What We’re Reading: Medicare Obesity Drug Price Negotiations; Doctors’ Cyberattack Insurance; US Life Expectancy Rises

Medicare Likely to Negotiate Prices for Obesity Drugs in the Next Few Years

A report released Wednesday by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) revealed that CMS is highly likely to negotiate the price for Novo Nordisk’s obesity therapy Wegovy (semaglutide) in the coming years, according to Stat. Currently, Medicare only covers certain obesity interventions, like bariatric surgery and behavioral counseling by primary care providers; obesity medications are covered only for type 2 diabetes treatment. Also, according to CBO’s report, Medicare cannot sustainably cover AOMs at their current cost of about $1000 to $1300 for a 4-week supply. CBO's prediction comes after Congress introduced the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act (TROA), which would expand Medicare Part D coverage to anti-obesity medication (AOM) indicated for weight loss. CBO also expects the Department of Health and Human Services to select semaglutide for price negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) within the next few years.

UnitedHealth Hack Reveals Gaps in Providers’ Cyberattack Insurance

Many health care providers are trying to determine whether their cyberattack insurance will help cover their losses after the Change Healthcare hack, according to Axios. Experts explained that the insurance health care providers bought for a cyberattack on their organizations may not provide much protection if they're affected by an attack elsewhere, like the recent Change Healthcare attack. They explained that some providers may not have thought to ask for coverage of an attack on a vendor, or did not want to pay the additional cost, resulting in them being underinsured. Conversely, other providers have been unable to afford any cyber insurance coverage due to soaring rates. Overall, some large health systems estimated that they were losing over $100 million per day due to the Change Healthcare attack, but many cyber insurance carriers limit coverage to no more than $5 million for larger systems. As a result, providers are calling for a federal emergency response to help minimize the attack's fallout.

US Life Expectancy Rises After 2-Year Dip

A new report by the CDC showed that the US life expectancy increased for the first time in 2 years, according to Politico. More specifically, people born in the US in 2022 can expect to live 77.5 years, an increase from 76.4 in 2021. Conversely, life expectancy dropped in 2020 and 2021, which experts said was driven by COVID-19 deaths and drug overdoses; the 2021 life expectancy report marked the lowest US life expectancy since 1996. This recent rise in life expectancy comes as overdose deaths leveled out between 2021 and 2022 and COVID-19 dropped to the fourth leading cause of death in the US. Conversely, the overall infant mortality rate increased by 3.1%. Additionally, death rates for 1- to 4-year-olds jumped 12% and 7% for 5- to 14-year-olds. Despite the recent overall life expectancy rate increase, it has not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels as the life expectancy was 78.8 in 2019.