Thursday, November 4, 2021: Life Sciences

U.K. regulators authorized Merck & Co.’s COVID-19 antiviral pill molnupiravir, making it first in the world to clear the treatment. The FDA is still reviewing the drug, though the federal government made an advance purchase of 1.7 million courses of the...

Wednesday, November 3, 2021: Providers

The CMS released three final rules pertaining to provider payments: The annual Outpatient Prospective Payment System rule increases payment rates for hospital-owned outpatient and ambulatory surgery centers by 2 percent each and finalizes steeper penalties for certain...

Wednesday, November 3, 2021: Payers

Humana released its third-quarter earnings report today, posting $1.5 billion in Q3 profits. The report also shows that Humana expects its Medicare Advantage (MA) individual membership to grow 11 percent compared to the previous year. However, the insurer also cut its...

Wednesday, November 3, 2021: Health IT

FAIR Health’s Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker shows that telehealth use among individuals with private health insurance increased by almost 13 percent from July to August. The top five reasons for telehealth visits in August were mental health conditions...

Wednesday, November 3, 2021: Life Sciences

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky endorsed a recommendation for vaccinating children ages 5-11 against COVID-19. The endorsement came after a group of CDC advisers voted 14-0 t to recommend Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children. During the approval process,...

Wednesday, November 3, 2021: D.C. News

Senate Democrats have reached an agreement to lower prescription drug prices. The deal hits on Democrats’ three main pillars of drug price reform: It would allow Medicare to negotiate the prices of some drugs; it would put a cap on how much drugmakers can hike...