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The emergency is also tied to telehealth flexibilities, Medicaid enrollment safeguards, and the ability of government health agencies to collect data on the spread of the coronavirus. Here is what will change after Thursday, and what does not:WILL THERE BE A COST FOR VACCINES, TESTS AND TREATMENTS? They will face co-pay or co-insurance costs for certain covered treatments and the full price of those that are not covered. People enrolled in state government Medicaid health plans for the poor will also get zero-cost vaccines. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will have less authority to collect certain types of public health data after the emergency expires.

☆ 98point6 is ditching its telehealth business to sell software. Here's the presentation it used to raise $30.7 million to fuel its pivot.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

98point6 has stopped providing virtual care and is focusing on licensing its care delivery platform. When 98point6 raised $20 million in September, it had no plans to sell its virtual care business, according to CEO Jay Burrell. Running the virtual care business took a lot more cash, though, and the digital health market was still tumbling. In March, 98point6 sold its virtual care business to Transcarent for $100 million. The fresh capital brings 98point6's total funding to $297 million, excluding the $100 million Transcarent deal, per the company.

☆ Jenny Craig is going out of business
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Jordan Valinsky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —Jenny Craig, the weight-loss chain, has confirmed that it’s shutting down for good. Named after its founder, the Jenny Craig business started when she couldn’t lose weight after giving birth to her second child. WeightWatchers, for example, is getting into the prescription weight-loss drug business. The $106 million acquisition of Sequence will give WW a foothold into the growing market for prescription drugs to manage weight loss. Ozempic has gained popularity in part due to celebrities using it for weight loss.

☆ Getting prescriptions via telehealth may change soon
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Kristen Rogers | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Patients will still be able to get prescriptions for non-controlled medications, such as antibiotics or birth control, via telehealth. CNN: What if you can’t see your telehealth provider in person? The other factor that’s significant here is we discussed all the proposed rules and the status at the federal level, but there’s also the state level. Let’s say the DEA puts out their final rule, and there’s some flexibility — some states might adopt the older Ryan Haight Act language from the federal level, so they might actually be stricter than what we’ll be seeing at the federal level. Khan: The DEA has indicated that the absolute requirement at the federal level is one in-person examination.

☆ CVS beats on earnings and revenue but lowers profit outlook
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

CVS Health on Wednesday reported first-quarter results that beat earnings and revenue expectations, but the company lowered its full-year profit guidance due to costs related to recent acquisitions. CVS reported total revenue of $85.28 billion, an 11% increase over the $76.83 billion a year earlier. CVS' health services segment booked revenue of $44.59 billion, a 12.6% increase over sales of $39.62 billion in the same quarter last year. CVS' health insurance segment generated revenue of $25.88 billion, a 12% increase from the year before. And CVS' retail segment booked revenues of $27.92 billion, and increase of 7.8% compared to sales of $25.89 billion in the first quarter of 2022.

☆ Health Plan Coverage of Abortion and Related Services
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Practical Law Employee Benefits | Executive Compensation | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +36 min

The Dobbs ruling, which returned the regulation of abortion to the individual states, has led to legislation that restricts abortion, including medication abortion, in many states. In response to the rapidly changing post-Dobbs legal landscape, this article addresses health plan coverage of abortion, medication abortion coverage and litigation, abortion-related travel benefits, and related Practical Law resources concerning these topics. The insurer in a fully insured health plan, health maintenance organization (HMO), or similar arrangement:Assumes the risk of providing health coverage for insured events by paying medical costs for eligible claims incurred under the plan. Self-Funded Health PlansBy contrast, employers with self-funded arrangements may have more discretion in providing coverage for abortion and related services. Changes to plan coverage of medication abortion will likely require plan administrators to:(For more on coverage of medication abortion, see Newly Launched, ReproductiveRights.gov Website Addresses Access to Medication Abortion (Mifepristone) Using Telehealth on Practical Law.)

