Thankfully, many people in our time are able to live longer and more productive lives because of new and better treatments that stave off once-deadly diseases. According to the American Cancer Society, “the cancer death rate declined precipitously between its peak in 1991 and 2016. Absent that decline, 2.6 million more cancer patients would have died during that period.”
Germany-based dialysis clinic operator Fresenius Medical Care AG will pay about $231 million to resolve criminal and civil allegations that the company paid bribes to public health and government officials in several countries to win or retain business, the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday.
The tides have turned for the health care sector. In the second half of 2018, health careOpens a New Window. was the best performing sector in the S&P 500 indexOpens a New Window., rising 3.7 percent vs a 7.8 percent decline in the S&P 500. So far in 2019, with the market gaining upside momentum, health care has become the worst performing sector, advancing only 4.6 percent through Wednesday, while the S&P 500 is 11.9 percent higher.
Clover Health, which has raised money from Alphabet, just laid off a quarter of its workforce. The company said it plans to add more health care expertise to its staff. Clover focuses on Medicare Advantage, selling health insurance to seniors in seven states.
Come July 1, virtually no one in America with Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance will be able to go to UPMC flagship hospitals at the Blues’ discounted, in-network rates. The Pittsburgh health care system is trying mightily to stop that from happening — except when it comes to members of its crosstown rival Highmark, a Blue Cross Blue Shield organization.
New York State on Thursday laid out one of the most detailed and sweeping legal cases yet against the family that owns Purdue Pharma, maker of the opioid OxyContin, as well as the companies that distributed alarming amounts of prescription painkillers amid a rising epidemic of abuse that has killed hundreds of thousands of people nationwide.