Health insurers are totally lost in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, writes Paul Demko.
Three of the country’s largest insurers — Aetna, Cigna and Humana — have announced plans in recent days to waive treatment costs, and some regional insurers like L.A. Care Health Plan and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield have made similar commitments.
At the same time, the entire industry is just starting the lengthy process of drawing up rates for next year’s health plans amid unprecedented economic turmoil.
“We don’t know how to price a pandemic, especially when we don’t have good information on what the future looks like,” said David Anderson, a health insurance expert at Duke University.
The early estimates are daunting. Ceci Connolly, CEO of the Alliance of Community Health Plans, points out that insurers can’t simply jack up their rates for 2021 to cover this year’s losses. Instead, state regulators can only consider projected costs for 2021 when they review insurers’ proposals. That means smaller health plans could face financial peril.
“Everyone is trying to make sure that any barriers or limits or restrictions to getting access to testing and care are eliminated,” said Matt Eyles, CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans, the largest industry group. “It’s harder to predict what some of the longer-term impacts are.”
CORONAVIRUS VACCINE TIMELINE MOVED UP — Two possible vaccines against the virus are barreling ahead into human trials. Johnson & Johnson said Monday that its candidate, Ad26 SARS-CoV-2, will start phase 1 trials no later than September and could be ready for emergency use early next year.
It could join another candidate developed by NIH and Moderna that may be ready for emergency dosing by this fall, Moderna has said.
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which has funded Johnson & Johnson’s effort, said the government would work with the company to prepare 300 million doses of its vaccine per year. BARDA is also working with NIH and Moderna to prep their option for phase two and three trials.
While Johnson & Johnson’s booster might not make it into emergency dosing before Moderna’s option, both are moving at record time. It is “a substantially accelerated time frame in comparison to the typical vaccine development process,” Johnson & Johnson said in a statement.
The country’s top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, said Monday that “things will be very different” in a year to a year and a half because of the vaccine candidates in the pipeline. “It will be a different ball game than when we first got hit with it in the beginning of the year.”
COSTA RICA, ADVOCATES ASK FOR POOLED EFFORTS — With a few potential coronavirus vaccines and treatments on the horizon, some advocates are pushing for assurances that everyone can access them — and that generic makers can jump on production fast. Those promises would be pretty unprecedented for drugmakers, who reap their biggest profits during exclusivity periods.
Costa Rica recently sent a letter to the World Health Organization asking the global group to push for manufacturers to pool patent rights for coronavirus treatments, tests and vaccines. The country also wants manufacturers to “provide for free access or licensing on reasonable and affordable terms, in every member country.” The situation is urgent, Costa Rica President Carlos Alvarado Quesada and health minister Daniel Salas Peraza wrote.
Elsewhere a range of health care organizations aimed their request at Gilead — maker of experimental treatment remdesivir — specifically. Remember last week, Gilead asked FDA to take back an orphan drug designation (that it had applied for) that would have given remdesivir seven years of exclusivity.
Médecins Sans Frontières, Families USA and a range of international groups demanded Monday that Gilead declare it will not enforce exclusive rights anywhere in the world and make all its data and samples for the medicine available. Gilead did not respond to requests for comment.
FORD, GE SAY THEY’LL MAKE 50,000 VENTILATORS IN 100 DAYS — Together, the companies say, they’ll make 1,500 ventilators by the end of April, ramping up to 12,000 by the end of May and 50,000 by July 4. After that, they expect to be able to manufacture 30,000 a month.
President Donald Trump said Friday that the government would buy 100,000 ventilators over the next 100 days — part of an effort that White House official Peter Navarro called “the most significant industrial mobilization since World War II.”
FDA OKS MORE MASK DECONTAMINATION AFTER PUSHBACK — Over the weekend the Trump administration approved the first system for sterilizing specialized face masks worn by frontline health workers battling the coronavirus, potentially easing the severe shortage of the protective gear, POLITICO’s Rachel Roubein reports.
The FDA also reversed course on a daily cap for the decontamination system, less than 24 hours after Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine criticized the agency on Sunday morning for imposing the limit.
As of Sunday night, the agency will let the machines be deployed to sites around the country and there won’t be a limit on the number of masks they’re allowed to clean each day. At issue was the FDA’s decision to allow emergency use of a Battelle system that decontaminates specialized N95 face masks, allowing doctors and nurses to safely reuse them.
Source: Politico