Mozzie bite led to 'mischievous' mates multi-million dollar idea: 'Really exciting'
Michael Jankie said the idea for the stickers was sparked after a trip to the Mornington Peninsula with his family. His young daughter kept getting bitten by mozzies in the middle of the night and waking up with welts on her body.
'I was like, 'What do I do? I don't even see these little mosquitoes, but they are biting her',' the 44-year-old told Yahoo Finance.
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Jankie said he was talking about the problem with his childhood best friend and business partner, Gary Tramer, when the idea to create the world's first mosquito-repellent sticker was born.
Since becoming dads, the pair said they were keen to avoid using chemicals on their kids and wanted to find natural, lower-impact alternatives.
'We both were getting quite excited about it and ended up talking about, what if you could blend an outdoor citronella candle or coil with something portable as a personal repellent,' Jankie said.
'At some point we landed on, what if citronella was infused into a sticker and the sticker was a diffuser.'The pair didn't come back to the idea until a few months later when the pandemic hit in March 2020, and they were working from home on their previous technology companies.
They enlisted the help of scientists to develop a formula and engaged Monash University to work on the technology of the patch material.
Within the space of a few months, they had their first iteration of the product and started testing the product on themselves.
In May 2020, together with co-founder Andrei Safonau, they launched their first product, BuzzPatch, into the US market in time for their summer.
The patch is engineered to release natural oils, including citronella, to keep mosquitoes at bay.
'It was a wild ride. We did seven figures in revenue in that first year and have just kept growing,' Jankie said.
The company hit eight figures of revenue in its second year.
Now, five years later, Jankie said the business was now roughly in the mid-eight-figure range.
Jankie and Tramer met when they were just three-years old and had grown up 'about 100 metres from each other'.
The pair said they "used to get up to a lot of mischief" growing up, and their entrepreneurial spirits started from a young age.
'The two of us probably ran our first business together at the age of 7. We were selling everything down the street from lemonade to cups of water, car washes, plants in pots, everything,' Jankie said.
Jankie started out his career in live events doing technical production, while Tramer studied behavioural and neuroscience at university before going into sales.
It wasn't until they were in their early 30s that they rekindled their business relationship and began running technology businesses, including PoweredLocal and LeadChat, among other ventures, before eventually co-founding NATPAT.
'We're always what you call dogfooding, where we were building something that was solving an internal problem that we had or solving a problem that we innately understood,' Jankie explained.
Tramer said there were benefits to being in business with your best mate.
'It is like a marriage, essentially. You spend a lot of time together, financially you are tied and you travel together,' he told Yahoo Finance.
'So there's a lot of dynamic that comes in and the fact that we've been friends for so long means we can have heated arguments, but we know it's really just about business and business isn't the most important thing.
'It's a very unique thing, not many people hear about co-founders that have been mates since they were three.'
Tramer said it helped that he, Jankie and Safonau had different skill sets and separate 'lanes' they focused on, with Tramer focused on the sales side and Jankie on operations.
Safonau previously worked as a data analyst on an e-commerce site that the pair previously owned, and they helped him migrate to Australia from Belarus in 2016.
'We do a lot of functions that are the same, but there's a lot of functions that we separate. We tend to move to the things that we enjoy doing,' Tramer said.
'Between Michael, myself and Andrei there is an organic division of where we're pulled in different directions and also where our skills lie. It seems to work insanely well.'
NATPAT has now expanded its sticker range beyond BuzzPatch, including its remedy range, outdoor range and pet range.
One of its most popular products is its SleepyPatch Bedtime Sleep Promoting sticker, which is designed to help calm kids before bed with a blend of mandarin, lavender, sweet marjoram and vetiver oils.
There's also the SunnyPatch UV Sensing sticker that detects UV and changes colour when it's time for kids to apply more sunscreen.
More than 100 million individual stickers have been sold worldwide, with the product available in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the UK.
In Australia, NATPAT recently launched into every Chemist Warehouse store across the country with eight of its products stocked. It is also stocked at Woolworths and Ampol Foodery outlets.
"Chemist Warehouse is an amazing example of what we are starting to see, really everywhere, retailers understanding what we are bringing to the table, and we're not a new entrant as much anymore," Tramer said.
"It's really exciting."
