligibles Through Medicare Advantage-As-A-Service
A regional health insurer is banking on the growing number of seniors with highly-complex needs to fuel its geographic expansion. MVP Health Care, which counts 700,000 individuals as members, has partnered with Belong Health to launch a joint venture that creates the first Special Needs Plan available in upstate New York and Vermont, which starts at the beginning of 2022. The company said 135,000 individuals in its existing geographic footprint are currently eligible for the Medicare Advantage plan for high-risk individuals. (Tepper, 10/22)

KHN: Confronting Ageism In Health Care: A Conversation For Patients, Caregivers And Clinicians 
What does ageism in health care look like? It can be a thoughtless quip that makes an older person feel diminished. Or an assumption that patients are unable to follow a conversation or make their own decisions. Maybe it occurs when a concern is voiced, then discounted or dismissed. Ageism is reflected in care strategies that ignore a patient’s values and ideas about what constitutes a productive life. Too often, attitudes such as “these patients are old and near the end anyway” or “there’s not much we can do to help them” prevail. (10/22)

KHN: 3 States Limit Nursing Home Profits In Bid To Improve Care
Nursing homes receive billions of taxpayers’ dollars every year to care for chronically ill frail elders, but until now, there was no guarantee that’s how the money would be spent. Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York are taking unprecedented steps to ensure they get what they pay for, after the devastating impact of covid-19 exposed problems with staffing and infection control in nursing homes. The states have set requirements for how much nursing homes must spend on residents’ direct care and imposed limits on what they can spend elsewhere, including administrative expenses, executive salaries and advertising and even how much they can pocket as profit. Facilities that exceed those limits will have to refund the difference to the state or the state will deduct that amount before paying the bill. (Jaffe, 10/25)

In news about the Johnson & Johnson talc lawsuits —

Bloomberg: J&J Loses A Round In Bankruptcy Spat Over Baby Powder Suits
Johnson & Johnson can’t immediately halt lawsuits claiming the company’s talc baby powder hurt tens of thousands of women, a federal judge ruled. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Craig Whitley sided with lawyers for more than 38,000 people who have sued J&J over claims one of the company’s most recognized products caused cancer and other health problems. The ruling, over whether the lawsuits can continue during bankruptcy proceedings, is just the opening move in what is likely to be a long court fight. (Church, 10/22)