Three Healthcare Stories From the Week That Was

With the week drawing to a close, here are three healthcare stories you might have overlooked:

1. Thirteen years after House Democrat Louise Slaughter first proposed it, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, or GINA, finally passed both houses of Congress. President Bush has pledged to sign it. The legislation bans discrimination by employers or insurers on the basis of genetic tests. For a full roundup, see Andrew Pollack's GINA story in the NYT.
2. Pharmacy-benefit managers, or PBMs, are companies that promise to save employers or insurers money by cutting the best possible deal on drug prices. As the NYT revealed last Saturday, however, most PBMs also have a lucrative side business as exclusive or semi-exclusive distributors of various "specialty" drugs -- expensive treatments that are typically prescribed for rare conditions. Since specialty-drug sales can amount to a significant fraction of PBM revenues these days, the obvious question is whether these outfits really have much incentive to hold down prices with aggressive negotiation. (The obvious answer also seems to be "no.")
3. Health insurers largely had a lousy week as they reported first-quarter earnings. WellPoint said its net income dropped by a quarter; UnitedHealth said a bad flu season cost it $80 million more than expected. The AP ran a decent roundup of the earnings carnage in the healthcare sector, from which only Aetna was spared thanks to membership growth and higher premiums. For a look at one insurer's specific problems -- namely the fact that fewer small businesses appear able to afford health insurance in the first place -- check out the NYT.