Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Biogen's Top Scientist Unexpectedly Quits
Stat: In A Sudden Move, Biogen's Top Scientist Al Sandrock To Retire
Al Sandrock, Biogen’s top scientist and the face of its years-long campaign to develop a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, is leaving the company after more than two decades, STAT reported first Monday. The surprise departure of Sandrock, who oversees all of Biogen’s research and development, leaves a void in the company’s upper ranks. And it comes as Biogen is facing a worsening business outlook, saddled with a string of setbacks to its research pipeline and forced to defend its scientific integrity after the approval of the polarizing Alzheimer’s treatment Aduhelm. (Garde, Feuerstein and Herper, 11/15)
Georgia Health News: Emory Chief Stepping Down, Praised For ‘Tremendous Contribution’
Dr. Jonathan Lewin is stepping down as Emory Healthcare CEO and chairman after six years — a period that saw strong growth in the Atlanta-based system. Lewin, who is also executive vice president for health affairs of Emory University and executive director of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center, will remain in all the positions until a successor is named. Over his tenure, Emory Healthcare has increased its operating revenue and expanded its clinical reach in metro Atlanta and the state, adding DeKalb Medical Center to its system. (Miller, 11/15)
Also —
Modern Healthcare: UnitedHealth Exec's Court Testimony Hints At MultiPlan Trouble
TeamHealth subsidiary Fremont Emergency Services is suing Minnetonka, Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare for allegedly shortchanging emergency room physicians $10.5 million. It is one of at least nine complaints the private equity-backed provider has pending against the nation's largest insurer. New York-based MultiPlan helps UnitedHealthcare negotiate rates with out-of-network providers like TeamHealth. (Tepper, 11/15)
AP: Employers Eye Shifting Health Care Needs During Pandemic
Health care costs rise every year, but the nation’s biggest employers still see insurance coverage as an important benefit to provide. They just struggle getting the health care system to deliver what their workers need, according to Elizabeth Mitchell, CEO of the Purchaser Business Group on Health. (Murphy, 11/15)
Stat: Conflicts Of Interest Common Among Editors Of Some Medical Textbooks
Amid ongoing concerns over conflicts of interest that may affect medical practice, a new analysis finds two-thirds of nine widely used psychopharmacology textbooks had at least one editor or contributing author who received personal payments from drug makers. Overall, 11 of 21 editors or authors received more than $11 million between 2013 and 2020, although most of the money was paid to a single author by one drug maker that sells an antidepressant. Five of those editors and authors — or 24% — each received more than $75,000 during that period. And almost all of the payments were for activities other than research — primarily consulting and promotional speaking, according to the study published in Community Mental Health Journal. (Silverman, 11/15)
Stat: Ascension Health System Is Running A Wall Street-Style Private Equity Fund
America’s largest Catholic hospital system, Ascension, has quietly built out a strikingly unusual private equity operation worth more than $1 billion, a STAT investigation has found. The investigation reveals how far a wealthy, religious, tax-exempt health system can migrate toward behaving like a Wall Street firm — and how little such a system has to disclose about whether or how its profits are benefiting patients. (Cohrs, 11/16)
Modern Healthcare: Federal COVID-19 Grants Keep Henry Ford Profitable
Henry Ford Health System's latest financial filing show it continues to rely on federal COVID-19 stimulus grants to stay in the black as the system struggles with mounting staff and supply costs. Without the stimulus funds, the Detroit-based system would have lost $14 million on $5.1 billion in operating revenue in the nine months ended Sept. 30, a 0.3% loss margin. That's a fraction of the $96 million operating loss Henry Ford would have posted on $4.8 billion in revenue in the comparable 2020 period without the federal help, a 2.1% loss margin. (Bannow, 11/15)
North Carolina Health News: How To Achieve Equity In Cancer Care? Look To Raleigh
Dr. Katherine Reeder-Hayes, an oncologist and researcher at UNC Chapel Hill, recently had a patient arrive at her office with advanced stage breast cancer. The patient listened as Reeder-Hayes explained what she was facing and how quickly they’d need to start care. But there was resistance, Reeder-Hayes said. The patient kept asking if there was any way she could delay starting treatment. “She really needed to get started with her chemotherapy — that was going to enable her breast cancer surgery. And she kept asking me, ‘Could we do this in a couple of months?’,” Reeder-Hayes said. “I really didn’t understand the question. I thought perhaps she didn’t understand the seriousness of her diagnosis.” (Donnelly-DeRoven, 11/16)
Modern Healthcare: 36K Kaiser Workers Plan One-Day Sympathy Strike
A labor union representing 36,000 Kaiser Permanente workers is planning a one-day walkout Thursday in support of an International Union of Operating Engineers local in northern California that has been on strike since September. The sympathy strike, which will begin at 7 a.m. P.T, will take place at 21 Kaiser Permanente facilities in northern California and will involve optometrists, clinical laboratory scientists, respiratory and x-ray technicians, licensed vocational nurses, certified nursing assistants, surgical technicians, pharmacy technicians, phlebotomists, medical assistants and housekeepers, among others represented by Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, a news release said. (Christ, 11/15)
Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Can Share Space, Services Under Final CMS Guidance
A hospital can be located on the same property or even in the same building as another hospital, so long as each entity can independently comply with Medicare and Medicaid program participation requirements, according to guidance the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published Friday. The policy document provides answers to questions hospitals have asked for years and grants them more leeway than they had under previous federal guidance. The policy also applies to housekeeping, security, laboratories and other services at co-located facilities. (Goldman, 11/15)
On health care costs —
Crain's New York Business: The Real Cost Of Healthcare In New York
Rankings tout the best hospitals to receive cancer care or treatment of a heart attack. They recommend where to go for a hip or a knee replacement. But tools are scarce for patients who want to choose a hospital based on costs. A federal rule that went into effect Jan. 1 was intended to provide just that. Enacted by the Trump administration, it requires hospitals to disclose their cash prices, or the costs of procedures without health insurance, and the rates they negotiate with insurance companies for all their services. (Glodowski and Kaufman, 11/15)
Axios: Out-Of-Network Health Care Puts Patients In Financial Jeopardy
People who have health insurance but get sick with rare diseases that require out-of-network care continue to face potentially unlimited costs. Federal regulations cap how much people pay out of pocket for in-network care, but no such limit exists for out-of-network care. (Herman, 11/16)
KHN: As Big Pharma And Hospitals Battle Over Drug Discounts, Patients Miss Out On Millions In Benefits
In early July, as the covid-19 pandemic slammed rural America, the president of a small Kansas hospital sat down on a Friday afternoon and wrote the president of the United States to plead for help. “I do not intend to add to your burden,” said Brian Williams, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and Desert Storm combat veteran. He said his hospital, Labette Health, was “like a war zone,” inundated with unvaccinated patients. A department head had threatened to resign, saying he could not “watch one more body be carried out.” But Williams wasn’t seeking pandemic relief. (Jane Tribble and Featherstone, 11/16)
In news on dental care —
KHN: Missouri’s Thin Dental Safety Net Stretched Amid Medicaid Expansion
Roughly 275,000 Missourians are newly eligible this year for Medicaid, the federal-state public health insurance program for people with low incomes, and they can be covered for dental care, too. Missouri voters approved expansion of the program in 2020, the latest of 39 states to do so as part of the Affordable Care Act, but politics delayed its implementation until Oct. 1. Adults earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level — about $17,774 per year for an individual or $24,040 for a family of two — can now get coverage. But one big question remains: Who will treat these newly insured dental patients? (Sable-Smith, 11/16)
