Tuesday Tidits

The FEHBlog has heard OPM remark about its interest in adding a FEHBP enrollment tool to its FEHB plan comparison tool. Be careful what you wish for --

• Govexec.com reports about problems with Medicare's plan finder which recently was redesigned for $11 million. 
• Federal News Network reports that TRICARE beneficiaries can't use their on-line plan enrollment tool during this open season due to a Defense Department system glitch. "The other two options are to enroll by phone or mail."  

UnitedHealthcare announced yesterday that it will be opening Medicare services centers at 14 Walgreen's stores.

The UnitedHealthcare Medicare services centers will begin to open in January 2020 at Walgreens stores in the Las Vegas, Phoenix, Cleveland, Denver and Memphis markets. Through these centers, Walgreens customers can learn more about Medicare, meet with service advocates to discuss their UnitedHealthcare plan benefits and even enroll in plans. UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage members can also make an appointment for an in-store annual wellness visit at the Medicare services center in Walgreens through UnitedHealthcare’s HouseCalls program, helping make it easier to get needed care, tests and treatment. 

Healthcare Dive adds that "CVS Health, which owns its own insurance plan with Aetna, has made a similar move as it plans to open more than 1,500 HealthHUB stores across the country by the end of 2021. The HealthHUB stores earmark about 20% of CVS retail space to health services, with a special focus on preventive care and wellness."  The FEHBlog wonders whether FEHB plans also will be marketed at drug stores.

Healthcare Dive also reports that

Life expectancy in the United States has fallen since 2014 after six decades of increasing. The driving force is in middle-aged deaths from drug overdoses, suicides and organ system diseases, according to a wide-reaching report published Tuesday in JAMA. The findings shows disparities in mortality trends across races and geographic locations. The largest increase in midlife mortality rates from 1959 to 2016 was in New England and the Ohio Valley.

No bueno.  On a related note, the Wall Street Journal headlines today that

Federal prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into whether pharmaceutical companies intentionally allowed opioid painkillers to flood communities, employing laws normally used to go after drug dealers, according to people familiar with the matter.

The investigation, if it results in criminal charges, could become the largest prosecution yet of drug companies alleged to have contributed to the opioid epidemic, escalating the legal troubles of businesses that already face complex, multibillion-dollar civil litigation in courts across the country. Prosecutors are examining whether the companies violated the federal Controlled Substances Act, a statute that federal prosecutors have begun using against opioid makers and distributors this year.