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Highlights of the important and the interesting from the world of health care:
Don’t pass the salt: New York City has taken the lead in what city officials hope will be the beginning of a nationwide campaign to reduce the amount of salt in Americans’ diets. The goal is to cut the amount of salt in restaurant and packaged foods by 25 percent over five years as a means of combating ailments like high blood pressure and heart attacks, Reuters reports. In unveiling the so-called National Salt Reduction Initiative, the city’s Department of Health cites a significant statistic: Only 11 percent of the sodium in Americans’ diets comes from their saltshakers. Nearly 80 percent is added to foods before they are sold.
With the Rise of AI, What IP Disputes in Healthcare Are Likely to Emerge?
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
Of course, this isn’t New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s first foray into public health. He’s banned smoking and trans fat from restaurants and required chain restaurants to post calorie counts of their menu items and started ad advertising campaign against sugary drinks. While critics will no doubt decry Bloomberg’s move as yet another example of America becoming a “nanny state,” from here the move seems like a good one. While individuals are always free to change their own consumption habits, big business often needs a push to change the way it operates. Kudos to Bloomberg for being the one to give restaurants and food manufacturers that nudge, which is really all the campaign amounts to.
Axe drops at Pfizer, Merck: Among the biggest advantages to mergers is that the moves allow the newly combined company to eliminate redundant positions, streamlining operations and cutting costs. Unfortunately those advantages clearly result in rising unemployment numbers, and such is the case with recent acquisitions by pharmaceutical giants Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co. As a result of Pfizer’s $68 billion acquisition of Wyeth last year, about 20,000 employees will be on the dole, ABC News reports. That’s about 15 percent of the companies’ combined workers.
After Merck’s $41 billion purchase of Schering-Plough, also announced last year, around 16,000 of 106,000 jobs will be eliminated. While these deals presumably are good for the companies’ shareholders, it’s unpleasant to think about how many lives are negatively affected by the mergers. While some will surely land on their feet, the sad reality is that income losses for workers who are let go in a recession (yes, yes, we all know that the recession is technically over but tell that to the millions of Americans collecting unemployment or losing their homes to foreclosures) can persist for as long as two decades, and that’s not good for any of us.
Obama “flexible” on Cadillac tax: If we’ve learned anything about President Obama’s pursuit of health-overhaul legislation it’s that he’s “flexible.” Or, if you prefer, instead of “flexible,” substitute “unprincipled” or “willing to endorse anything that passes Congress so he can claim the appearance of victory and real change.” Whatever phrasing you like, the New York Times reports that Obama yesterday said he’s flexible on the so-called Cadillac tax of high-cost health plans. Considering he was speaking to union officials, some of whom the tax could affect, that’s not exactly a shocker, coming from a smooth politician who has already broken 12 campaign promises, according to the Pulitzer Prize-winning Politifact.
A Personalized Approach to Medication Nonadherence
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
Endorsing Mayo’s Medicare decision: Physician-blogger Toni Brayer likely speaks for many primary care doctors when she praises a Mayo Clinic-affiliated practice in Arizona’s decision to stop seeing Medicare patients. It’s surely a problem for primary care physicians, the backbone of the nation’s health system, when their always-rising overhead costs mean that seeing Medicare patients is a money-losing proposition. But rising health costs are a problem for all Americans, as premiums eat away more and more of our paychecks. There’s certainly no panacea here, but reforming the fee-for-service model that forms the basis for how doctors are compensated seems a good start, though that doesn’t necessarily solve the problem of primary care doctors drowning in overhead costs (single-payer, anyone?). Unfortunately, it seems that Brayer’s story is one we’ll be hearing more and more in the years to come:
After paying office overhead, I am broke with Medicare. I do not welcome the 65th birthday of my patients. … Unless we have true payment reform that values primary care and pays for coordination of care, I fear Medicare patients will not find enough willing physicians who accept Medicare in the future.
