Healthcare’s 2023 Outlook, Covid Hospitalizations Are Rising And What To Know About RSV

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Forrester has released its 2023 predictions for the healthcare industry today. It may come as no surprise that the outlook for the year looks bad for some parts of the sector but good for others. On the grim side, the market research firm predicts that bankruptcies from hospitals may spike by one-third, driven by inflation, cost of labor and supply chain disruptions. With pandemic funding in the rear-view mirror, cash flow for some hospitals may slow down to the point that they close altogether, particularly in rural parts of the U.S.

The outlook is better for retail health clinics, which has a market value of nearly $3.5 billion and whose share of the primary care market is expected to double in 2023. Forrester predicts that one driver of this growth is simply the quality of the experience: “patients will choose retail health for their primary care needs, as health systems, constrained by inadequate resources, fail to match retail’s elevated patient experiences,” the report’s authors state.

Other things to look for in 2023, according to Forrester: more decentralization of clinical trials, more use of remote patient monitoring and expanding mental health benefits.

RSV Infections Are Spiking Among Kids And Swamping Children’s Hospitals — Here’s What Parents Need To Know

Soaring cases of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, among young children are threatening to overwhelm already struggling pediatric hospitals, as experts warn the common infection—largely benign but potentially lethal to infants and the elderly—could collide with expected spikes in flu and Covid to devastating effect. Here’s what parent’s need to know about RSV.

Read more here.

Deals Of The Week

Cognitive Screening: Neurotrack has raised $10 million in investments geared toward accelerating the push to market for its cognitive screening apps that can be conducted during routine wellness exams.

Microbiome: Cambridge, MA-based Concerto Biosciences has raised a $23 million series A round to advance to clinical trials for its ENS-002 candidate, which aims to treat eczema flairs by restoring skin microbiomes.

EMR Acquisition: Hint Health, which provides management and billing software to direct primary care clinics, announced that it’s acquiring electronic medical records company AeroDPC.

Stopping The Bleeding: Biotechnology startup Cresilon announced that it raised a $25 million series A-4 round, which will be used in part to accelerate the entry of its product, a plant-based gel that can be applied to wounds to stop bleeding, into the market for human use.

Noteworthy

Pharma giant Pfizer said it would ask regulators to greenlight a vaccine designed to protect infants against RSV, following strong results in late-stage clinical trials.

Flu season has started early and the CDC reports that the U.S. has already seen 6,900 hospitalizations and 360 deaths from the disease so far.

CVS, Walgreens and Walmart – the nation’s three largest retail U.S. pharmacy chains — have agreed “in principle” to pay more than $13 billion in a massive global settlement to resolve claims they contributed to the opioid epidemic.

Humana reported nearly $1.2 billion in third quarter profits largely due to growth in its Medicare Advantage health plans and lower than expected medical expenses.

A new study finds that living in a walkable neighborhood lowers people’s risk of cardiovascular disease.

Coronavirus Updates

With Covid cases expected to spike in the colder months, the CDC has announced that cases have begun increasing across the U.S. for the first time in weeks. Over 3,000 patients with Covid were admitted into hospitals every day last week, according to CDC data. This is the first rise in hospitalizations since July, but is still lower than January’s peak of around 21,500 hospitalizations per day. Maine has the highest number of Covid hospitalizations, with 16% of ICU beds and 11% of hospital beds occupied by Covid patients. Vermont, North Carolina, Hawaii, New Mexico, Wyoming and Montana follow close behind.

This increase corresponds with the White House and public official’s difficulty convincing people to get an updated booster shot, despite the fact that immunity wanes over time and the updated booster shot has shown good results in preventing hospitalizations and deaths from Covid. So far, fewer than 20 million Americans have received an updated shot, according to CDC data. That’s less than 10% of the eligible population– polls indicate many do not plan on doing so.

Supreme Court Allows TSA To Issue Mask Mandates

The Supreme Court let a Court of Appeals ruling stand that the TSA “plainly has the authority” to address transportation safety and security. That means that should the agency choose, it could impose a mask mandate on planes and trains again this coming winter.

Read more here.

Other Coronavirus News

A study found that being infected with Covid increases the risk of poor cardiovascular health, with the most vulnerable time being within the first 30 days of infection for hospitalized patients.

According to a WHO report, Covid-19 has worsened tuberculosis cases and deaths, with 10.6 million people contracting the disease in 2021, and 1.6 million dying from it. This made it the second leading infectious killer globally after Covid.

Strength training can help post-Covid recovery by increasing cardiovascular health, reducing blood pressure, reducing anxiety and improvements in dyspnea and fatigue.

A new study found that 6.2% of people experience at least one symptom of long Covid three months after recovery.

Across Forbes

Creators Are Rallying For The Midterms — But Getting Political Isn’t On The Agenda

The Highest-Paid Dead Celebrities Of 2022—A Writer Earns Half-A-Billion From The Great Beyond

Elon Musk Has Twitter Bills To Pay, But Charging For A Blue Checkmark Won’t Be Enough

What Else We are Reading

Could a nose spray a day keep COVID away? (Nature)

John Fetterman Shows How Well the Brain Recovers after Stroke (Scientific American)

The Worst Pediatric-Care Crisis in Decades (The Atlantic)