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Medical organizations supporting the GLP-1 telemedicine boom
It’s relatively easy to go online and pick up a prescription for a GLP-1 treatment for diabetes or obesity, thanks to dozens of companies stepping up to meet the demand for potentially life-changing treatments is. STAT’s Katie Palmer reports that behind the scenes, a small network of clinicians writes prescriptions for many websites. Some sites do not disclose that they do not employ clinicians who see patients in house calls, which often resemble business transactions as much as medical care. Experts said this favorable arrangement raises a number of concerns.
“This is a huge red flag and very scary to me,” bariatric doctor Scott Kahan told Katie. “Set in this scenario, the incentives are so misaligned that it is hard to imagine that abusive and profit-driven prescribing, rather than medical prescribing, would not prevail.” Read Katie’s full special report here
Investigation reveals that insurance companies were using technology to deny claims
UnitedHealth Group, Humana and CVS Health are increasingly refusing to pay for rehabilitation care for seniors after introducing technology to help them make decisions, a Senate investigation found. As of 2022, insurance companies are denying about a quarter of all requests for post-acute care in nursing homes and other facilities.
The report, conducted by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, cites extensively from a STAT series from last year that examined the use of algorithms and artificial intelligence in Medicare Advantage plans. The series focused on how UnitedHealth and its subsidiary NaviHealth use unregulated algorithms to predict when someone will be discontinued from rehabilitation care. The STAT investigation revealed, for example, how UnitedHealth encouraged employees to follow the algorithm’s predictions even when patients could barely walk and were not ready to go home.
The report found that the increase in denials coincided with increased use of algorithmic tools, including NaviHealth’s tool. We also found that the decision to use or not use a particular technology was closely correlated with the expected impact on health insurers’ profits. Click here for details
Inside the collapse of a cancer-focused startup
Earlier this year, Blue Note Therapeutics CEO Jeff Eich shut down the company after failing to convince the Food and Drug Administration that the company’s digital treatments for cancer-related pain were beneficial to patients. did. In a series of candid interviews, Eich detailed the company’s downfall.
This story highlights the regulatory challenges faced by developers of digital therapeutics, which often require rigorous clinical trial designs. In Blue Note’s case, the treatment showed only modest improvement compared to a “sham” control. Ultimately, the FDA was most concerned about the dropout rate in the study and the uncertainty it introduced into the study results.
Without permission, Eich was unable to convince investors to fund another trial.
“All I can say is that we did everything in our power to obtain research funding in terms of looking at different opportunities and even grants,” he told me. . “But ultimately it was a matter of not having the will, time or money.”
Research: How do early warning algorithms stack up?
The Yale University Health System evaluated the statistical performance of scores generated by algorithms intended to alert patients to deterioration in their condition. The results of the project, published in JAMA Network Open, revealed that a tool developed by electronic medical records giant Epic Systems performed the worst. This is concerning because health systems often default to tools provided by existing vendors.
The health system tested the tool by inputting 360,000 patient records from seven hospitals. As Katie reports, the Yale study shows how difficult it is for health systems to compare the performance of predictive algorithms. Click here for details
industry news
Oshi Health, a virtual provider of gastrointestinal care, raises $6,000 in Series C round led by OAK HC/FT with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Flare Capital Partners, Frist Cressey Ventures, CVS Health Ventures, and Takeda Digital Ventures We raised a million dollars. Oracle Health launches new claims processing services. The move comes in the wake of the Change Healthcare ransomware disaster. Perhaps Oracle sees an opportunity? Axena Health, which develops devices to treat pelvic floor conditions including urinary incontinence, has announced the appointment of Randy Pritchard as its new CEO. Pritchard most recently served as CEO of diagnostics company Pillar Biosciences. Parakeet Health, developer of a generative AI voice platform, announces $3 million in funding from Canvas Ventures American Heart Association makes $1 million investment in MDisrupt, a specialized marketplace for health tech and life sciences companies announced a partnership with
what we are reading
Fueled by clinical success, STAT is the future of neurostimulation medical records Is depression contagious? The science is uncertain, UnDark Inside UnitedHealth’s strategy to pressure doctors: $10,000 bonuses and physician leaderboards, STAT
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