HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY NEWS & TRENDS

The Congressional Budget Office published a much-awaited paper about the possible design of a single-payer or "Medicare for all" system in the U.S. The budget office most often provides detailed estimates about the cost of legislation. But anyone looking for many numbers in this long report would be disappointed. Instead, the nonpartisan office noted the many ways that legislators could devise such a system, outlining the cost and policy effects of a wide range of difficult choices. It also noted that such a system would be so different from the country's current situation that any hard estimates would be difficult, even with all the specifics laid out. (Read Article: New York Times, 5/1/19)

The Trump administration formally declared its opposition to the entire Affordable Care Act on May 1, arguing in a federal appeals court filing that the signature Obama-era legislation was unconstitutional and should be struck down. Such a decision could end health insurance for some 21 million Americans and affect many millions more who benefit from the law's protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions and required coverage for pregnancy, prescription drugs, and mental health. (Read Article: New York Times, 5/1/19)
AND, Seeks to Redefine Formula for Calculating Poverty by proposing regulatory changes that could result in cuts in federal aid to millions of low-income Americans. The proposal by the Office of Management and Budget would change how inflation is used to calculate the official definition of poverty used by the Census Bureau to estimate the size of the country's poor population. The measure is also often applied to determine eligibility for government benefits. (Read Article: New York Times, 5/7/19)

Tennessee Republicans have decided to test the Trump administration's willingness to radically restructure Medicaid by turning it into a state block grant program. The GOP-dominated legislature recently passed a three-page bill ordering the governor to submit a Section 1115 waiver request to CMS within six months. The waiver would seek CMS' approval to transform TennCare, the state's $12 billion Medicaid program covering 1.3 million Tennesseans, from an open-ended entitlement program to one where the federal government makes fixed payments. (Read Article: Modern Healthcare, 5/7/19)

Santa Clara County supervisors have approved spending $325 million in bonds to finance the county's recent purchase of O'Connor Hospital in San Jose, Saint Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy and DePaul Health Center in Morgan Hill and and to pay for upgrades to all three. The county acquired the three medical facilities in March for $235 million after the former owner, nonprofit Verity Health Systems, filed for bankruptcy in August. The county was the only bidder for the two hospitals and urgent care clinic. (Read Article: San Jose Mercury News, 5/7/19)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom's proposal to provide health coverage to unauthorized immigrants ages 19 to 25 would siphon money that four counties (Placer, Sacramento, Santa Barbara and Stanislaus) currently use for public health efforts such as battling contagious diseases. (Read Article: California Healthline, 5/7/19)

A Fraser Institute study published in November examined 28 universal healthcare systems across 45 indicators of performance. After adjusting for differences in the proportion of seniors, Canada ranked among the top spenders - fourth-highest as a percentage of GDP and 10th-highest per capita. Yet it had less medical resources available for patients and painfully long wait times for specialists. Canada ranked 26th out of 28 for number of physicians, 22nd out of 27 for MRI units, and 25th out of 26 for hospital beds. As Harvard Business School professor Regina Herzlinger and the Fraser Institute's Bacchus Barua opined ". . .Overall, Canada performs worse than other universal-coverage countries, particularly Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany. Why? Unlike Canada's single-payer system, the Swiss, Dutch and German systems rely on private insurers, whether nonprofit or for-profit. Government helps the needy make premium payments." (Read Article: Wall Street Journal, 4/16/19)

PBS brings us into the world of healthcare workers in rural, northern New Mexico, where the physician shortage and opioid epidemic collide. This full documentary, The Providers, viewable here, takes us on the journeys of three providers who care for those who would otherwise be left out of the healthcare system, illustrating the transformative power of these providers' relationships with their underserved patients. (Referred and recommended by Dave Haddick of PSYCHeANALYTICS)

In an attempt to address the decline in primary-care doctors, Walgreens announced last month that it will start operating primary-care physician services at some of its stores - which will operate differently from traditional walk-in care facilities at pharmacies where people typically go when they have an immediate health problem. The offices will be 2,500 square feet, and have a separate entrance, plus connecting doors to Walgreens. Patients (and Walgreens customers) can go there for their annual check-up and get referrals for specialists, just like they would do at the family doctor. They will initially be available at five stores in Houston. The primary-care offices will be provided by Walgreens in partnership with VillageMD, a national provider of primary care. The doctors at these locations in Houston will work with nurses, social workers, and Walgreens pharmacists. Office visits to primary-care physicians declined 18% over a four-year period for adults under 65, according to the Health Care Cost Institute. Meanwhile, office visits to nurse practitioners and physician assistants spiked 129%. (Read Article: MarketWatch, 5/8/19)

The quality of your sleep can have far-reaching effects on your mental and physical health, so it's no surprise that digital health options for tracking and improving sleep are already extensive, and they're expanding all the time. In this article, MobiHealthNews provides an overview of the different kinds of consumer-facing sleep tracking technologies on the market, which demonstrate the range of approaches that are currently out there. HOWEVER, Jeffrey Durmer, MD/PhD, Co-Founder of FusionHealth, and one of the nation's top experts on sleep, recently shared with our San Francisco Round Table that few of these consumer-grade sleep trackers accurately report sleep quality. However, they do report the other two fundamentals of sleep: sleep duration and timing. (Read Article: MobiHealthNews, 4/26/19)

