Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
CVS Promises To Boost Hiring, Avoids A Repeat Pharmacists Strike
AP: CVS Responds Quickly After Pharmacists Frustrated With Their Workload Don't Show Up
CVS found the right prescription on Wednesday to keep its stores open in the Kansas City area and avoid a repeat of a work stoppage last week by pharmacists: It promised to boost hiring to ease workloads that sometimes make it hard to take a bathroom break. But it won’t be easy to resolve the problems that have been growing as pharmacists at CVS and other drug stores in the U.S. took on more duties in recent years and are gearing up to deliver this year’s latest flu and COVID-19 vaccines. (Funk, 9/28)
Bloomberg: CVS Faces Lawsuit From Local Pharmacy Alleging Unfair Fees For Dispensing Drugs
CVS Health Corp. was sued by a small Iowa pharmacy alleging that the health-care giant violated antitrust laws, the latest salvo in a conflict between independent drugstores and companies that manage drug plans for millions of Americans. Osterhaus Pharmacy Inc. said in the suit that CVS’s pharmacy benefit management unit demanded unfair fees to fill and dispense prescriptions for certain Medicare beneficiaries, putting it and other independent drugstores at a competitive disadvantage. (LaPara, 9/27)
On news on financial matters across the health industry —
Modern Healthcare: Google Ventures Leads $25M Funding Roundup For Midi Health
GV (Google Ventures) led a $25 million Series A funding round in women's health startup Midi Health, the companies said Wednesday. Midi Health, a telehealth company focused on women between the ages of 35 and 65, will use the funding to expand operations and launch additional partnerships with U.S. health systems and employers. The company's goal is to offer care in 50 states by the end of next year, said Midi Health CEO and co-founder Joanna Strober. (Turner, 9/27)
Modern Healthcare: Tendo To Buy MDSave For $150M
Tendo, a patient engagement software company, said on Wednesday it plans to acquire MDsave, a nationwide provider marketplace company, for $150 million. Tendo CEO Dan Goldsmith said the $150 million deal will be entirely financed by Tendo's balance sheet and is expected to close in October. Goldsmith said the deal will allow his company to expand product offerings for its health system customers and incorporate its platform into MDsave’s provider marketplace. (Turner, 9/27)
Modern Healthcare: Blackstone, Morgan Health, PE Firms Back Employer Tech Company
Private equity firms New Mountain Capital and Marlin Equity Partners are merging employer health tech companies Virgin Pulse and HealthComp in a $3 billion deal announced Wednesday. Virgin Pulse, a digital health navigation company for employers, is backed by Marlin Equity Partners while HealthComp, a third-party health plan administrator, is funded by New Mountain Capital. New Mountain Capital will be the majority owner of the combined entity. (Turner, 9/27)
Modern Healthcare: Intermountain's Select Health Inks UCHealth Deal
Intermountain Healthcare has struck a deal to add a third-party administrator to its Select Health insurance portfolio. The Aurora, Colorado-based nonprofit health system UCHealth sold UCHealth Plan Administrators to Salt Lake City-based nonprofit Intermountain Health for an undisclosed amount, Select Health announced Tuesday. The new owner has renamed the asset Simplified Benefits Administrators, according to a news release. (Tepper, 9/27)
The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer: Rite Aid Could Close 500 Stores Due To Bankruptcy
American drugstore chain Rite Aid could close 400- 500 of its stores due to bankruptcy, according to reports. Rite Aid has proposed closing about one-quarter of its more than 2,100 stores in bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reports. Rite Aid would either sell the stores or allow creditors to take control of operations. The company currently has more than $3.3 billion in debt, according to WSJ. (Mentz, 9/27)
In other industry news —
The Boston Globe: Catholic Medical Center To Explore ‘Partnership’ With HCA Healthcare
Catholic Medical Center is pursuing an agreement for its acquisition by HCA Healthcare, a for-profit healthcare provider headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., CMC leadership announced Wednesday. HCA operates 182 hospitals and 2,300 “care sites” in 20 states and the United Kingdom, according to its website. That includes three hospitals in New Hampshire: Parkland Medical Center in Derry, Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester, and Portsmouth Regional Hospital in Portsmouth. (Gokee, 9/27)
Crain's Cleveland Business: Gale App Connects Northeast Ohio Nurses, Healthcare Facilities
The Gale app functions like many popular messaging platforms. Using the company’s app, facility managers post their staffing needs, and available nurses in the local area receive a notification. Nurses set their availability and can accept or decline shifts. Once a nurse takes a shift, it appears on the healthcare facility’s schedule. Tony Braswell, the company’s founder and president, said the platform’s goal is to give nurses the ability to work flexibly while also helping healthcare systems decimated by staffing shortages fill critical roles. (Bennett, 9/27)
The Boston Globe: Pfizer Chief, Visiting Boston, Sees ‘Scientific Renaissance’ Over Coming Decade
Rapid advances in biology and technology will combine with the growing health needs of an aging population to fuel a “scientific renaissance” over the coming decade, the chief executive at drug giant Pfizer told Boston business and civic leaders Tuesday. “Those two [trends], when they come together, will produce solutions that were impossible to find before,” helping to treat long-intractable diseases such as Alzheimer’s and cancer, Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla said. (Weisman, 9/27)
Stat: Biogen Shutters Digital Health Group, Ends Apple Study, In Cost Cutting Move
Biogen, the iconic but embattled biotech firm, is shuttering Biogen Digital Health, its roughly 150-person group focused on using new types of data like those from mobile phones and smart watches, and ending a clinical trial being conducted with Apple early, STAT has learned. Biogen confirmed the organizational change, but said it might lean even more on digital tech startups in the future. (Aguilar and Herper, 9/27)
Reuters: Pharma Lobby Says EU Ban On 'Forever Chemicals' Would Halt Drug Production
European drugmakers warned that a proposed complete ban on substances known as PFAS or "forever chemicals" would render medicine production in the region impossible, part of a high-stakes wrangle between manufacturers and environmental regulators. The European Union started to consider in February a ban of the widely used but potentially harmful substances, in what could become the bloc's most extensive piece of regulation of the chemical industry. (Burger, 9/27)
Stat: Some Top Drug Companies Are Starting To Take Action On Climate
Drug companies are major contributors to climate change, both through direct greenhouse gas emissions and especially through their supply chains. But the pharmaceutical industry has lagged behind others when it comes to understanding and cutting down on its climate impact. In an exclusive analysis that ranks top companies on their efforts to combat global warming, STAT found that, with increasing pressures from investors and other stakeholders, many biotech and pharma companies are now starting to take action. (Ladyzhets, 9/28)
Modern Healthcare: Health Equity Leaders Bring DEI Initiatives To Hospitals, Classrooms
Healthcare companies promoting diversity, equity and inclusion face the twin challenges of persuading veteran clinicians to change their practices and training emerging providers to make tackling disparities an integral part of what they do. Increasingly, health systems are turning to leaders with feet in both the corporate and academic worlds to tackle this joint mission. (Hartnett, 9/27)
Axios: Charted: Medical Claims Related To Opioid Dependence
Private insurers saw the percentage of medical claims stemming from opioid dependence fall slightly from 2018 to 2022 in the United States, according to data released by FAIR Health. Opioid use and dependence accounted for about two-tenths of 1% of total claims in 2022, compared to one-quarter of 1% in 2018. (Goldman, 9/28)