The pair said they plan to keep expanding, with NATPAT now in discussions with other major global retail chains, including in Europe, the UAE and China.Sign in to access your portfolio
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10 hours ago
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Dr. Oz on the future of US healthcare: 'There is a new sheriff in town'
In an exclusive interview on Yahoo Finance's Decoding Retirement podcast, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), discussed the financial and operational challenges facing the US healthcare system. Ultimately responsible for the healthcare of 66 million Medicare beneficiaries, 78 million people enrolled in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and millions more in Affordable Care Act health plans, Oz weighed in on issues ranging from new Medicaid work requirements to Medicare Advantage fraud. Medicaid work requirements The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) could reduce federal Medicaid spending by $793 billion over the next decade and lead to 10.9 million fewer enrollees by 2034. This is partially attributed to the Medicaid work requirements the OBBA will make states enforce for certain adult enrollees by Jan. 1, 2027, which generally involves 80 hours per month of work, community service, education, or work programs. The CBO estimates the requirement will decrease coverage by 5.2 million enrollees by 2034. Concerns about red tape are not hypothetical: In Georgia, where work requirements are already in place, reports show otherwise eligible workers are losing coverage simply because of paperwork hurdles. However, Oz said that technology and digital solutions could help beneficiaries comply with the rules without losing coverage. 'We've already launched two pilots in Louisiana and Arizona with good results so far,' Oz said. The new digital process, he explained, uses a smartphone app to verify work automatically through payroll providers. "The people running it are the same folks who fixed the passport system in America,' he said. 'Ninety-one percent of people on Medicaid have smartphones. You tap on the smartphone within the app where you're working. Let's say you're an Uber driver, it knows that ADP does your payroll, and so it asks you permission, can I contact ... ADP and ask them about your hours? You say yes and boom ... the entire process is less than seven minutes." Oz, however, stopped short of addressing some key questions, for example, how many people might lose coverage under the current system, or whether administrative barriers will unfairly affect millions before the new technology is fully in place. Medicare Advantage and 'upcoding' Oz weighed in on the controversy swirling around Medicare Part C, better known as Medicare Advantage. About 33 million people are enrolled in these private plans, offered by companies such as UnitedHealth Group (UNH) and CVS Health (CVS). Medicare Advantage allows enrollees to receive Part A (hospital), Part B (medical), and, when bundled, Part D (prescription drug) coverage in one plan. The program has been under a harsh spotlight. Earlier this month, UnitedHealth confirmed it is under federal investigation. And a Wall Street Journal story detailed how some Medicare Advantage providers allegedly exploited the system through questionable or outright fraudulent billing practices. 'The whole point of launching Medicare Advantage was to give seniors options," Oz said. "But in the middle of all this, if it turns out that Medicare Advantage is costing us a lot more than fee-for-service, you're violating the whole premise.' The big problem is 'upcoding," the practice of inflating the severity of patients' conditions to trigger higher government payments. 'In Medicare Advantage, I do think that there's been an ability for the private companies to game the coding system,' Oz said. 'Instead of just saying, 'I got what I got, I'm going to take care of them and be honest about how sick they are,' they expertly devised tactics to upcode to pretend the patients were sicker than they really were. That got them more money.' Oz said CMS is now taking aggressive steps to recover funds and send a message: 'We have a process called RADV that allows us to go back to the late teens and, for the first time, audit Medicare Advantage companies,' he said. 'Based on what we find, we're going to pull money back from them. We expect it will be billions and billions of dollars. But more importantly, we're sending a message to the industry: Listen, I want you to succeed. I want you to thrive, but not at the expense of the American taxpayer.' Concern about Medicare's financial future According to the 2025 OASDI Trustees Report, Medicare Part B premiums are expected to rise 11.6% in 2026 to $206.50 a month — the steepest single-year increase in nearly a decade. At the same time, the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, which finances Part A, is projected to run dry in 2033. If Congress doesn't intervene, that insolvency would trigger an automatic 11% cut in covered hospital services. Oz called the looming Part B increase a 'major concern,' citing the surge in prescription drug prices as the primary culprit. 'But there are other things,' Oz said, 'that are in Part B as well that we believe we have control over and we could get to be more efficient.' Rather than promising immediate regulatory fixes, Oz said his agency should work directly with industry. 'A lot of this is hearing the stakeholders and then pushing back on what you've heard and then letting them actually come up with some ideas themselves,' he said. 