☆ Jenny Craig is reportedly winding down its weight-loss centers and warning of mass layoffs
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Jenny Craig is reportedly shutting down some of its weight-loss centers and warning employees of mass layoffs amid upheaval in the industry from popular new prescription drugs like Ozempic. Jenny Craig alerted employees to potential layoffs as it begins “winding down physical operations” and hunts for a buyer, according to NBC News. Jenny Craig has nearly 500 weight-loss centers in the United States and Canada. We will have more details to share in the coming weeks as our plans are solidified,” a spokesperson for Jenny Craig said in a statement to CNN. Ozempic has gained popularity in part due to celebrities using it for weight loss.

☆ Abortion pill mifepristone is banned or restricted in some states despite Supreme Court ruling
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The abortion pill mifepristone is either banned or restricted to varying degrees in 27 states despite a Supreme Court decision that — for now — maintains Food and Drug Administration regulations allowing easy access to the medication. The Supreme Court, acting on an emergency basis, last week blocked lower federal court orders that had imposed severe restrictions on mifepristone even in some states where abortion remains legal. The side that loses at the appeals courts is certain to ask the Supreme Court to take the case to make a final determination on the legality of the FDA rules. Patients previously were required by FDA to obtain mifepristone in-person from a health-care provider or take the medication under their supervision. While the Supreme Court's decision at least temporarily maintains access to mifepristone in states that support broad access to abortion, it will have less or no impact in conservative states that banned the procedure since last summer, when the high court overturned the half-century-old federal constitutional right to abortion.

Amazon will no longer sell its Halo health and fitness tracker, the company announced Wednesday. Amazon will stop supporting Halo devices and the Halo app on July 31. "At Amazon, we think big, experiment, and invest in new ideas like Amazon Halo in our efforts to delight customers," the company said. "While we are proud of what we built, we recently made the difficult decision to stop supporting Amazon Halo effective July 31, 2023." The company said it will refund any purchases made in the last year of Halo View, Halo Band, Halo Rise and Halo accessory bands.

☆ Sudanese help one another find medicine, water as state collapses
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Mai Shams El-Din | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Elsewhere, individuals have used technology to match local stocks of food, fresh water and medicine to neighbourhoods in need. It mobilised a team of surgeons and other medics, reopened a local health centre for urgent cases and set up a hotline for less urgent ones. It has handled at least 25 medical cases since the fighting began, Surketty said. With most of Khartoum's hospitals shut down, and the few still open offering only limited services, medical needs have been intense. They're not meant to be treated using Telehealth, they actually need to go to a hospital," Mujtaba said.

☆ Supreme Court protects access to abortion pill
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Ariane De Vogue | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —The Supreme Court on Friday protected access to a widely used abortion drug by freezing lower-court rulings that placed restrictions on its usage. How the dispute over medication abortion is ultimately resolved could make it more difficult for women to obtain abortion, even in the states that still allow it. At issue is the scope of FDA’s authority to regulate mifepristone, a drug that the medical community has deemed safe and effective. The next step in the litigation will be a hearing in front of a New Orleans-based federal appeals court on May 17. The appeals court ultimately let stand the government’s approval of the drug, but agreed with Kacsmaryk that access could be limited.

WASHINGTON, April 20 (Reuters) - Use of the drug misoprostol on its own to terminate pregnancies is on the rise in the United States as providers seek a preemptive alternative while a ban on abortion pill mifepristone is being considered in court. Misoprostol is already part of the only medication abortion protocol approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but only when taken in combination with mifepristone. The drug, which the FDA first approved in 1988 for gastric ulcers, is often prescribed off-label to treat miscarriages or induce abortions. "If providers are forced to stop providing mifepristone, misoprostol alone is also safe and effective," said Dr. Ushma Upadhyay, a public health professor at the University of California, San Francisco. Because misoprostol is approved for medication abortion in the United States as part of the two-drug combination, prescribing it alone to terminate pregnancies would also be considered off-label.