Millions of Facebook users have joined groups to talk about healthcare issues ranging from rare disease diagnoses to chemotherapy side effects. Now, Facebook is taking steps it hopes will encourage those conversations to continue while affording users more privacy. The company recently announced that it will create a new type of community called health support groups - once groups are designated as health support communities, Facebook users will be able to easily ask the administrators to post questions on their behalf. (Read Article: Stat, 4/30/19)

Global downloads of medical apps exceeded 400 million in 2018, a 15% increase over the global totals recorded in 2016 and 2017, according to App Annie. Led by apps GoodRx, MyChart, and FollowMyHealth, the increase in downloads was observed in mature markets (US, UK and France) and emerging markets (Brazil, India and Indonesia) alike. Health and fitness apps in particular saw a noticeable boost in recorded consumer spending; worldwide spending in these apps tripled from 2016 to 2018. This growth was led by Chinese (iOS only) and US consumers, both of whom roughly quadrupled their spending. (Read Article: MobiHealthNews, 4/18/19)

A study conducted by pharmacy and outpatient telepsychiatry provider Genoa Healthcare found that rural, Medicaid-covered behavioral health patients received quicker and more frequent care when their in-person visits were supplemented with a telepsychiatry appointment. These results from a 242-patient investigation suggest that this hybrid approach to mental healthcare could increase access and utilization among this population. (Read Article: MobiHealthNews, 5/2/19)

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released 10 guidelines for how countries can use digital health tools to improve patient care. The recommendations advise on everything from how to employ digital tools for birth notifications, to implementing health worker decision support tools, and using telemedicine to digital health education services. The guidelines were designed to help decision makers in government health departments, the public health sector, and other stakeholders better understand how digital tools could address their population's health needs. The new resource addresses issues of patient privacy, appropriate implementation, and adoption hurdles. (Read Article: MobiHealthNews, 4/17/19)

Cardiogram, maker of a smartwatch app that uses a deep neural network technology to detect various heart conditions, has cut a deal with Oscar Health, in which Oscar members will be able to enter their insurance information, download the Cardiogram app, and then access Cardiogram Care within the app without a copay or deductible. "You will be monitored for signs of diabetes and atrial fibrillation, and if it turns out you are at a high risk for one of these conditions, you will be offered a confirmatory blood test or an ECG," Brandon Ballinger, cofounder of Cardiogram, said. "And if that confirms you have that condition, then you will be referred to an in-network physician that guides Oscar members to treatment and better health." (Read Article: MobiHealthNews, 4/24/19)

Health coaching app developer Noom has raised $58 million led by Sequoia Capital, Samsung Ventures, and a number of Silicon Valley luminaries. Noom is best known for its direct-to-consumer weight loss app, but it also develops enterprise products, including an app focused on diabetes and hypertension. Noom aims to set itself apart by focusing on long-term lifestyle and behavior changes, in addition to calorie, nutrition and exercise tracking. Users get access to 1:1 coaching and fitness programs personalized by an algorithm based on how they answer a questionnaire. (Read Article: TechCrunch, 5/6/19)
MEANWHILE, Mint Founder Aaron Patzer raised $5.2 million from investors to launch Vital - to bring Mint's consumer-focused mindset that helps users organize their finances, to emergency rooms and hospitals to help them organize patient flow. (Read Article: TechCrunch, 4/24/19)

Machine-learning algorithms are drastically speeding up the development process for new pharmaceuticals. The World Economic Forum included this use of AI last year in its annual list of the top 10 emerging technologies that are set to be potentially disruptive over the next three to five years while providing significant benefits to economies and societies. (Read Article: Wall Street Journal, 4/30/19)

The daunting financial muscle that has driven the spread of prescription opioids in the U.S. comes from the distributors - Cardinal Health, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen, which are all among the 15 largest American companies by revenue. Together, they distribute more than 90% of the nation's drug and medical supplies. New civil suits from the attorneys general in New York, Vermont, and Washington State accuse distributors of brazenly devising systems to evade regulators. They allege that the companies warned many pharmacies at risk of being reported to the DEA, helped others to increase and circumvent limits on how many opioids they were allowed to buy, and often gave advance notice on the rare occasions they performed audits. (Read Article: New York Times, 4/22/19)

As digital health puts power in the hands of patients, the nature of their role is shifting toward that of a healthcare consumer. What does this mean for patients? And how should industry stakeholders evolve to accommodate them? MobiHealthNews recently looked at this trend from a variety of angles, including how hospitals, pharma organizations and payers can treat patients as customers, and how these healthcare consumers are cutting out traditional intermediaries through new D2C health and wellness businesses. (Read Article: April 2019)

In a short video, Constellation Research VP David Chou discusses the long journey to value-based care and looks at tech mega-trends through a healthcare lens to operationalize them. (Watch Video: MobiHealthNews, 4/3/19)

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