The FDA today issued a new draft guidance outlining plans for increased diversity in clinical trials in the U.S. Expanding upon previous guidances for improving clinical trial diversity, this latest draft guidance — “Diversity Plans to Improve Enrollment of Participants from Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Subgroups in Clinical Trials” — recommends that sponsors of medical […]
Healthcare Reform
HHS reports 63-fold increase in telehealth use during pandemic
A new study from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found a 63-fold increase in Medicare telehealth use during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report analyzed Medicare fee-for-service data from 2019 and 2020 and highlighted that people in urban areas were more likely to seek and use telehealth services than rural residents. In addition, […]
Senate confirms new CMS leader
The U.S. Senate today confirmed President Joe Biden’s selection to lead CMS, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, with a 55-44 vote in favor. Brooks-LaSure will be the first Black woman to hold the position, according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Twitter. She previously served in the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services during the […]
Xavier Becerra confirmed as HHS secretary
The U.S. Senate narrowly voted to confirm Xavier Becerra as the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS) secretary today. Becerra received the nomination for the position from President Joe Biden in December 2020. Today, the Senate voted 50-49 in favor of Becerra, who will have to resign his seat as California’s attorney general. […]
CMS delays shift to new payment model for chronic kidney disease treatments
CMS will now wait until Jan. 1, 2022 to start its Kidney Care Choices model, meant to shift the way the U.S. treats chronic kidney disease. The new payment model was supposed to start on Jan. 1 of this year, but health providers are still grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic. The new model could have […]
BREAKING: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan joint healthcare venture is ending
Amazon (NSDQ:AMZN), Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase announced today that they are ending their joint healthcare venture. The venture, launched in 2018 and known as “Haven,” aimed to bring the companies’ scale and complementary expertise to a long-term project which initially focused on technology solutions to help provide their U.S. employees and families with “high-quality and […]
Medical Alley to collaborate with Accenture for Healthcare Transformation Initiative
The Medical Alley Association and Accenture (NYSE:ACN) announced today that they are collaborating to lead phase one of the Healthcare Transformation Initiative campaign in an effort to redefine the course of healthcare. HTI-MA is an initiative with the goal of bringing together healthcare leaders to define realities of today’s healthcare system, identify modes of collaboration for […]
Study: Nearly $1 trillion wasted in U.S. healthcare annually
About 25% of U.S. healthcare spending — between $760 billion and $935 billion annually — is wasted, according to a new report published today. Researchers from Humana (NYSE:HUM) and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine searched medical literature from January 2012 to May 2019, looking for waste and savings opportunities in six domains of […]
HHS proposes regulatory changes to promote value-based payment arrangements
UPDATED Oct. 9, 2019, with comments from press briefing in Minneapolis. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today proposed what it’s describing as a modernization of the physician self-referral law in order to promote value-based healthcare. The proposed regulatory changes, which are heading into a 75-day public comment period, say the physician self-referral […]
How can medical device companies thrive in the future?
Medical device data is becoming more important than the hardware itself, so medtech companies need to forge a partnership with consumer technology companies to stay innovative, according to a new report from Deloitte. The Deloitte report — called “Winning the Future of Medtech” — came out yesterday in advance of next week’s AdvaMed MedTech Conference […]
Baxter throws $500m behind CMS push for dialysis innovation
Baxter (NYSE:BAX) officials apparently think their company can benefit from a Trump administration and CMS proposal to provide extra reimbursement for new and innovative dialysis equipment and supplies. Just days ago, CEO Joe Almeida told analysts in an earnings call that the company planned to invest $500 million to significantly increase production capacity and meet new […]
