June 4, 2020 | A Booming Blood Market
Industry News
Access expansion efforts fall to coronavirus
The coronavirus pandemic derailed—or at least delayed—state efforts to expand access to government-backed health coverage. Politico offers several examples of this, including a bipartisan agreement in Kansas to expand Medicaid to about 150,000 poor people. In Colorado, the pandemic has stalled a heated legislative debate over a public option to compete with private insurers. Oklahoma, which has the nation’s second-highest uninsured rate, has cancelled plans to expand Medicaid on July 1. (Politico)
The blood business is booming, thanks to efforts to develop COVID-19 antibody tests. The blood of recovered patients is essential to development of such tests. This demand is benefiting “blood brokers” who source this “commodity," The Wall Street Journal reports. But diagnostic companies say high prices for the blood have become a barrier to test development. “I feel people are taking extreme advantage of the situation because they can, because there’s crazy demand,” says Stefanie Lenart-Dallezotte of Epitope Diagnostics Inc., which sells an antibody test for COVID-19. (Wall Street Journal)
Innovation & Transformation
Modeling impact: RAND looks at public option
A public option health plan on the government insurance exchanges would have significantly lower premiums and draw many enrollees, according to simulations run by RAND. However, only a public option off the exchanges would significantly increase the total number of insureds. Moreover, an on-exchange public option plan could have a negative impact on lower-income individuals. “Although the public option offers a lower-cost option, it can reduce advanced premium tax credits and increase private individual market premiums,” according to the report. (Healthcare Dive; RAND)
Biggest challenge to HIT innovation? One guess
Economic uncertainty will be the biggest challenge to health IT innovation in the coming year, according to a Venrock survey conducted April 28 - May 6, 2020. Respondents included more than 250 individuals representing IT, providers, employers, insurers, etc. Economic uncertainty topped the list, cited by 84%, up from 43% from a survey released in February. Funding was the second most common choice, with 34% (vs. a pre-pandemic 21%), followed by regulatory changes, cited by 18% of those surveyed (vs. 40% pre-pandemic.) (Becker’s Hospital Review; report)
Consumers & Providers
Survey: Primary care still shaky
After more than two months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the futures of many primary care practices look shaky. Fifty-five percent of clinicians worry they are unprepared for the next wave of the pandemic, according to a survey from the Larry A. Green Center and Primary Care Collaborative. The survey also found that 76% of clinicians responding say they are under “severe” or “near-severe” stress. As for preventive care: Only 5% of respondents say that routine cancer screenings are happening as usual, and only 13% of clinicians report routine child immunizations are happening as usual. (Fierce Healthcare)
COVID alters consumer health care behavior
COVID-19 has affected the way most (72%) consumers use health care. A survey from the Alliance of Community Health Plans (ACHP) and the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) finds that 41% delayed health care services. Of those surveyed, 42% said they are uncomfortable going to a hospital for any treatment, and 45% don’t want to go to an urgent care or walk-in clinic. “The pandemic has put consumers in a healthcare tailspin,” Ceci Connolly, president and CEO of ACHP, said in a statement. (Healthcare Finance; survey)
New & Noted
What is medication optimization? A new graphic from the American College of Clinical Pharmacy illustrates the processes by which medication optimization is achieved and its implementation, impact and dissemination. (ACCP graphic)
Neutralized: Antibodies from a patient infected with SARS in 2003 neutralized the SARS-CoV-2 virus in lab testing, which could open the way to a monoclonal antibody drug for COVID-19, researchers reported in Nature. (Nature; MedPage Today)
WHO repercussions: If the U.S. withdraws from the World Health Organization, it could wreak profound damage far beyond the current pandemic, STAT reports. In particular, it could stymie the global effort to eradicate polio. It could also undermine the world’s ability to detect and respond to disease threats, health experts warned. (STAT)
Multi-media
Immunity passports: What could go wrong?
One proposal to get the economy moving again is to issue “immunity passports” to those who have positive results from an antibody test. The theory is, if you have the coronavirus antibodies, you might be immune from future infection and therefore safely reenter society. There are several problems with this, starting with the fact that scientists aren't sure one can achieve immunity from the coronavirus. It also poses huge ethical problems, as Harvard bioethicist Natalie Kofler, PhD, explains. (NPR)
MarketVoices...quotes worth reading
“Front-line clinicians are in a double bind: They can take care of their patients without sufficient payment and without sufficient personal protection from COVID-19, or they can abandon their patients. They choose to continue to serve, despite the hardships. It’s inspiring.”—Rebecca Etz, PhD, co-director of The Larry A. Green Center and associate professor of family medicine and population health at Virginia Commonwealth University, quoted in Fierce Healthcare