Inside UnitedHealth's push to use its in-house doctors to lower costs and increase profits

Hello,

Welcome to Insider Healthcare. I'm healthcare editor Leah Rosenbaum, and today in healthcare news:

• UnitedHealth has a new plan to increase profits by steering patients to in-house doctors;
• No Delta-specific COVID vaccine is coming in the near future, but that's OK;
• An early study in mice shows the benefits of a COVID-19 vaccine patch.

If you're new to this newsletter, sign up here. Comments, tips? Email me at lrosenbaum@insider.com or tweet @leah_rosenbaum. Let's get to it...

The health-insurance giant UnitedHealth is sending more members to in-house doctors in a bid to lower costs and increase profits

• The biggest US health insurers have spent years pushing into care-delivery and pharmacies.
• Now they want to lower their costs and increase profits by connecting these different businesses.
• Most recently, UnitedHealth touted a new insurance plan that steers members to in-house doctors.

See the full story>>

There's no Delta-specific booster coming to save you - what we have is good enough

• The technology behind Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines makes it easy to tweak shots to target coronavirus variants.
• Current booster shots aren't specific to Delta, because the original vaccines are still effective against the variant.
• If spread of COVID-19 gets under control through vaccinations, there may never be a need to change them.

Check it out>>

A COVID-19 vaccine patch could produce a better immune response than an injection, an early study shows

• A COVID-19 vaccine patch produced a better immune response than an injection among mice.
• The patch introduces the vaccine into the skin, where there are more immune cells than muscle.
• The vaccine will be tested in humans in 2022, the study lead author said.

See the study results>>

More stories we're reading:

• How the founders at Cityblock and UniteUs convinced investors to bet hundreds of millions on Medicaid-focused startups (Insider)
• Infants across the US are dying of syphilis, a preventable disease (ProPublica)
• Over the last four decades, HIV/AIDS has killed at least 700,000 Americans. COVID-19 has killed more in two years. (Insider)
• Democrats are trying to find an agreement on reforms to prescription drug pricing (The Hill)
• A Carlyle executive's fight to save her son leads to 'big opportunities' investing in clinical trials (Insider)

-Leah