☆ Planned Curbs on Telehealth Prescriptions Spark Backlash
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Stephanie Armour | Liz Essley Whyte | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Proposed telehealth rules call for in-person visit for online prescriptions of controlled-substance drugs such as buprenorphine, a medication for opioid-use disorder. WASHINGTON—A federal plan to resume tighter limits on the prescribing of controlled substances through telehealth has spurred a backlash from some medical and patient advocacy groups who say the requirements would create barriers to care. The organizations are urging the Drug Enforcement Administration to reconsider proposed rules that would let doctors remotely prescribe a 30-day supply of some drugs, including buprenorphine for opioid-use disorder, as well as ketamine and testosterone, but require at least one in-person visit for further prescriptions.

☆ Torch Capital's founder has some advice for startup founders: Down rounds aren't such a bad thing right now. Here's why.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Jonathan Keidan founded VC firm Torch Capital, which backed Ro and recently raised $200 million. Good founders will opt for down rounds over deal terms that could come back to bite, he says. As venture capital funding plummets and investors tighten their purse strings, Jonathan Keidan has a word of advice to startup founders: It's OK to take a down round. Most of the founders Torch has backed, Keidan said, are still steering clear of the relatively sluggish market. "You can roll up your sleeves and really help them, which has been critical in this environment," Keidan told Insider.

☆ Abortion providers rush to make backup plans as Supreme Court decides whether to keep limits on mifepristone
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Some in-person clinics in New York, California and Kansas will offer mifepristone for now, but are preparing to provide an alternative abortion pill if a subsequent decision essentially bans the drug. U.S. abortion pill providers are scrambling to make backup plans as the Supreme Court decides whether to keep restrictions on the key drug mifepristone. Those restrictions will limit access to mifepristone even in states where abortion is legal. Some in-person abortion clinics in states where the procedure is legal told CNBC that operations will remain largely the same. Other clinics in states where abortion is legal can prescribe mifepristone off-label beyond the first seven weeks of pregnancy, according to Hill.

CNN —Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Friday extended a hold on a lower court ruling that would have imposed restrictions on access to an abortion drug, a temporary move meant to give the justices more time to consider the issue. The case is the most important abortion-related dispute to reach the high court since the justices overturned Roe v. Wade last term. Alito issued a so-called administrative stay on the ruling while the high court considers an emergency appeal filed by the Biden administration and a manufacturer of the drug, mifepristone. Alito issued the order because he has jurisdiction over the federal appeals court involved in the case. Prelogar, the solicitor general, argued in her filing to the Supreme Court that the FDA’s expert judgment should not be challenged.

☆ Inside the Online Market for Overseas Abortion Pills
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Allison Mccann | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +17 min

A selection of abortion pill kits available online from overseas sellers. A chart of the estimated number of abortion pills provided outside the U.S. health care system from July through December 2022. For most patients, the cost of the service remains the most important factor in deciding where to get pills online. A chart showing the minimum, average and maximum cost of abortion pills from overseas providers: Aid Access, Las Libres and for-profit online sellers. A chart showing the minimum, average and maximum delivery speeds of abortion pills from overseas providers: Aid Access, Las Libres and for-profit online sellers.

☆ Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says he's confident he can get costs under control in shareholder letter
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Annie Palmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +38 min

Further, as machine learning adoption has continued to accelerate, customers have yearned for lower-cost GPUs (the chips most commonly used for machine learning). While some areas of the economy have struggled over the past few years, Amazon Business has thrived. Some people have never heard of Amazon Business, but, our business customers love it. For years, Amazon customers had asked us when we'd offer them an online pharmacy as their frustrations mounted with current providers. More recently, a newer form of machine learning, called Generative AI, has burst onto the scene and promises to significantly accelerate machine learning adoption.

