Tuesday, December 14, 2021: Payers

A new survey from Mercer found that employer health insurance costs spiked in 2021 after a sharp drop in 2020. The average cost for insurance per employee rose by 6.3 percent in 2021 as care use returned to more normal levels. Insurance costs increased by 3.4 percent...

Tuesday, December 14, 2021: Life Sciences

A two-shot course of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination may offer 70 percent protection against being hospitalized with the omicron variant. According to Discovery Ltd., South Africa’s largest medical-insurance provider, the protection is maintained across age...

Tuesday, December 14, 2021: Life Sciences

Pfizer released new data confirming its oral antiviral pill for COVID-19 reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 89 percent in high-risk adults. The company said there is an ongoing interim analysis of a second study of the pill, called Paxlovid, which has so...

Tuesday, December 14, 2021: D.C. News

Democratic senators dropped House-passed cuts to Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments in their version of the social spending bill. The House bill would have reduced payments, which go to hospitals in the 12 states that haven’t expanded...

Tuesday, December 14, 2021: D.C. News

Six former FDA commissioners sent a letter to lawmakers endorsing Dr. Robert Califf, President Biden’s pick to lead the agency, ahead of a Senate committee hearing today on his nomination. The former commissioners, who served under both Republican and Democratic...