Page 189 - Mployee Wellness Programs News Today

Gilead Sciences drug Trodelvy is now approved for treating patients whose breast cancer is classified as HR positive and HER2 negative, expanding use of the drug to a much wider group of patients. In other regulatory approval news, use of Takeda Pharmaceutical’s rare disease has expanded to younger children.

Marburg virus has no FDA-approved vaccines or therapies, but a vaccine candidate from the National Institutes of Health now has encouraging results from a U.S. clinical trial. Next steps include tests in more countries including Ghana, where a Marburg outbreak was declared last summer.

Palto Alto-based Theator makes technology to help providers understand the high level of variability in outcomes among common surgical procedures. The startup recently uncovered a key reason why patient suffer complications after hysterectomies, and it stems from the fact that surgeons lack a standardized set of safety practices to which they must adhere.

The collaboration is between Los Angeles County Office of Education, L.A. Care Health Plan, Health Net, L.A. County Department of Mental Health and school-based telehealth company Hazel Health. The program will provide L.A. County K-12 public schools with access to Hazel Health's telehealth services.

There were more than 35 million prior authorization requests submitted to MA plans in 2021, and 2 million were denied, according to KFF. Of those denied, just 11% were appealed. However, most of those appeals led to the denial being overturned.

More than 90% of nurses in Michigan believe that understaffing is negatively affecting the quality of care they’re able to provide, according to a new report. The percentage of respondents who know of a patient death being caused by nurses being assigned too many patients nearly doubled in the past seven years — from 22% in 2016 to 42% in 2023.

New York healthcare startups received $3.9 billion of funding in 2022, compared to $9 billion in 2021, according to a new DHNY report. Biotech startups represented 22% of total funding in 2022, a stark difference from women’s health only representing 2%.

Telehealth implementation should be a joint responsibility of IT, administration, and providers. Otherwise, a lack of teamwork between departments leads to siloing and lots of passing the telemedicine “hot potato” among those who don’t have all the information.

Despite challenging financial market conditions, clinical-stage Structure Therapeutics was able to upsize its IPO. Much of the new cash will support its lead program, an oral small molecule that could weigh in on the diabetes and obesity indications currently dominated by blockbuster injectable medicines.

The U.S. healthcare system spent $60 billion on administrative tasks last year, which is about $18 billion more than it spent in 2021, according to a new report. There are a couple reasons for this — the workforce shortage and Americans’ increased utilization of healthcare services.