Report: Annual Family Premiums for Employer Coverage Increase 7%
Annual family premiums for employer-sponsored coverage reached $23,968 in 2023, according to a new KFF survey. Of that family premium total, workers are contributing $6,575 annually.
Annual family premiums for employer-sponsored coverage reached $23,968 in 2023, according to a new KFF survey. Of that family premium total, workers are contributing $6,575 annually.
Investing in Friction-reducing tactics such as community building and providing benefits, training, and personalized support to employees will yield compounding long-term benefits while reducing churn rate.
In Same Day, UCB Lands Two FDA Drug Approvals in Autoimmune Diseases
FDA approval of UCB’s Bimzelx gives the Belgian drugmaker a contender in the crowded plaque psoriasis therapies market. In the rare disease generalized myasthenia gravis, the agency approved Zilbrysq, a UCB drug with advantages over two blockbuster AstraZeneca drugs addressing the same target.
Allara Snags $10M to Scale Its Platform for Women’s Chronic Hormonal Conditions
Allara raised $10 million in a Series A funding round led by GV. The startup offers membership-based virtual services to treat women’s chronic hormonal conditions, such as PCOS and endometriosis. CEO Rachel Blank — former executive at Ro and investor at General Catalyst — founded the company partly due to the difficulty she experienced arriving at her own PCOS diagnosis.
Amazon Starts Delivering Medications via Drone
Amazon Pharmacy is now offering a drone delivery service for prescription medications in College Station, Texas. The service is free and allows patients to receive their medications within 60 minutes.
Consumer / Employer, Health Tech
Noom is now offering Noom Med to employers. The program is intended for patients who need more clinical support in their weight loss journey. It offers access to a clinician and medications, including GLP-1s.
Dawn Maroney, President, Markets of Alignment Health and CEO of Alignment Health Plan, to discuss how they are using technology to provide better service and care to consumers.
BioNTech gains rights to a MediLink Therapeutics antibody drug conjugate that targets tumors expressing the HER3 protein. The deal comes six months after the German company entered the ADC field by acquiring rights to two therapeutic candidates from DualityBio.
Cancer and pharmacy services are driving up costs for employers. One Mercer exec recently laid out several recommendations for employers to manage these costs.
At HLTH, General Catalyst Principal Candace Richardson discussed some of the questions she frequently asks startups during investment meetings. Some of these include “Do you stratify your outcomes data by different populations to ensure your model works well for everyone?” and “Is serving Medicaid populations on your roadmap?”
Enrollment in Medicare Advantage is increasing, but the program has been drawing scrutiny from the government. Can the program be saved? One expert believes Medicare Advantage is a failed experiment. Another thinks that while the program has its flaws, it shows tremendous potential.
Health Tech, Hospitals, Physicians
To address the growing physician shortage, some people argue that the scope of practice should be expanded for skilled healthcare professionals like nurse practitioners and pharmacists. American Medical Association President Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld said this is a “terrible idea.” He argued that throwing other professionals into physicians’ roles will have poor ramifications of patient safety. In his view, the industry should focus on uplifting strong interprofessional care teams.
HLTH 2023 introduced a new program focused on technology trends for and perspectives from payers in a series of conversations around AI, health equity and healthcare innovation.
Main Street Health announced the close of a $315 funding round at HLTH — some of the investors included UnitedHealthcare, Humana, Elevance, Centene and CVS. The startup, which scales value-based care in rural areas for both Medicare Advantage and original Medicare patients, also announced that it is expanding to 26 states.
Pharma, Artificial Intelligence, BioPharma
Formed by Baidu founder and CEO Robin Li, BioMap uses artificial intelligence technology to glean insight into proteins to guide biologic drug discovery. The startup is the latest company to join a growing list of Sanofi partners as the pharmaceutical giant continues investing in AI-enabled drug discovery.
Join us to learn about the latest trends in remote monitoring and how to extend its benefits beyond chronic conditions to more patients – all while using fewer staff resources.
Spring Health and Highmark Health are collaborating to launch Mental Well-Being, a solution that offers therapy, medication and other services for some Highmark members.
Bayer opens its new cell therapy manufacturing facility as it prepares a Parkinson’s disease cell therapy for Phase 2 testing. The new 100,000 square foot facility also has space for manufacturing other cell therapies in the pharma giant’s pipeline.
The report maps out the health tech sector’s current position in the innovation hype cycle, which business models are most resilient, and how the industry can move out of the trough of disillusionment. It also offered predictions for health tech trends in 2024.
Merith Basey, executive director of Patients For Affordable Drugs, believes the Medicare price negotiation program is here to stay, no matter who is president and no matter how many Big Pharma players file lawsuits. Her reasoning? Every other high income nation has been negotiating prices with drugmakers for years, and the program is widely popular in the U.S. among pretty much everyone who isn’t a pharma company, she said during a session at Engage at HLTH.
By combining AI with human expertise and oversight, we have the potential to revolutionize the clinical trial process—and most importantly, extend and save lives.