Immigrants have been quarantined in over 30 ICE detention centers across the U.S. for mumps and a few cases of chickenpox in recent months, according to a Quartz investigation into information shared by attorneys.
Why it matters: Mumps is from a fast-spreading but relatively mild virus that sometimes causes serious complications. But the people who are quarantined also are not allowed access to their attorneys and cannot attend bond or asylum proceedings, Quartz points out.
Nonprofit charity R.I.P. Medical Debt, which buys and absolves people’s health care debt in bulk, has wiped away $700 million since its inception in 2014 — and that number should hit $1 billion later this year, co-founders Jerry Ashton and Craig Antico told me.
How it works: R.I.P. Medical Debt rose to fame in 2016 after it helped comedian John Oliver forgive $15 million of medical debt.
The drug industry has plenty of tools to fend off the new, cheaper competitors called biosimilars — from lawsuits that prevent them from launching to deals that limit their profits after they launch.
Why it matters: The drug market is increasingly composed of biologics, which are pricier than traditional small-molecule drugs. At the same time, biosimilars — which are comparable to generic biologics — are struggling to break through.
An "unauthorized user" at the collections firm American Medical Collection Agency may have accessed information on 11.9 million Quest Diagnostics patients, according to a securities filing by Quest.
Why it matters: Quest Diagnostics is a major national provider of lab work, and the information stored by AMCA included "financial information (e.g., credit card numbers and bank account information), medical information and other personal information (e.g., Social Security Numbers)," according to the filing.
The Affordable Care Act decreased racial disparities in access to cancer and increased early detection of ovarian cancer, according to a new study reported on by the Washington Post.
By the numbers: While black adults with advanced cancer were 4.8% less likely to receive timely treatment pre-ACA, in states that have expanded Medicaid, that gap between black and white patients has almost completely closed.
There's a big disconnect between the health care debates that dominate Washington, the campaigns and the politically active — where all of the talk is about sweeping changes like "Medicare for All" or health care block grants — and what the voters are actually thinking about.
The big picture: In our focus groups with independent, Republican and Democratic voters in several swing states and districts, the voters were only dimly aware of candidates’ and elected officials’ health proposals. They did not see them as relevant to their own struggles paying their medical bills or navigating the health system.
There are only a handful of biosimilars available in the U.S. And one of the country’s biggest insurers is about to start disadvantaging one of them, in favor of its more expensive competitor.
Why it matters: Deals like this are part of the reason biosimilars — envisioned, roughly, as generic versions of complex and pricy biologic drugs — aren’t gaining a foothold. And that’s keeping prices high throughout the system.
