Average 2019 payments to insurers that manage Medicare Advantage plans will increase by 3.4%, the U.S. government said. That figure represents a significant increase over the 1.8% proposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in February, an indication that medical costs will be higher than initially projected. (Reuters)
Most Americans (53%) think the individual marketplaces are “collapsing,” according to a poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation. However, that’s not entirely true: while recent legislation weakened the Affordable Care Act, demand is strong among those who don’t receive coverage from employers (Washington Post).
Celgene’s president and COO is out. Scott Smith’s abrupt, and unexplained, exit appears to be part of CEO Mark Alles’ reshuffling of his executive team in response to setbacks. Other executive changes are expected. (Endpoints)
The developers of one of the first therapies to genetically engineer T cells to attack cancer are launching a CAR-T company. Arie Belldegrun and David Chang sold Kite Pharma to Gilead for $11.9 billion in August. On Tuesday, they said they’ve raised $300 million and are licensing competing technology from Pfizer for their venture, Allogene Therapies. (Forbes)
Check out the best DTC ads from last year. Look past the homogeneity of the most heavily advertised categories and you can find spots that are alternately challenging, catchy, and even clever in MM&M’s roundup of 2018 DTC spots. (MM&M)
