- French drugmaker Sanofi, Google to use data tech for innovations (reuters.com)
...Sanofi has teamed up with Google to work on innovations, aimed at using emerging data technologies to change how medicines and health services will be delivered in future...Sanofi and Google will use data sets to improve their understanding of key diseases and extract patients’ insights and feedback...Combining Sanofi’s biologic innovations and scientific data with Google’s industry-leading capabilities, from cloud computing to state-of-the-art artificial intelligence...READ MORE
- CMS approves Washington request for ‘Netflix’ model to pay for hepatitis C drugs (fiercehealthcare.com)
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services approved a request...from Washington state to negotiate value-based drug rebate agreements with pharmaceutical manufacturers in its Medicaid program...The approval makes Washington the fourth state to test such an arrangement; similar policies have already been given the OK in Oklahoma, Michigan and Colorado, according to an announcement from CMS...Washington officials are aiming to test a “subscription” model for hepatitis C drugs...In this model, Medicaid would pay a fixed annual sum to a drug company for the hepatitis C medication, purchasing an unrestricted supply of the drug... CMS is committed to increasing states’ flexibility to develop policies that lower costs, increase the predictability of expenses and improve access for patients...READ MORE
- June 14 Pharmacy Week in Review: Annual OTC Guide Launches with New Pharmacist Recommendations, Study Finds No Benefit of Pretreatment with PDE5i drugs for Patients Receiving LVADs (pharmacytimes.com)
Nicole Grassano, PTNN, Pharmacy Week in Review, this weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.
- Robin Hood to rescue of rural hospitals? New math promised on Medicare payments (lasvegassun.com)
As rural hospital closures roil the country, some states are banking on a Trump administration proposal to change the way hospital payments are calculated to rescue them...The goal of the proposal, unveiled by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma...is to bump up Medicare’s reimbursements to rural hospitals, some of which receive the lowest rates in the nation...By law, any proposed changes in the calculation of Medicare payments must be budget-neutral; in other words, the federal government can’t spend more money than previously allocated. That would mean any change would have a Robin Hood-like effect: increasing payments to some hospitals and decreasing them to others...READ MORE
- Las Vegas Valley vets may benefit from new VA access program (reviewjournal.com)
A Department of Veterans Affairs program launched last week will offer military veterans new options in accessing health care...The Maintaining Internal Systems and Strengthening Integrated Outside Networks Act, or Mission Act, essentially expands on earlier legislation intended to cut down on wait times at VA medical facilities by allowing veterans to see private doctors in some circumstances...“It was a temporary fix at that time to deal with wait times and scheduling issues,” Chuck Ramey, spokesman for the the VA Southern Nevada Healthcare System in North Las Vegas...“The VA has been working with the community to provide community care since day one.”...Under the new program...veterans can work with their VA health care provider or other agency staffers to see if they are eligible to receive care from local non-VA doctors...Dr. Ramu Komanduri, chief of staff at the VA facility in North Las Vegas, said the new act “offers many more opportunities for the veteran to make a choice.”...READ MORE
- Allscripts is buying ZappRx, a prescription drug start-up (cnbc.com)
Medical software company Allscripts has bought ZappRx, a start-up that aimed to modernize how people access prescription medicines...Allscripts’ core business is selling electronic medical record software to hospitals and other health providers...ZappRx specializes in helping people access the class of so-called specialty medicines, which includes expensive and high-complex or high-cost interventions...READ MORE
- Nevada ranks near last in overall health care despite gains in number of insured adults, children (thenevadaindependent.com)Nevada Highlights (datacenter.commonwealthfund.org)
Despite significant improvements in the number of insured adults and children, Nevada ranked 48th in the nation for overall health care in a 2019 scorecard released by the Commonwealth Fund...The report scored the Silver State at 50th for access and affordability, 51st for prevention and treatment, 38th for avoidable hospital use and cost and 39th for the healthiness of its residents’ lifestyles. The only category in which the state outperformed the national average was in health care disparities — the gap between the level of care received between lower- and higher-income residents — at 24th...READ MORE
- Canadian panel calls for universal public drug coverage (reuters.com)
A Canadian advisory council studying prescription drug coverage said...the federal government should create a C$15.3 billion ($11.5 billion) universal, single-payer public pharmacare system, and warned that the current system requires a major overhaul...Canada is the only country with a universal health care system that does not include universal coverage for prescription drugs. Most prescriptions are paid for through employer-funded drug plans, while some are covered by government programs for the elderly, or people with low incomes or very high costs...If implemented in full, the plan would likely cut into profits of insurers and drugmakers in Canada, while saving employers and patients money...READ MORE
- This Week in Managed Care: June 14, 2019 (ajmc.com)
Samantha DiGrande, Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network
- Legalizing medical cannabis reduces opioid overdose deaths? Not so fast, new study says (statnews.com)
The 2014 study found that between 1999 and 2010, states with medical cannabis laws had a nearly 25% lower average rate of opioid overdose deaths than states without such laws. Much has changed since 2010 — 34 states have now legalized medical marijuana and the number of opioid overdose deaths was six times higher in 2017 than it was in 1999 — so Stanford University researchers decided to replicate the original study...But when they expanded the time frame through 2017, the association between medical marijuana laws and opioid overdose deaths reversed: States with medical marijuana laws had average rates of opioid overdose deaths that were nearly 23% higher than those without these laws...READ MORE