Feb. 4-6: It’s a big week for health insurer earnings reports. Centene Corp., fresh off its completed merger with WellCare Health Plans, reports on Feb. 4. Humana is next on Feb. 5, and Cigna closes out the week with its earnings report on Feb. 6. Our insurance reporter, Shelby Livingston, will cover the news and highlight any major trends regarding the companies’ financial performance.
Feb. 4: President Donald Trump is scheduled to deliver his annual State of the Union address. At deadline, the Senate had yet to vote on articles of impeachment. Details had not emerged on the president’s speech, but corralling drug prices remains an administration priority. Ditto for price transparency. And Trump may be inclined to tout his administration’s major Medicaid block grant initiative that was announced last week, as well as proposed rules to revamp the nation’s organ donation system. Our policy reporter, Rachel Cohrs, will be covering the speech, so be sure to watch for tweets (@rachelcohrs) and analysis.
Feb 5: Although the announcement lacks detail, one can imagine that Big Pharma and drug prices will come under heavy scrutiny during a House Ways & Means subcommittee hearing titled, “More cures for more patients: Overcoming pharmaceutical barriers.”
Feb. 5: Public health officials around the globe are trying to figure out how to stop the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus, which the World Health Organization deemed a global health emergency last week. A House Foreign Affairs subcommittee will hear about the “response and regional implications” from public health officials, including Ron Klain, who ran the Obama administration’s Ebola response operations.
