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| Blue Plan News |
| Marinette St. Vincent de Paul to host Feeding America truck Sept. 5 – Wisconsin |
| 8/22/2018 WLUC-TV Online |
| On Wednesday, September 5, the Feeding America mobile food pantry will be at the St. Vincent de Paul parking lot behind the store located at 1619 Main St. in Marinette. The mobile food pantry will make available a variety of food items at no cost to anyone in need from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. or until food supplies are gone. The mobile food pantry sponsors are Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield and Feeding America. |
| Competitor and Industry News |
| Amazon hires a new cardiologist to its healthcare division |
| 8/22/2018 Healthcare Global |
| Sturman, Catherine |
| Well-known, admired cardiologist Maulik Majmudar has revealed he is set to join Amazon in an undisclosed role, with the aim to “make a truly meaningful impact on the health and wellbeing of hundreds of millions of individuals throughout the world,” he said through Twitter. |
| Blues plans reap cash from tax law, lighter medical claims |
| 8/22/2018 Axios |
| Herman, Bob |
| Blue Cross Blue Shield plans have collected billions of dollars in profit in the first six months of this year, putting 2018 on track to be one of the most lucrative years for the Blues since the Affordable Care Act marketplaces went live in 2014. |
| Got ACA health insurance with Blue Cross Blue Shield? Your rates will go up or down depending upon your address |
| 8/22/2018 Winston-Salem Journal Online |
| Craver, Richard |
| People who buy individual federal health-insurance plans through Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina will see different rates and discounts for 2019, depending on where they live in the state. Blue Cross spokesman Austin Vevurka said the main premium pricing difference is “Winston-Salem is almost entirely Blue Value. This is a narrow network product that, on average this year, saw a larger decrease.” |
| What’s behind Best Buy’s $800M foray into healthcare services? |
| 8/22/2018 Retail Dive |
| Howland, Daphne |
| Last week Best Buy went well beyond electronics retail to acquire health and safety solutions company GreatCall for $800 million. At first glance, it seems like a curious move for a half century-old brick-and-mortar specialist, even one that has kept up with the times. |
| Apple and Google could save millions of lives, says this heart doctor |
| 8/22/2018 CNBC Online |
| Wessler, Jeffrey |
| If Apple and Google want to really make a difference in healthcare outcomes they should flip their regular business models for these devices and start small, not big. |
| Priced Out of Health Insurance, Americans Rig Their Own Safety Nets |
| 8/22/2018 Bloomberg News |
| Tozzi, John |
| Bloomberg News is following people who are uninsured in a year-long effort to tell the story of Americans struggling to afford the rising costs of health care, and the financial and medical trade-offs they make. |
| Toxin at heart of drug recall shows holes in medical safety net |
| 8/22/2018 Reuters Online |
| Harney, Alexandra; Hirschler, Ben |
| A toxin inadvertently produced in the manufacture of a widely prescribed medicine but not spotted for years raises questions about regulators’ ability to detect risks in a sprawling global drug supply chain increasingly reliant on factories in China. |
| Lack of provider data, scheduling options impedes care coordination |
| 8/22/2018 Modern Healthcare Online |
| Kacik, Alex |
| Nearly three-quarters of the 200 primary-care physicians and specialists surveyed said that for a given specialty, they or their office staff usually refer patients to the same provider. This implies that there could be missed opportunities to connect the patient with a similar physician who can see them sooner. |
| Wisconsin company known for microchipping employees plans GPS tracking chip for dementia patients |
| 8/22/2018 CNBC Online |
| Aiello, Chloe |
| A Wisconsin-based technology company famous for microchipping willing employees plans to debut a microchip with GPS technology and voice recognition that will be powered by body heat, Three Square Market CEO Todd Westby announced on CNBC’s "Closing Bell" on Wednesday. Video available in the link. |
| Pfizer, Astellas revise two cancer drug trial protocols to speed up results |
| 8/22/2018 Reuters Online |
| Mathias, Tamara; Kalluvila, Sriraj |
