$140M: The amount Anthem and Humana are investing in a new pharmacy benefit manager. With this investment, the plans will hold a minority stake in the new company, DomaniRx. SS&C Technologies, a fintech company, will own the other 80%. Humana will be the PBM’s first customer, as the company “aims to offer payers more transparency into their drug costs and help them better comply with changing government regulations” according to a press release.
Did You Hear About The Detox Fix? A noninvasive treatment to manage opioid withdrawal symptoms recently hit the market. S.T. Genesis looks like a hearing aid of sorts that is applied behind the ear and administers treatment for 5 days helping the patient during the most critical time of detox. This FDA-cleared treatment option could be a way to transition patients with substance use disorder into longer term treatment.
Sleep Before Autism: A recent study reveals that children on the autism spectrum with severe sleep difficulties often suffer behavioral regulation difficulties, impairing their executive function. The longitudinal study was started in 2005 and followed 217 children with autism participating in Pathways in ASD. Parents completed a survey when their children were ages 2-4, and again roughly 3 years later. Researchers also assessed the children’s executive functioning four times from ages 7-12 with another survey to parents and teachers. The research suggests that the sleep problems precede the manifestation of behavioral regulation issues in children.
Appetizing Sight: Warby Parker has refreshed their online marketplace for prescription lenses with a new app called Virtual Vision Test, which has potential implications for the broader optometry sector. The app provides an at-home vision test similar to what you get at an eye doctor, and it can give you a renewed prescription that you can use to buy glasses or contacts. After the app is downloaded, the customer answers a few questions and then a short vision test appears with a letter chart. The person reads aloud the letters with one eye covered and the app records the person’s spoken responses and uploads them to be evaluated by a doctor. Within two days, an ophthalmologist licensed in the person’s state will review the results and move ahead with the prescription renewal or flag it if recommending an in-person examination.
Ride Like The Wind: United will begin offering Peloton classes to some of its members. Starting Sept. 1, as part of UnitedHealthcare's plan benefits, members can enroll with Peloton for access to their fitness classes. New and existing Peloton Members are eligible to enroll.
A New Image For Pathology: A new technology entity has implications for pathology and the broader diagnostic space. Artificial intelligence startup PathAI has acquired Poplar, the management service arm of pathology laboratory Poplar Healthcare. The deal is PathAI's first step into traditional clinical diagnostics. Poplar provides testing services for gastroenterologists, dermatologists, oncologists, urologists, and gynecologists and will be able to use PathAI's AI tools to analyze pathology images.
West Texas Behavior: Two Texas physicians of UMC Health System’s Pediatric Trauma Unit have collaborated with Texas Tech University psychology programs to open the Children’s Behavioral Health Clinic to serve children in the community and those that have received services from UMC. The new clinic will provide mental health support in West Texas through teletherapy services, clinical training to family therapists and conduct research.
Food Partner: Anthem is collaborating with Kroger to offer Medicare Advantage plans in 4 new markets in 2022: Atlanta, Cincinnati, Louisville, and southern VA.
ExtraPoint: Simone Biles doesn’t have mental health “issues”, not that I see. I watched her cheer for her teammates after bowing out of the final competition and to me that showed class, loyalty and mental strength. So what if she didn’t compete in the finals - for students back home at the school where I have taught gym for years, 90% look like Simone and regularly worry about their value and in any given day they are scared, depressed, and think about harming themselves. They are inner-city youth with dreams and obstacles and they rooted for Simone last week, but they also saw someone un-relatable. They couldn’t ever see a way to be so daring, confident, and perfect like Simone. Now they can. She is not perfect, she is just us and she is real. And in leaving the competition, but not hiding, she moved us into a new era in the national discussion. I think we may look back at this as a moment, a catalyst for more states to increase funding for school counselors, for more administrators to change their own mindset and adjust budgets to make counselors full time not ad-hoc like so many still are, and for more employers and insurers to relax restrictions. Our “mental health” is not an issue—nor is it an illness—not in the way many still describe it, but it is easily influenced and impacted by events around us, and by what we see and hear and what we know. And what I see is progress. -BC