Comments on: $389 M of Healthways’ Market Value Vaporizes After CMS Announcement. What Happened?

By: Devon Devine, JD

Devon Devine, JD — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:39:27 +0000

In response to the original posting, please note that the MHSO contracts’ details on termination are in fact quasi-public. If you want to get down to whether the contracts with the MHSOs were terminated early or allowed to expire naturally, it is possible to file a Freedom of Information Act request. In my experience, CMS typically responds in 30-45 days. Also useful to see what other terms existed regarding liquidated damages for failure to meet targets, etc., to judge whether CMS is really a thug or a good business partner. Likely the lawyers were thuggish in the drafting.

By: Dave Moskowitz MD FACP

Dave Moskowitz MD FACP — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 00:09:52 +0000

When Medicare Health Support was just getting off the ground a few years ago, I tried several times to alert the participating DM companies, as well as Sandy Foote at CMS, that there was finally a way to reverse diabetic and hypertensive kidney failure, as well as perhaps delay the progression of emphysema (1,2). Amazingly, none of the participants expressed any interest, which led me–and others–to believe at the time that the entire project was being set up for failure. Applying 1980s and early 1990s medicine clearly couldn’t change quality or rein in costs. Only cutting-edge, genomics-based medicine could hope to do that.

CMS has just shown that First Generation DM doesn’t work, and we should just be happy with the most expensive healthcare system in the world.

Eventually, though, people will realize that there’s already a Next Generation of DM. First generation DM, using consensus-based clinical guidelines, is clearly getting us nowhere.

Why CMS should deliberately fail is another question altogether. Two possible answers: (1) bureaucrats don’t want to lose their jobs, and letting DM in might mean a loss of jobs, especially if DM worked and Medicare’s budget shrank; (2) Medicare is being set up for bankruptcy by Republicans who want to downsize the federal government.

I’ve personally seen evidence for (1) myself.

References
1: Moskowitz DW. From pharmacogenomics to improved patient outcomes: angiotensin I-converting enzyme as an example. Diabetes Technol Ther. 2002;4(4):519-32.
PMID: 12396747. (For PDF file, click on paper #1 at: http://www.genomed.com/index.cfm?action=investor&drill=publications)

2: Moskowitz DW. Is angiotensin I-converting enzyme a “master” disease gene? Diabetes Technol Ther. 2002;4(5):683-711. PMID: 12458570 (For PDF file, click on paper #2 at: http://www.genomed.com/index.cfm?action=investor&drill=publications)

Sincerely yours,

Dave Moskowitz MD FACP
CEO
GenoMed, Inc.
http://www.genomed.com
Next Generation DM(tm)

By: Larry Coffman

Larry Coffman — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:50:11 +0000

I find it highly “coincidental” that Ben Leedle and Mary Hunter, both directors at Healthways, sold close to $5 million in HWAY stock just a couple of weeks before the CMS announcement that it was suspending its Medicare trial(January 30th). On January 9th, Healthways stock was trading at about $67+ per share. Today it’s around $46 per share or about a 32% drop in share value or close to 3/4 of a billion dollars in value!

I just wonder if Mr. Leedle and Ms. Hunter, both intimately involved in this CMS trial, had any info about the impending negative announcement.

The 10Q Healthways filed on January 10th made no mention al all of the potential trouble. Hmmm….

By: Melinda Huffman

Melinda Huffman — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:05:17 +0000

I’m most curious about this:(of course this is assuming that CMS cut the project due to poor outcomes)
The fed gov funds millions of dollars to support research conducted thru the AHRQ, NIH, etc. that has demonstrated “evidence-based guidelines” for many chronic conditions.. For example, the AHRQ has spent years telling the medical world that wet-to-dry dressings delay healing time, increase patient’s pain, and increase the chance of infection. Use moist wound treament, etc. to better resolve these poor outcomes! Yet wet-to-dry dressings are still used frequently by physicians to treat chronic wounds.

This begs this question, then..Were those participating in this demo project using evidence-based practice (EBP) that has shown improvment in cost and quality for certain chronic conditions in question?
It would seem that if these were implemented in the project, then CMS would have seen good results…

I’m not trying to offer the use of EBP as the only element here, just asking if and how it was used in the project.. From what I’ve seen from being in healthcare for 30 years, nothing surprises me!