Page 4 - Modern Healthcare (January 2020)
P. 4
Briefs
CMS will consolidate
Shield Association and 18 independent
Blues companies formed a new Civica
its eight Compare
subsidiary with the goal of lowering
prescription drug costs. The Blues
plans will contribute $55 million to the
websites for consumers
yet-unnamed spinoff, which will submit
abbreviated new drug applications,
or ANDAs, for select high-cost, single-
source generic drugs dispensed at the
pharmacy counter. The group plans to
The CMS will combine the eight online tools designed for Medicare beneficiaries
have its first generic medicines available
and their caregivers to make healthcare choices. Civica Rx, the Blue Cross and Blue
The changes will take place later this year. Patients and families now must by early 2022. The new spinoff's mission
use different interfaces on the Medicare website based on the care setting they to lower the cost of generic pharmacy
are interested in. The CMS offers options, called Compare tools, for hospitals, drugs is different from Civica's, which is
nursing homes, home health, dialysis centers, long-term care hospitals, inpatient pursuing rights to manufacture generic
rehabilitation, physicians and hospice groups. drugs often used in hospitals that are
The tools allow patients to research the quality subject to shortages and price spikes.
of organizations or physicians.
The CMS said the independent functionality John Kapoor, the former chairman
of each Compare tool “makes them difficult of Insys Therapeutics, was ordered
and challenging to navigate.” Additionally, to spend 5½ years in prison for
some of the tools look different than others. orchestrating a bribery and kickback
The CMS said the changes will offer more scheme prosecutors said helped fuel
consistency in terms of “look and feel.” the opioid crisis. The 10-week trial
The agency plans on reaching out to in federal court in Boston revealed
stakeholders—patients and providers—in the sensational details about the company's
coming weeks to get feedback on the changes marketing tactics, including testimony
before the website launches. The CMS said it will continue to make changes that a sales executive once gave a lap
before and after the launch “as part of our iterative improvement process.” dance to a doctor the company was
The CMS also announced it’s working on a new online portal to access CMS wooing. Kapoor was also ordered to pay
data. The agency said the new interface will have “intuitive search features to a $250,000 fine, the maximum under
allow users to easily search and download CMS’ publicly reported data, better sentencing guidelines.
serving stakeholders who use the interactive and downloadable datasets.”
—Maria Castellucci Too few healthcare professionals
are giving their patients advice to quit
smoking, according to the U.S. surgeon
general in the first report on smoking
food insecurity. cessation in 30 years. The report found
Four Chicago hospitals
The new system's CEO and leader- 44% of adult smokers didn't receive
merging to form single system
ship team, to be announced later this smoking-cessation advice from their
Four financially struggling safety-net year, will ultimately determine what the clinicians over the course of a year,
hospitals in Chicago—Advocate Trinity entity looks like. But based on current despite 84% reporting they saw a
Hospital, Mercy Hospital & Medical Cen- patient volumes and other data, one physician or other health professional
ter, South Shore Hospital and St. Bernard idea is to build either a 500-bed hospi- during that same period. The findings
Hospital—plan to create a single system tal or two 250-bed hospitals, St. Bernard were based on 2015 data from the
with one leadership team. CEO Charles Holland Jr. said. National Health Interview Survey
With an estimated $1.1 billion in- South Shore and St. Bernard are conducted by the Centers for Disease
vestment—including private dona- among the last remaining indepen- Control and Prevention's National
tions and government dollars intended dent hospitals in the Chicago area, Center for Health Statistics. The number
for hospital transformation—the plan while Advocate Trinity and Mercy are of Americans who smoke cigarettes is at
is to build at least one new hospital and owned by Advocate Aurora Health an all-time low, dropping from its peak
six new community health centers that and Trinity Health, respectively—two of 42% in 1964 to 13.7% in 2018. But
offer preventive services and address of the largest not-for-profit hospital approximately 34 million adults in the
social determinants of health, such as chains in the country. U.S. still smoke cigarettes.
2 Modern Healthcare | January 27, 2020
