By: Dexter Braff
Every January, thousands of health care investors and bankers and providers, oh my, flock to Union Square in San Francisco for Healthcarepalooza, otherwise known as the JP Morgan Health Care Conference. While some come bearing a golden ticket to attend the actual meeting, the overwhelming number of “attendees” are party crashers that occupy (in the literal sense) every area coffee shop, hotel lobby, restaurant, and bar to pitch, network, and schmooze the health care glitterati (and make the event what it has become today).
Here, then, are some of what we overheard at JPM. Note that the quotes are paraphrased and attribution has been left out to protect the innocent.
“Medicaid is a mess”
With the block grants that were supposed to come with repeal and replace stalled and non-expansion states secretly envying their neighbors that are receiving all that extra funding care of the feds, those-in-the-know, know, that things have to change, but even those, those-in-the-knowers, have no idea how it’s all going to shake out. Got that?
“The new Health and Human Services regime is less hostile to bundled payment initiatives than the previous one”
So, a program that delivers similar or better outcomes at lower costs isn’t a bad thing? How refreshing. (see previous blog post, “Wait, What? Tom Price is Against Arguably the Most Widely Endorsed Foray into Meaningful Health Care Payment Reform”). In fact, that very week CMS’s Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation announced a new voluntary episode payment model, Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced (BPCI Advanced), that will test bundled payments for 32 clinical episodes.
Apropos of the above,
“Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Alex Azar is a no-nonsense, practical leader”
While the conference was underway, during a Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing for Mr. Azar, he said:
“If to test a hypothesis around changing our health care system, if it needs to be mandatory as opposed to voluntary to get adequate data — then so be it.”
Alright, alright.
“We’re developing a new (insert “drug” or “medical device”) for the treatment of (insert medical condition) that we anticipate gaining government approval and bringing to market by (insert overly optimistic date)” a.k.a. before we run out of money.
If we had a nickel…
Of course, some will make it. But far more won’t. But you can’t get an iPhone without working through a couple of Newtons.
“Looking to show the public that they can work in a bi-partisan manner, the Democrats and Republicans will get together to throw more money at addressing the opioid crisis than anyone will know what to do with, which will inevitably lead to massive fraud and abuse.”
A bit of good news – bad news, dappled with a healthy dose of beltway cynicism. And rightly so as fraud and abuse is inevitably the unfortunate bi-product of every health care segment that has experienced a surge in funding and utilization.
“Competitive bidding in DME is simply a disaster and is not sustainable”
This didn’t come from someone with financial interests in the sector. Heck, we were happy to hear durable medical equipment even mentioned at such a high-profile event. Quite simply, a system that bases its pricing, in large part, on unqualified bids submitted by “providers” that don’t even cover the areas they are bidding on (and aren’t required to service even if they “win”) is a fraud cloaked in the guise of mom, apple pie, and free-market capitalism.
“The 340(b) program has been a give-away for hospitals and has gotten wildly out of hand – and it will be reined in by the Feds”
No surprise here, but to hear it stated so plainly and starkly was jarring, to say the least.
“How much did you pay for that umbrella?”
With the biggest day of the conference beset by rain, area vendors were only too happy to sell umbrellas to the 1% at 99% more than they would even charge a selfie-stick toting, fanny-pack wearing, wide-eyed tourist.