Weekend update

Congress remains in session this week on Capitol Hill. Here's a link to the Week in Congress's report on last week's actions there.

The continuing resolution funding several federal agencies, including Homeland Security and OPM, expires at the end of December 7.  Fedsmith has more details here. Given the fact that President George H.W. Bush's state funeral occurs on December 5, it's most likely in the FEHBlog's view, that Congress will extend the continuing resolution into next week if the parties are close to agreement or to next year / the new Congress. Bear in mind that because OPM's FEHBP operations are funded by a a premium surcharge, the FEHBP is not subject to full or partial shutdown. Nevertheless the FEHBlog is sensitive to the fact that federal employee compensation, e.g., a 2019 raise, is a topic to be resolved by the appropriations minibus to replace the continuing resolution.

Well-deserved congratulations to OPM FEHBP actuary Ron Gresch for being named a meritorious professional recipient of the 2018 Presidential Rank Award. The award ceremony will be held on December 13 in Washington, DC.  

Late last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control issued their 2017 reports on life expectancy in the U.S. NPR explains that

For the second time in three years, life expectancy in the U.S. has ticked downward. In three reports issued Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laid out a series of statistics that revealed some troubling trend lines — including rapidly increasing rates of death from drug overdoses and suicide. 

CDC Director Robert Redfield described the data as "troubling." 

"Life expectancy gives us a snapshot of the Nation's overall health and these sobering statistics are a wakeup call that we are losing too many Americans, too early and too often, to conditions that are preventable," he said in a statement released Thursday. 

Redfield tied the drop in overall life expectancy, which averaged 78.6 years in 2017, a decrease of 0.1 from the year before, to the rise in deaths from overdose and suicide.

Here's a Healthline list of the leading causes of death drawn from these reports. The number one cause is heart disease. A few years ago, the FEHBlog heard the American Medical Association President elect remark that heart disease is the doctor's fallback diagnosis to fill in the cause of death blank on the death certificate. The FEHBlog considers it is reasonable to draw a conclusion from these reports that the ACA is not a magic bullet.

Let's wrap it up with a few tidbits

• Interesting Medcity News account of John Doerr's take on where Amazon is headed in the the healthcare field. Mr Doerr led an investment bank's investment into Amazon in 1995. "Doerr pointed to how the company’s foundational corporate strategy around 'price, selection and convenience' easily translates to healthcare, with the replacement of inefficient physical locations with online or virtual experiences."

• Medcity News also reports on United Health Group's rollout of a fully portable individual health record ("IHR") for its members. 

UnitedHealth plans to offer IHRs at no charge for all of its 50 million comprehensive benefits plan members across North and South America by the end of 2019 as a technology solution meant to improve patient experience, lower costs and improve outcomes. The platform will also be accessible by more than 1 million care providers during that time frame.

“Our goal with the IHR is to provide doctors and individuals with a deeply personalized 360 degree view on a person’s health … not dependent on any one system or network,” [UHC CEO Dave] Wichmann said at the conference earlier this week.

A key part of the IHR’s function is not just providing a record of the patient’s past healthcare experiences, but “to suggest a path forward on the journey to better health.”

• Reuters reports that a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Hon. Richard Leon, criticized the U.S. Department of Justice for permitting CVS Health to close on its acquisition of Aetna before closing the loop with the judge. At the end of its investigation of that deal, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit to block the deal in order to invent the parties to reach a settlement which they did. The judge has not formally approved the settlement. The FEHBlog views the judge's displeasure as directed at the Justice Department, not the parties.