'We've gone back to all of them and said, we need better answers. What you're doing now is making you a lot of money, and you can do that for another year or two — and then the bottom's going to fall out.' 'The… Trustees Report predicts that [Part A] is bankrupt in 2033,' Oz added. 'That's three years shorter than we thought a month ago. And in their worst-case scenario, it goes bankrupt in [2029].' For context, Medicare Part A is primarily funded through a dedicated payroll tax under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act, or FICA. The total Medicare tax rate is 2.9% of wages — typically split evenly between employee and employer. That means 1.45% is withheld from your paycheck, and your employer contributes the other 1.45% on your behalf. Navigating Medicare open enrollment As Medicare's annual open enrollment period approaches — beginning Oct. 15 for 2026 coverage — millions of beneficiaries will face one of the biggest financial decisions of the year: whether to stick with their current plan or make a change. Most Medicare beneficiaries never switch plans, even though premiums, provider networks, and drug formularies can change from year to year. So how might retirees navigate this? 'We have to give people information,' Oz said. 'At the same point, I don't want people to panic and jump to changes." His advice is simple: Do your homework, but don't feel pressured to change plans unless you have a clear reason. One big resource: 1-800-MEDICARE. 'It's easy to remember, and it's got a ton of information,' he said. 'Especially during open enrollment, I strongly urge you to do a little work.' Hospice scams Healthcare scams are on the rise — and Medicare beneficiaries are among the top targets. The CMS recently sounded the alarm in a blog post and video featuring Oz, warning older Americans to be on guard for this disturbing trend. 'Beware of scammers, sometimes posing as salespeople, offering 'free' services or gifts,' the CMS blog warned. 'They may be trying to trick you into signing up for hospice care without your knowledge.' 'This is a reprehensible activity,' Oz said. 'It's run by criminal syndicates — not small-time operators. They take advantage of people at their most vulnerable time.' Hospice fraud is insidious because it targets people making some of the most difficult decisions of their lives. Oz said, 'We are hearing horror stories about people who thought they were entering legitimate hospice and there's nothing there for them. And even worse — because you're not really sick — people are on these hospice programs for years. We're going after them in a big way.' 'There is a new sheriff in town' Oz promised a tougher stance against healthcare fraud, both foreign and domestic. 'We already have actions in several states,' he said. 'The Department of Justice is pursuing a lot of these leads. We will leave no stone unturned. There is a new sheriff in town. I promise you, if you're cheating the American people, we will come after you. And if you're doing it to hurt folks who are most vulnerable — we'll be doubly vigilant.' Beyond enforcement, Oz emphasized that better technology and patient identification are key to preventing fraud before it happens. 'You're talking about an agency with a $1.7 trillion budget,' Oz said. 'One policy memo can affect [tens of millions of Americans.] We have to get it right.' One key: distilling the complexity of the system into actionable information for both the public and his team. 'The goal is the same as it was" on his TV show, Oz said. "Explain it so people understand it and can act on it,' he said. 'If we simplify the rules, give people clear guidance, and enforce the protections already in place, we can change outcomes for millions of Americans." - Got questions about retirement? Email Robert Powell at yfpodcast@ and we'll do our best to answer it in a future episode of Decoding Retirement. Each Tuesday Powell, a retirement expert and financial educator, gives you the tools to plan for your future. You can find more episodes on our video hub or watch on your preferred streaming service. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
Dr. Oz's plan to stop Medicare waste and rising costs
Dr. Mehmet Oz, now head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, lays it out plain: healthcare isn't just a cost, it's an investment to win the future. Want to fix Medicare, Medicaid, and save America trillions? Dr Oz says get people healthy, working, and off government dependency. On Decoding Retirement, Dr. Oz tells host Bob Powell that he is cutting waste within Medicare and Medicaid - and demanding results. He backs work requirements as common sense and insists medical debt must be tackled through price transparency and enforcement. Rising Medicare premiums? He's pushing reforms to protect seniors' wallets. Bottom line: Oz tells Powell he's in the 'change business' - and he's here to make healthcare work for hardworking Americans. Yahoo Finance's Decoding Retirement is hosted by Robert Powell. Find more episodes of Decoding Retirement at We will leave no stone unturned. There is a new sheriff in town, I promise you, if you're cheating the American people, we will come after you and if you're doing it to hurt folks who are most vulnerable, we'll be doubly vigilant at that. There's a new sheriff in town. His name is Doctor Mehmet Oz. He is the administrator of CMS, and he's responsible for the health care of 150 million plus Americans. In his new role as