Bob Herman

@bobjherman.bsky.social

Health care business reporter for @statnews.com and author of the Health Care Inc. newsletter. Contact: [email protected] or bobjherman.09 on Signal. Sign up: https://www.statnews.com/signup/health-care-inc/

@aniloza.bsky.socialReposted by @bobjherman.bsky.social

Pulse oximeters rose to prominence bc they OVERestimated oxygen in patients with darker skin tones during the pandemic

Now they seem to be UNDERestimating oxygen levels...

What's happening? We still don't know but it could point to deeper issues w/ the devices

www.statnews.com/2026/10/06/p...

@sarah-todd.bsky.socialReposted by @bobjherman.bsky.social

Nonprofit hospitals like Northwestern Medicine and Weill Cornell are opening up longevity clinics, with patients paying thousands of dollars for in-depth assessments like DEXA scans and biological age tests. I wrote about the new trend (and experiencing it myself):

www.statnews.com/2026/10/06/h...

@lastweektonight.comReposted by @bobjherman.bsky.social

With Luigi Mangione’s upcoming sentencing, this week’s main story is about not just UnitedHealthcare’s now infamous denials of coverage, but also how their parent company – UnitedHealth Group – touches almost every aspect of our healthcare system. Link to full segment in bio.

@bobjherman.bsky.social

You are right. The one being advanced would require one analysis without favorable selection and one with favorable selection instead of an outright prohibition. The intent is still clear.

@bobjherman.bsky.social

This is very wonky and technical, but the end result is important. If this became law, it would force MedPAC to produce a report that makes Medicare Advantage look *way* better. It would nuke independent research and make it more likely for insurers to keep their MA gravy train.

@bobjherman.bsky.social

Paul Ginsburg, a health economist at USC and a former MedPAC commissioner, said the bill “is the most extreme example that I am aware of in which a stakeholder has worked to undermine MedPAC’s independence.”

@washingtonpost.comReposted by @bobjherman.bsky.social

Drug companies are building sales of their revolutionary weight-loss drugs by targeting the prescribers who act as the gatekeepers to the American health care system, according to interviews and an analysis of public federal government data by The Post.

washingtonpost.comThe largely hidden force helping drive America’s craze for weight-loss drugsFirms are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to convince doctors to prescribe GLP-1 drugs.
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