☆ People Can't Get Ozempic, New Weight-Loss Drugs Because of Broken Healthcare System
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

Wegovy is just one of a wave of revolutionary weight-loss drugs, which also includes the buzzy Ozempic, that represents a watershed moment for obesity treatment. Demand for weight-loss drugs is surgingDoctors and healthcare professionals searched for a healthy, safe, and effective weight-loss solution for years before the drugs, known collectively as GLP-1 agonists, exploded on the scene. If there is one key that could unlock access to expensive weight-loss drugs for Americans, it's Medicare. Expanding coverage for Ozempic and other weight-loss drugs for just a small segment of the population could cost Medicare up to $26.8 billion a year. Patients lose outYears from now, patients may have an easier time getting their hands on weight-loss drugs.

April 13 (Reuters) - U.S. telehealth abortion providers scrambled on Thursday to keep their services available after a federal appeals court ruled that the abortion pill mifepristone could be distributed amid ongoing litigation but with significant restrictions. Mifepristone is used with another drug called misoprostol to perform medication abortion, which accounts for more than half of U.S. abortions. Jayaram Brindala, founder of Abortion Telemedicine, said the provider would "no longer be able to send the mifepristone medication by mail anywhere." Brindala added the company would still send the misoprostol-only regimen to states that allow it. Other telehealth practices that provide abortion medication said they were waiting to see what happens next in court before announcing any changes in policy.

☆ Legal Abortions Fell by 6 Percent in the Six Months After Dobbs, New Data Shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Margot Sanger-Katz | Claire Cain Miller | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The new data overestimates the total reduction in abortions, because it does not include people who obtained abortions outside the U.S. health system, such as by ordering pills online from other countries. That is more than the total decline in legal abortions, though it is uncertain how many of those requests result in abortions. For the places that did not provide data, the group estimated the changes based on historical data and the trends for nearby clinics. Abortions also fell substantially in states with restrictions that fell shy of complete bans. For example, in Georgia, which outlaws abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, the number of abortions decreased 40 percent.

Organizations: Society of Family Locations: Florida, America, Texas, WeCount, Georgia

☆ PAWP offers a telehealth service for pets at fixed prices
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Jim Cramer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

PAWP offers a telehealth service for pets at fixed pricesPAWP CEO Marc Atiyeh speaks with "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer about the pet health services the company offers.

☆ WeightWatchers' parent rockets higher by 25% after Goldman says the stock will more than triple
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

WW International , the parent WeightWatchers, could see its stock price more than triple as the diet company's new foray into obesity medications could result in a major turnaround, Goldman Sachs said. The Wall Street firm upgraded the stock to buy from neutral Monday evening and raised its 12-month price target to $13. The stock skyrocketed 28% in premarket trading Tuesday after closing Monday's trading at $4.12 apiece. Goldman turned bullish after WW acquired Sequence , a telehealth platform that provides its subscribers with access to GLP-1 medications such as Wegovy and Ozempic. "We believe a catalyst for a turnaround has emerged with its new obesity drug on-ramp solution," Goldman said.

☆ 3 reasons digital-healthcare pioneer Hims is staying out of the latest weight-loss craze for now
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

'As startups dive into prescribing hot new weight loss drugs, Hims & Hers is taking a backseat. Its CEO said Hims wants to offer GLP-1s for weight loss, but thinks it's too early. He cited challenges in the young market like insurers refusing to cover GLP-1s and drug shortages. After Hims & Hers' first profitable quarter ever, the startup is thinking about getting in on telehealth's weight-loss craze. An 'inconsistent' supply chainExploding demand for the new weight-loss drugs has also resulted in shortages, which affect all patients prescribed GLP-1s, not just those using the drugs for weight loss.

☆ Amazon lays off more than 100 employees in its video games division: Read the memo here
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Annie Palmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Amazon is laying off roughly 100 employees across its video games division, an executive overseeing the unit wrote in a memo to staffers on Tuesday. Amazon's video games division has also experienced some turnover among its top ranks. Mike Frazzini, who helped launch Amazon's game studios, stepped down last March. And in January, John Smedley, who headed up Amazon Games' San Diego studio, exited the company. A spokesperson for Amazon confirmed the layoffs and the existence of the memo but declined further comment.

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