administrator, he is going to lean into technology, into AI, and deliver medicine in ways that have never been delivered before. But the big question is who's going to pay for all that? Well, that's what we asked him in the latest episode of Decoding Retirement. Take a uh, welcome Doctor Oz to Decoding Retirement. We're happy to have you here. Thanks for having me. Lots to talk about. Uh, we do have a lot to talk about in a short period of time. So, let's start here. You mastered the art of explaining complex medical concepts to millions of people, uh, on your television program, and now you're running a complex agency with, uh, where you're responsible ultimately for the healthcare of millions of Americans, 150+ million Americans, andCurious, what's your strategy for translating that, you know, that same clarity to an agency where a single memo could affect 66 million Medicare beneficiaries or78 million uh Medicaid, uh, beneficiaries or millions of people on ACA. What, what's the strategy? Well, the one job he didn't mention was being a heart surgeon, and actually that as well has some overlap with hosting a TV show and running a government agency. There's different amounts of blood in each category. I may be in the bloodiest terrain right now, the harshest theater, but I do believe it's the best job I've ever part because much of what I've done in my life, and I do adore heart surgery and the hosting the show was just a blissful event every single day, but much of what I do now is to take those skills, um, and allow them to be, you know, affect billions of Americans, as you mentioned. Many times those Americans feel like they've been left my very core, what I've always felt was I wanted to be in the change business. A lot of listeners probably feel the same way. You don't just want to go up every day and do your job and go home. You wanna get up and do things that changed the course of human history. At least we like to think that's certainly what I think all of us have put on earth to do is make a difference. So within this space of health care, there's many ways to do it, but something that I learned from my producers on the show, and it's a very powerful insight, is people do not care what you know until they know that you care. And so starting off with the emotional hooks about why this message matters and why what we're doing is so important, is the best way generally start any conversation. So with your permission,I want to just share a quote that's present at the entrance of the building that I work in with Secretary Kennedy and a bunch of other colleagues in Washington. It's called the Humphrey Building, and Hubert Humphrey made this statement of 50 years ago. By the way, Medicaid, 60 years old this week, which we'll talk about. So this precious gem, this backbone of the social safety net system was created 60 years ago, and because of drift or uh maybe by design, there have been lots of changes to the program, but we should always remember this quote from Hubert Humphrey, and it is that is the and it emphasizes it is the moral obligation of government. The moral obligation to take care of those at the dawn of their life, the at the twilight of their lives, the seniors, elderly, and those living in the shadows, and that haunting use of light that that Hubert Humphrey uh was was proposing, we judge the purposes of Medicaid in particular, uh, but it applies to Medicare and CHIPP, the Children's Health insurance. It applies to the Affordable Care Act. It even applies to commercial insurance, which we don't control, but offer to their employees that's the goal that's what insurance is about we pull our resources, we pray we don't get sick, but if we happen to have the the bad luck of an illness, then you have to manage that and that's fundamentally why all this that matters and is made much richer if you're healthy enough to enjoy it. You cannot be a healthy country if you're not a, you know, if you're not doing these issues and you can't be wealthy if not healthy. It matters that Americans are healthy enough to to live and work longer, and I'll give you one math, uh, just tangible example. If you're born in 1964,You are now 61 years of turns out the average American retires at age if I can get you to work an extra 3 years from 61 to 64, the value to our GDP is $1 trillion.01 trillion dollars just by one group of people born in 1964 working three years longer. So that means we got $300 billion in taxes from that $1 trillion of incremental value to the GDP. So this is how I think about the investment in health. If we make America healthy, we will be a richer country for it, literally. Yeah, there's a lot of talk now about, uh, increasing health span, compressing morbidity, etc. etc. But you mentioned the Hubert Humphrey quote and I'd love to turn your attention to the one big beautiful bill where there's some controversy around how many people might not qualify for health insurance or Medicaid, uh, given the potential work requirement, uh, that will be put in place, um.I'm curious, uh, you know, your thoughts on that. Like for me, as I think about all that I've read about this topic is most of these folks are working either full or part time, um, and, uh, and it might be the red tape, right, that sort of bogs them down from getting the health care that they need and and and in light of what you just said about Hubert Humphrey, it seems like we might might not be fulfilling that promise. Excellent, excellent way of place to go because I think it highlights some of the, the arguments that