Greetings to the 116th Congress

The 116th Congress was convened today. Nancy Pelosi (D Calif) was elected Speaker of the now Democrat run House. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee which oversees OPM and the FEHBP changed its name to the Oversight and Reform Committee in order to illustrate the fact that its jurisdiction extends to the private sector (which was news to the FEHBlog).  Elijah Cummings (D Md) is the Chairman of that Committee.  Sen. Mitch McConnell (R Ky) remains Senate Majority Leader.

The Wall Street Journal reports today that

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. agreed to buy rival Celgene Corp. in a deal valued at about $74 billion, combining two leading sellers of cancer drugs and potentially signaling the return of dealmaking to the pharmaceutical industry.  Overall, the merged company will have nine products with more than $1 billion each in annual sales—most notably Celgene’s multiple myeloma drug Revlimid and Bristol’s lung-cancer treatment Opdivo.

In other merger and acquisitions news, Health Payer Intelligence tells us what's up with CVS Health's integration with its recent acquisition, Aetna.

The ACA's health plan funded Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute issued its 2018 year in review. The ACA's health plan funding for the PCORI sunsets soon, but the FEHBlog predicts that Congress will renew the funding. Of possible interest to FEHB carriers is a 2018 Annual Meeting. break out session examining the potential of two PCORI funded telehealth studies to change practice and what needs to be done to speed telehealth’s adoption. Get some value out of this puppy!

Modern Healthcare informs us that

The gap between U.S. hospitals' outpatient and inpatient revenue continued to shrink in 2017 as more patients elect to get care in cheaper outpatient settings, and some believe a flip is inevitable in the coming years. The American Hospital Association's 2019 Hospital Statistics report showed hospitals' net outpatient revenue was $472 billion and inpatient revenue totaled nearly $498 billion in 2017, the latest year for which the report covers, creating a ratio of 95%, up from 83% in 2013. * * *

Hospital profits reached $88 billion in 2017, a 12.5% increase over the previous year and a 27% increase from 2013. [Thanks ACA!] Total net revenue reached $1 trillion in 2017, compared with $998 billion in 2016. Expenses in that time were $966 billion, up from $920 billion. The AHA provided Modern Healthcare with an exclusive copy of the report.