Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Amazon Pharmacy Integrated By Some Blue Cross, Blue Shield Insurers
Modern Healthcare: Five Blues Plans Add Amazon's Drug Discount Card To Benefits
Amazon Pharmacy partnered with five Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurers and their pharmacy benefit manager to integrate its drug discount card into their healthcare coverage, the company announced on Tuesday. Individuals who receive health insurance through Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, Florida Blue and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas will now be able to choose whether they would like to pay for medications through their drug formulary—with prices negotiated by their pharmacy benefit manager, Prime Therapeutics—or pay with Amazon's MedsYourWay drug discount card. MedsYourWay is administered by InsideRx and helps consumers access the cash price for a drug, which participating Blues plans say can be up to 80% cheaper than the price negotiated by their PBM. (Tepper, 3/8)
In updates from the health care industry —
Crain's Detroit Business: Ascension Michigan Data Breach Exposes Personal, Medical Information Of More Than 27,000 Patients
Ascension Michigan — the subsidiary of St. Louis-based Ascension Health that operates four hospitals in the state — suffered a data breach last year that exposed personal information of more than 27,000 patients. The health system discovered on Nov. 30 last year that an unauthorized user accessed its electronic health record system between Oct. 15, 2015, and Sept. 8, 2021, and gained access to patients' names, birth dates, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, health insurance information, dates of service as well as diagnosis and treatment data. Some Social Security numbers were also accessed, the health system said in a bulletin on its website. (Walsh, 3/8)
The Boston Globe: Boston Hospitals Recoup Millions In Debt From Kuwaiti Government
As the coronavirus pandemic pummeled hospital finances two years ago, some of the state’s most prominent health care institutions were facing another multimillion-dollar financial challenge: the country of Kuwait’s persistent failure to pay its hospital bills. The hospitals — including Mass General Brigham, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Boston Children’s Hospital — have longstanding relationships with the country, which offers universal health care and pays for its citizens to receive treatment abroad with technologies and expertise not offered at home. (Bartlett, 3/8)
Axios: For-Profit Hospitals Skip Less Profitable Services, Study Finds
Nonprofit and government-owned hospitals are more likely to offer relatively unprofitable services than for-profit hospitals, according to a new study published in Health Affairs. Nonprofits' financials are often evaluated based on factors like how much charity care they offer and how they pursue patient debt. But the study argues that it's also important to look at which services hospitals offer — including when considering policy that would require nonprofits to offer more free care. (Owens, 3/8)
And from the biotech industry —
Axios: Biotech Investment Hits Skid As Pandemic Ebbs
The biotech industry is slumping after delivering life-saving COVID treatments and attracting droves of investors early in the pandemic. Biotechs keep the drug pipeline flowing with novel treatments — and make attractive M&A targets for big pharmaceutical manufacturers. But regulatory uncertainty and a return to pre-pandemic life are combining to cool interest in public and private markets, experts say. (Bettelheim, 3/9)
Stat: Gilead’s Dan O’Day Is Charming — But Charm Hasn't Staunched Losses
The news Gilead Sciences dropped Monday was so disappointing it irked even the nicest guy in biotech. Brad Loncar, an investor based in Kansas City whose cancer-focused exchange-traded fund holds Gilead shares, is a Ted Lasso-like font of cheeriness amid bio-Twitter’s angry froth. Yet even he was upset about the way Gilead and its CEO, Dan O’Day, released information about a key study of its breast cancer drug, Trodelvy — without any specific data. In 2020, Gilead had paid $21 billion for the drug and its maker, Immunomedics. “I like him personally and respect his career experience, but how does Dan O’Day keep his job as $GILD CEO with this deal record?” Loncar tweeted. “And probably half the board too.” (Herper, 3/9)