happen in healthcare. So, the primary goal of Medicaid was to take care of the people identified by Hubert Humphrey. None of those categories are touched by the work requirement because it's not even a work requirement, it's a community you willing to commit to try to get a job, get an education, support your community, take care of kids, do something that shows that you actually have agency over your future. So if you're in one of those early categories, if you're a child, there are seniors in poverty or um if you're uh in living in the shadows cause you've got a chronic illness or some other reason that you can't work, you're already in. The purpose of what was to take the fraud, waste and abuse out of Medicaid was to preserve it. The expenses have gone up 50% in five years. That is just not sustainable. And so rather than shut the program down in some future administration, the president said, clean it up, take out the stuff that's not supposed to be there. The most obvious was a work requirement which most people, if they think about it, and this has been surveyed, 100% agree, if you're living in someone's they come home with that after they worked all day long and they're paying your health insurance, and they say, will you chip it? Just like help around the house, try to get a job, go get an education, you know, don't do what you're doing now, which is on average an able-bodied person on Medicaid who was never supposed to be on Medicaid originally. An able-bodied person on Medicaid is not working, watches 6.1 hours of television or video games or just hang out around the house a day.6.1 hours a day, that's not a way to live your life. And it turns out, when you give the American people that challenge, and I have confidence in the American people, I suspect you do too, most listeners as well, they take it. But when over the last uh last year and a half or so, there have been 15 million people who have come off the Medicaid rolls, who were left on there during COVID because nobody was asking questions about whether you belong on Medicaid. Of the 15 million people, 90% got other coverage the average American understands it's a sweetheart deal to get free health insurance, especially if all we're asking you to do is make your life better. And that's why I am confident it's ethically and morally the right thing to do. But it also will help preserve a program so the people that Hubert Humphrey spoke about, the people for whom 60 years ago Medicaid was created, they're protected. And you know why there wasn't a work requirement back then? It never dawned on anyone's mind that you would ever give free health insurance without asking people to chip in if they were able to. And if you look at every other social program, we have work requirements. In fact, President Obama, President Clinton, President Biden all said Democratic presidents as well as Republican presidents obviously have all said that the backbone of a social network program of a of a social safety net program is a work requirement. It's good for the people in the program and the welfare reforms of President Clinton back in the 90s showed that when you challenge people, they get jobs and they get out of poverty. We're going to take a short break. We'll be back with Doctor Oz, the head of CMS, right after you know, I'm curious, there was a report not recent, uh, recently that talked about, uh, in Georgia where there is a work requirement and how, uh, people who are working but who failed to fill out the paperwork then became disqualified. Did, do you worry that maybe that impediment, that red tape would prevent people from, uh, qualifying for Medicaid, uh, who might otherwise qualify, but were it not for the paperwork? So we, we areso focused on that issue. We've already launched two pilots in Louisiana and in Arizona, which have had good results so far, and we're going to broaden it out. I was speaking this weekend to the National Governors Association and I asked a few more states to join the pilot. The people running it are the same folks who who fixed the passport system in America. If you haven't tried to get a passport recently, there was actually a positive article about the The New York Times, because the passport system works now. Within 2 to 3 weeks you can get a new passport. You don't have to go to a post office or a drugstore for photos. It's all done digitally. So we have the same team run by Amy Gleeson, a United States Digital Service, and they have already started the pilot, and he's very simple. 91% of people on Medicaid have smartphones. You plug, you tap on the smartphone within the app where you're working. Let's say you'reUber driver, it knows that ADP does your payroll and so it asks you permission. Can I contact this ADP company and ask them about your hours? You say yes and boom, within 5 minutes, the entire process is less than 7 minutes. You have all your numbers you just confirm that it's OK and I'll go one step further, Bob, this is what I'm excited about and I talked about this with the governors this weekend. In that system, let's make it better. Let's connect you to the employment office of the you haven't gotten the 20 hours. So again, we're only asking you to work halftime. You don't have to work full time, even if you're able bodied, just 20 hours a week, but if you're short 3 hours, maybe we can get you a job in an area that you have expressed interest in, because you're already working in other odd jobs doing that, and that's how you get people into full-time employment, and then they get off