WASTEWATER SURVEILLANCE ON ICE — A substantial portion of sites for the nation’s wastewater surveillance — one of the most dependable ways remaining to track Covid-19 surges — are shut down indefinitely, Ben reports. State public health officials bracing for more Covid cases as cold weather arrives — and with little other surveillance data available since most people are no longer testing themselves or are doing so with unreported at-home tests — are worried. What’s the holdup? The CDC wants to switch contractors from Massachusetts-based Biobot, which has worked with the agency since 2020, to Verily, a subsidiary of Alphabet, Google’s parent company. It awarded Verily a contract beginning last month, but Biobot formally protested it. That means the transition is on pause. And amid the appeal, Verily can’t do its work until “further notice” from the CDC, according to a company email obtained by POLITICO. Bradley White, the principal scientist for the Verily wastewater lab, told POLITICO that the company is ready to go, with much of its infrastructure already built. “The thing I’m concerned about is continuity of our surveillance data while this protest is playing out,” said Chad Gubala, a wastewater official in Juneau, Alaska. The finances: Biobot’s most recent contract was for about $31 million over less than a year and a half versus Verily’s five-year $38 million contract. Biobot declined to comment on its protest, citing the “ongoing legal review.” CEO Mariana Matus wrote in a LinkedIn post that the company had already laid off 35 percent of its staff because of the contract decision. Some 400 sites in “a handful of states and territories” are shut down amid the dispute, the CDC said, but 1,200 sites not covered under the disputed contract can continue work. A CDC spokesperson said the agency felt that was enough to maintain a “pretty comprehensive” picture of Covid and mpox spread. Others are skeptical. “The existing gap in the wastewater data will continue for possibly several months as we head into flu season and another Covid surge,” said one state health department epidemiologist who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly. ANTITRUST PROSECUTORS ARE WATCHING — The Justice Department has a message for health care companies: It’s focused intently on the possible ill-effects of consolidation and illegal monopolies across the industry. “We are thinking about provider and payer consolidation,” said Andrew Forman, a deputy assistant attorney general in the DOJ’s antitrust division. “We wonder whether the key justification for much of this consolidation, so-called value-based care, is delivering on the promise of lower prices and improving outcomes.” Forman spoke Thursday at a conference in Washington focused on competition in the health care sector. In recent years, the health industry has heavily consolidated, with insurers, major pharmacy chains and benefit managers, plus providers, joining forces in mammoth companies like CVS Health and UnitedHealthcare. “We wonder how this trend has impacted, or will impact, competition and power across the complex web of relationships in the health care ecosystem,” Forman said. “Is the integration, as the companies argue, a good thing? If done properly, it might be. Or has the consolidation led to … higher prices, less innovation and deeper moats defending sources of power?” Forman said the industry should expect close scrutiny of any deal-making. He added that the DOJ is stepping up post-merger investigations, looking at attempts by companies to illegally monopolize health care markets.
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