Shipping Backlog Blamed For Driving Rising Costs In Medical Supply Industry

Bloomberg: Clogged Ports Are Pushing Up Costs, Cardinal Health CEO Says
Cardinal Health Inc. is seeing congested ports and pricier commodities drive up the cost of manufacturing and distributing medical supplies such as gloves and syringes.  Container costs spiked ten times and commodity prices doubled from prepandemic levels during the drug distributor’s fiscal-first quarter, which ended Sept. 30, Chief Executive Officer Mike Kaufmann said in an interview Tuesday. International freight posed a major headache, Kaufman said, with the company’s shipping partners reporting packed ports and too few people to work through backlogs. (LaVito, 11/9)

Axios: Private Health Insurers Pay Steep Markups For Hospital Drugs 
Hospitals are charging private health insurers "considerable markups" on highly used outpatient drugs like Remicade, Neulasta and Keytruda, according to a new study in JAMA Internal Medicine. Depending on the drug, insurers are paying hospitals several times what Medicare pays, and that ultimately flows through to workers' insurance premiums. The largest variation came from Remicade, an IV drug that treats a range of autoimmune conditions, according to the study's sample of 20 major hospitals. (Herman, 11/9)

Modern Healthcare: Vizient Alliance Will Push For Drug Supply Chain Solutions
Vizient is launching a new effort to make sure healthcare providers have adequate access to drug supplies, the company announced Tuesday. The company's End Drug Shortages Alliance seeks to bring together organizations from all points on the supply chain, from manufacturers to distributors to group purchasing organizations to providers, to resolve longstanding problems with pharmaceutical supplies by sharing information. (Gillespie, 11/9)

Modern Healthcare: Oak Street Health Under Federal Investigation
The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Chicago-based Oak Street Health for possible violations of the False Claims Act, according to a regulatory filing Monday. The Justice Department requested information from Oak Street on Nov. 1 on its arrangements with third-party marketing agents over the free transportation services the primary care provider offers to its adult Medicare patients, Oak Street said in the filing. (Christ, 11/9)

Axios: DOJ Investigating Medicare Physician Group Oak Street Health 
The Department of Justice is investigating Oak Street Health, the newly public chain of physician clinics that focuses on Medicare patients, over possible violations of the False Claims Act, the company disclosed in a quarterly filing. Oak Street Health is one of the fastest-growing primary care groups, especially for people over 65. The DOJ requested documents tied to Oak Street Health's "relationships with third-party marketing agents" and "free transportation" provided to its patients, according to the filing. (Herman, 11/9)

Modern Healthcare: MedPAC Wades Back Into Outpatient Site-neutral Payments
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission wants to keep exploring aligned payment for care provided at hospital outpatient departments, ambulatory surgical centers and physician offices in an effort to reduce incentives for healthcare consolidation and make sure beneficiaries aren't paying more than needed, commissioners said Tuesday. (Goldman, 11/9)

On tech industry moves that may play into the health industry —

Bloomberg: Apple Adds Johnson & Johnson CEO to Board in Health Push
Apple Inc. named outgoing Johnson & Johnson Chief Executive Officer Alex Gorsky to its board, underscoring a push to become a bigger force in health services. Gorsky, 61, will become the ninth member of Apple’s board and the second new director named this year. In January, Apple appointed Monica Lozano, the president of the College Futures Foundation, to its board. Gorsky, who has worked at Johnson & Johnson since 1988, is stepping down from the CEO job in January. He has overseen efforts to innovate in pharmaceuticals, medical devices and consumer health services -- experience that could be useful to Cupertino, California-based Apple. (Gurman, 11/9)

AP: General Electric To Split Into 3 Public Companies
General Electric, one of the most storied names in U.S. business, will divide itself into three public companies focused on aviation, healthcare and energy. The company, founded in 1892, has refashioned itself in recent years from the sprawling conglomerate created by Jack Welch in the 1980s into a much smaller and more focused entity. It was heavily damaged by the financial crisis. With its announcement Tuesday that it would spin off its healthcare business in early 2023 and its energy segment — including renewable energy, power and digital operations — in early 2024, General Electric may have signaled the end of the conglomerate era. (Chapman, 11/9)

Also —

Stat: Foundation Stands By Ouster Of Aubrey De Grey After Probe Ends 
Aubrey de Grey, the anti-aging research pioneer who was removed in August as chief scientific officer of the SENS Research Foundation, will not be reinstated to a leadership position following the conclusion of a second independent investigation into additional allegations of sexual misconduct against him. A five-page executive summary of the investigation detailed a handful of incidents that fit a pattern of unprofessional, boundary-crossing behavior previously reported by STAT. Beyond these incidents — and ones described in an initial report made public in September — investigators from the law firm Van Dermyden Makus wrote they did not find evidence that de Grey had engaged in non-consensual sexual contact or communications toward anyone associated with the foundation, including current or former employees. (Molteni, 11/9)

Stat: Journal Editor's Company Ties Raise Concerns About Conflicts Of Interest
Over the past seven years, a top editor at a medical journal devoted to obesity research received $1.2 million from companies that sold or were developing prescription weight-loss treatments, raising concerns about how potential conflicts of interest among those with especially influential roles in academic publishing are treated. During that time, Obesity associate editor-in-chief Donna Ryan co-authored a paper describing the added benefits of a diabetes treatment sold by a company that paid her the bulk of those fees. The same company paid a communications firm to provide writing assistance. She also co-authored an editorial praising the pricing approach taken by a manufacturer with which she had a financial relationship, although the effectiveness of the diet drug was modest. Unlike the paper, the editorial did not disclose her ties. (Silverman, 11/10)