Medicaid, they're not trapped in the system, they go into the exchanges, and they go up in the commercial health insurance, and they live fulfilling lives. I want to avoid the crisis that's been faced by many European countries where in an effort to be nice they give support to folks who then forget what it's like to work. If in the United Kingdom, which is a good example, you have generational trapped poverty where your grandfather didn't have a job, your dad didn't have a job, you've never had a job, your son doesn't have a job, and no one you know has a job that you're related to. So it's not part of the culture anymore. In America, we always worked and we need workers, so it's good for you, it's good for the country, it's good for the healthcare system. All right, I want to turn my attention. You mentioned fraud, abuse, waste. Um, when I think about Medicare Advantage, uh, we've got serious problems there, right? The Wall Street Journal, uh, has had a number of stories that exploited, uh, where companies are exploiting the system, collecting billions of dollars in taxpayer dollars. Uh, UnitedHealth just admitted that it was, um, uh, the Justice Department was investigating it. Uh, I, I feel like, you know, we've handed healthcare to a private industry and and to ill effect. So Bob, this is a very sensitive topic for everybody, because the whole point of launching Medicare Advantage was to give seniors options. You want to take your regular fee for service Medicare, which is out there and used by half the population, or do you want to use an HMO version, a managed care version?That would, if theoretically offer some benefits, you know, they maybe do a better job in in streamlining your care, they could give you supplemental benefits, they could help with your prescription pricing. They will give you things that would make your exercise classes, food support, and so Americans have sort of divided in half over this issue. In the middle of all this, if it turns out that Medicare Advantage is costing us a lot more than fee for service, you're violating the whole premise. The whole argument was, we'll give a private company a little they drive down overall costs and improve quality. So if you believe the government does it better than anybody else, then stay with them. If you believe that a private venture, let's look at, you know, the mail system, right? You could use the US Postal Service, you could use FedEx, right? So you have choice, and if you think FedEx is worth it, you give money to them. If not, you won't. In Medicare Advantage, I do think that uh there's been a a a a ability for the companies, the private companies to game the coding system, and by that I mean you obviously if you're an insurance company, you wanna know how sick your patients are. So instead of just saying I got what I got, I'm gonna take care of them and I'll just be honest about how sick they are, they expertly to up code to pretend the patients were sicker than they really were that got them more money. It got the shits that they can use for other purposes and they were able to take profit off the table. Uh, we obviously are examining that we have a process called RADV uh that allows us to go back, back into the late teens and for the first time audit Medicare Advantage companies and based on what we find, we're going to pull money back from them. We expect it will be billions and billions of dollars. Let me, let me turn my attention because I know we have short time to Medicare Part B. The most recent trustee's report suggests that the Part B premium will rise 11.6% next year and that, uh, we're projected to keep that percentage far in excess of, uh, average inflation over the next, uh, till 2033 or so, and some of it is due, I believe, because hospitals are now moving to outpatient care, which is a Part B cost, not a Part A cost. Uh, how do we, uh, rein in what's going on with, uh, Part B premiums because that obviously comes out of people's Social Security benefit checks. So you have a very smart audience, but just we're all on the same page. I'm gonna go through the letters real quick, so everyone's together with us. So part A is the 2.9% that comes out of everyone's paycheck every week that you get a pay stub, that pays for the hospital bill. A as in alpha, B as in boy, outpatient, also some drug infusions like chemotherapy, for example, that's associated with in a doctor's office or in the hospitals, Part B as in boy, uh, doctor's expenses as well. Part C is the Medicare advantage we were just talking about, uh, and Part D, which we might talk about, is a drug. D as in drug, uh, is the drug benefit that seniors are eligible for. So we have a major concern about Part B price increases, but we have a concern about Part A and Part C and Part part A, before I get to your question, um, the Medicare trustees report predicts that it's bankrupt in 2033. It that's 3 years shorter than we thought it was a month ago. And in their worst case scenario is that it goes bankrupt in 209. Now we're not gonna let that happen, but to fix that, you've got to take some steps, and that's why some of the things we're doing are not popular with folks who get not the beneficiaries, not the American people, but the folks who are getting paid from these programs are getting haircuts, and that's uncomfortable. Part B, which is what you asked about, is concerning cause drug prices have increased so much. But there are other things that are in Part B as well that we believe we have control over and we could get to be more efficient. A