Resignations Follow FDA approval of Alzheimer’s Drug; University Hospitals Focuses Healthcare Consumerism

June 15, 2021 - The approval by FDA of Biogen’s Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm has led to the resignation of three committee members, citing disagreement with the department’s decision. The efficacy of the drug remains front and center of the public debate.

UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS ADDRESSES HEALTHCARE CONSUMERISM

Intuitive navigation and a system-wide effort are key to improving the patient financial experience and patient collections in a consumer-driven, post-pandemic world, according to Kathy LeBrew, chief system revenue cycle officer at University Hospitals in Ohio.

University Hospitals has been aware of the shift in the healthcare environment and has already started on strategies to optimize patient financial experience in an effort to better serve patients and ensure a smooth revenue cycle.

“We're very focused on ease of access including seeking, accessing, getting, and continuing care with advanced verification and communication with the patient to help prepare for planned services. One change coming, in particular, outside of price transparency is surprise billing, which will be in effect in 2022. Then, financial navigation as a service to patients. And that's going a little deeper than traditional norms around coverage, communication, coordination as well as financial assistance,” said LeBrew. READ MORE

FALLOUT CONTINUES FROM FDA APPROVAL OF BIOGEN ALZHIEMER’S DRUG

Three experts have resigned from FDA’s advisory committee following the agency’s approval of Biogen’s Alzheimer’s drug, aducanumab, according to multiple reports.

FDA approved aducanumab at the beginning of last week. This marked the first Alzheimer’s drug approval in nearly 20 years and the first one to address cognitive decline in patients with the illness. For nearly five years before FDA approved aducanumab, there was notable controversy surrounding the drug’s efficacy.

Joel Perlmutter, MD, a Washington University neurologist, was the first committee member to resign. Just days later, David Knopman, MD, a Mayo Clinic neurologist, panel member, and an investigator in clinical trials of Biogen’s drug, also resigned. Aaron Kesselheim, MD, professor at Harvard Medical School and director of the program on regulation, therapeutics, and law at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was the last committee member to resign. READ MORE

EMPLOYERS EXPECTING MORE FROM PROVIDER ORGANIZATIONS

Providers are not meeting employees’ needs in certain areas and employers expect more from their provider partners' care coordination strategies, employers expressed in a report compiled by the Council of Accountable Physician Practices (CAPP) and National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions.

Self-insured employers joined providers in five focus groups for a discussion about the major challenges that these stakeholders face in collaborating to provide employees’ healthcare. These discussions were held pre-pandemic from August 2019 to late January 2020.

First, employers wanted more affordable care for their employees. Second, employers were looking for price transparency. Third, employers wanted to reduce overtreatment. Fourth, employers sought improvements in patient experience. Fifth, employers wanted timely access to care for their members. Lastly, employers wanted to see behavioral and physical healthcare become more integrated. READ MORE

PATIENTS VOICE CONCERNS ABOUT IMPLICIT BIAS IN MEDICINE

A total of 59 percent of adult patients think implicit bias in medicine and discrimination is a problem in the US healthcare industry, and another 49 percent of their doctors agree, according to surveying from NORC at the University of Chicago on behalf of the ABIM Foundation.

The data, which leverages responses from one 2,000-patient survey and one 600-physician survey, showed that implicit bias in medicine is a striking trend. Patients perceive discrimination on the part of the medical industry, and at least half of providers agree it is a problem that gets in the way of a quality medical encounter.

Overall, 12 percent of patients reported they’d been discriminated against in a medical setting, with Black patients twice as likely as White patients to report as much. And that’s resulted in lower levels of patient trust, the data showed. READ MORE

PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS COULD HELP COMBAT DRUG OVERDOSES

Researchers at San Diego State University and the University of California San Diego School of Medicine have developed a predictive analytics model that can predict drug-related fatality rates by county and has the potential to help manage the fentanyl epidemic.

The team used county-level data to assess drug markets, demographic considerations, healthcare access, and the geographical spread of overdose as predictors, the study stated. The predictive analytics model outperformed the benchmark model, successfully predicting overdoses and ranking counties by risk rate.

"A big challenge for public health experts is figuring out which parts of the country are at greatest risk of future overdose outbreaks. If we can predict where such outbreaks may happen, then we will be empowered to intervene and stop deaths from occurring.” said coauthor author Annick Borquez, PhD, an epidemiologist and assistant professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine. READ MORE

AMA EYES DIGITAL LITERACY FOR TELEHEALTH

The American Medical Association is launching an effort to use telehealth expansion as a means of improving digital literacy in underserved populations.

The organization’s House of Delegates approved a new policy during its June Special Meeting that promotes efforts to include digital literacy in connected health programs, with a goal of reducing barriers to care that have traditionally plagued underserved populations.

“It is essential for physicians to serve as leading partners in efforts to improve access to telehealth services in historically marginalized and minoritized communities,” David H. Aizuss, MD, a member of the AMA Board of Trustees, said publicly.

The action comes alongside several similar efforts to use telehealth to address those barriers to care, ranging from social and cultural differences to broadband access to a lack of resources to access care via telehealth. READ MORE