Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Theranos' Arizona Lab Hit With Some Of CMS's Harshest Penalties
The Wall Street Journal: Second Theranos Lab Has Blood-Testing License Revoked
An Arizona lab run by blood-testing firm Theranos Inc. put patients at risk and failed to quickly fix its deficiencies, the main U.S. lab regulator found, triggering a new round of sanctions last month against the company. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services imposed some of the harshest penalties in its arsenal on the Arizona lab. The agency revoked the lab’s U.S. testing license, barred it from billing Medicare and ordered it to alert customers of its problems, according to a Jan. 27 letter obtained by The Wall Street Journal in a public records request. (Weaver, 2/22)
In other health industry news —
The Associated Press: Health Insurer Aetna To Spend $3.3B Buying Back Stock
Aetna will spend $3.3 billion to buy back more than 20 million shares of its stock after the health insurer's board authorized more repurchases last week. The nation's third largest insurer said Wednesday that it entered into accelerated buyback agreements with two dealers for about 10.4 million shares from each. Aetna will pay each dealer $1.65 billion and is using available cash to fund the deals. (2/22)
Denver Post: DaVita Steered Poor Dialysis Patients To Private Insurers To Pump Up Profits, Lawsuit Says
Dialysis giant DaVita is accused in a federal lawsuit of misleading shareholders in an elaborate effort to inflate its financials by intentionally steering poor patients toward private insurers that paid 10 times more for dialysis treatments than the government. The lawsuit, by the Peace Officers’ Annuity and Benefit Fund of Georgia, claims Denver-based DaVita persuaded Medicare and Medicaid patients to dump the government plans for private insurance — some of it via Obamacare — and then directed the patients to apply for premium assistance from the American Kidney Fund, to which DaVita was a heavy benefactor. (Migoya, 2/22)
San Francisco Chronicle: Fitbit Fell Short In 2016, Now Looks To Smartwatch, Health Care
After failing to meet its financial goals for 2016, Fitbit is shifting its strategy to focus more on health care services and developing a smartwatch, marking a departure for the San Francisco company, which got its start making basic fitness trackers that counted steps. The company reported $2.1 billion in revenue in 2016, up from $1.9 billion in 2015. But growth slowed throughout the year, indicating that Fitbit is hitting market saturation. (Ho, 2/22)