| Drugmakers Pfizer and Astellas Pharma said on Wednesday they would change protocols for two late-stage trials testing prostate cancer drug Xtandi to speed up completion. |
| After years of price hikes, Obamacare likely to be cheaper next year across Tennessee |
| 8/22/2018 The Tennessean Online |
| Kelman, Brett |
| Tennesseans on who depend on federally assisted health insurance are likely to have more options and face cheaper prices next year, a reversal of a trend that has plagued the state since the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, known widely as Obamacare, four years ago. |
| Immunotherapy Drugs Slow Skin Cancer That Has Spread to the Brain |
| 8/22/2018 The New York Times Online |
| Grady, Denise |
| A new study offers a glint of hope to people in a desperate situation: Patients with melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, that has spread to the brain. |
| Life expectancy declines seen in U.S. and other high-income countries |
| 8/22/2018 Reuters Online |
| Rapaport, Lisa |
| Life expectancy is declining in high-income countries worldwide, driven in part by the effects of the opioid epidemic on younger adults in the U.S. and the impact of a severe flu season on older adults in other nations, two new studies suggest. |
| Politics News |
| The Trump administration can’t decide whether drug industry middlemen are the enemy — or part of the solution |
| 8/22/2018 STAT |
| Swetlitz, Ike |
| The mixed and muddled signals from the administration are over the increasingly contentious role of the pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs. Those discordant signals reflect a lack of clarity from Trump and his lieutenants over how best to address one of their top priorities: how to lower prescription drug prices. |
| Report: Trump administration needs to step up on ‘Obamacare’ |
| 8/22/2018 Associated Press Online |
| Alonso-Zaldivar, Ricardo |
| A congressional watchdog said the Trump administration needs to step up its management of sign-up seasons for former President Barack Obama’s health care law after mixed results last year in the throes of a failed GOP effort to repeal it. |
| Trump officials approve Maryland proposal to shore up ObamaCare markets |
| 8/22/2018 The Hill Online |
| Hellmann, Jessie |
| The Trump administration on Wednesday approved a request from Maryland officials aimed at shoring up the ObamaCare markets. The proposal, effective Jan. 1., is aimed at helping insurers cover the costs of expensive claims in an effort to prevent premiums from increasing. |
| CMS vows to curb costs of state Medicaid demonstrations |
| 8/22/2018 Modern Healthcare Online |
| Luthi, Susannah |
| The CMS is tightening its financial oversight of state Medicaid waiver demonstrations, the agency announced Wednesday in formal guidance emphasizing that the changes must be budget-neutral. |
| Missouri judge affirms $4.69 billion talc verdict, J&J vows to appeal |
| 8/22/2018 Reuters Online |
| Bellon, Tina |
| A Missouri trial court judge has affirmed the massive $4.69 billion verdict against Johnson & Johnson in a case involving 22 women and their families who alleged the company’s talc-based products, including its baby powder, contain asbestos and caused them to develop ovarian cancer. |
| U.S. appeals court says GSK cannot be sued over generic drug suicide |
| 8/23/2018 Reuters Online |
| Bellon, Tina |
| A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday tossed a $3 million verdict against GlaxoSmithKline over the suicide of an attorney who took a generic version of the company’s antidepressant Paxil, finding the company could not be held liable for injuries allegedly caused by a generic copy. |
| DOJ charges Chinese nationals in synthetic opioid conspiracy |
| 8/22/2018 The Hill Online |
| Hellmann, Jessie |
| The Justice Department has indicted two Chinese nationals for allegedly manufacturing and selling deadly drugs around the world that resulted in the deaths of two Americans. According to the indictment, Fujing Zheng, 35, and his father, Guanghua, 62, operated a global opioid and drug manufacturing conspiracy that involved shipping drugs to 25 countries and 37 states. |
| Sessions moves to block two Ohio doctors from prescribing opioids |
| 8/22/2018 The Hill Online |
| Sullivan, Peter |
| The Department of Justice is moving to block two Ohio doctors from writing prescriptions because it alleges they dispensed opioids without a legitimate medical purpose. |
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