lot of this isHearing the stakeholders and then pushing back on what you've heard, and then letting them actually come up with some ideas themselves. I had an op ed this week with Marty Makary McCurry um in the Wall Street Journal Journal, and it talked about the power to convene. You mentioned prior authorization a little bit earlier. Uh, we went to all the major insurance we said, listen, we can do this with a sledgehammer and fix this issue that's frustrating the American people, the idea that you have to have all these prior authorizations for anything you want to do with your doctor, or you guys can be go fix this problem. In fact, the words we used was meek. You know, in the Bible speaks to the meek inheriting the earth. Meek doesn't mean weak, which is what I thought when I was a kid. Meek means you're armed with a sharp weapon, a sword, and you decide to sheath that sword, put it away just for now, so you and your colleagues can come up with a better we're going back to hospital systems and drug manufacturers and the prior guys, uh, the insurance companies who covered now 80% of the American people. In the case of prioritization, they voluntarily came up with a nimble solution. They're being transparent in their efforts. They're dramatically reducing the number of prior authorization claims, and they're going to do it much faster, so you know almost immediately that you're not going to be stuck for 3 weeks waiting to find out if you can get your operation or not that's diagnosed all this is part of the process with the Part B program and with the Part C, a little bit with the Medicare Advantage, and even with Part B with the drug companies for outpatient drug use, we've gone back to all of them and say we need better answers. And what you're doing now is making you a lot of money, and you can do that for another year or two, and then the bottom's gonna fall out. So maybe you want to do it with us. Come work with us, don't make us use a out these issues, come to us with better ideas, be transparent about them. The American people will love you for it. The president won't come after you because he will otherwise. And the president's very clear about this. He does not want the American taxpayers abused and more importantly, he doesn't want the American people abused, and some of these these processes have become abusive. You know what works, Bob, really effectively?I will often go to a group of of healthcare professionals, uh, especially executives of companies, and I'll say you went into this business because you care about people. Somewhere in your psyche, same as you did, Bob, when you entered the pharmaceutical space early in your career, you went into it because you thought these drugs would cure disease and save human lives. Sometimes we forget about that fundamental driving force, and if you could just align people, remind them that people matter more than profit statements, they they get back to their roots that they want to brag to their kids and grandkids about how they made America better. This is a chance, a generational opportunity. Yeah, so, you know, we have, there's a a whirlwind of things going on. So Part B premiums are increasing, and then you mentioned Part A where, according to the trustee's report, there'll be about an 11% cut perhaps once the trust depleted. So on the one hand, costs are rising and services may decline on the hospital side if the providers experience an 11% cut. uh, uh, with respect to Part A, uh, what's the solution there? Well, I could talk about this for hours, so I'll give you a succinct answer, right? So for-profit hospitals actually are to bringing back mid-teens returns. Nonprofits are bringing single digit low returns. Now, there's other reasons that may explain this, but at its very core, there are ways of making the system more I think hospitals are challenged and the hospitals are the center of our communities, especially in rural America, which, you know, they're critical and they're not getting much of the Medicaid dollar. Only about 7% of Medicaid money goes to the rural hospitals, so they get hurt badly in these programs, um, but at its very core what these hospitals need to be able to do is use technology which we' to launch on Wednesday with the at the White House with the our effort to make America's health technology great again. It's an effort to make it easier for patients to interact with their doctors using their their phones, letting doctors use navigation support so they can help with some of these difficult decision making processes, you know, cancer drugs are changing so quickly it's almost impossible up. So how do we use the same technology that you pick the best video to watch tonight based on what you saw yesterday? Use a rideshare, uh, technology, use A&B Airbnb technology use modern tools that have made the banking system safer for fraud, waste, and abuse and allow that all to play out. It starts with two fundamental realities. You have to know who your customer we've got to be able to allow the American beneficiaries to to to to to validate who they are and then allow the system to talk to them with their medical records and you also have to get doctors to tell us where they practice and who they are. Don't replace the doctor, use AI to expend the doctor's opportunity. Allow them to use AI to intake, so they pick up subtle problems with your emotional issues and how you're not taking your meds and why not and the other issues of your life. Give it to the doctor in an organized fashion so that when they're with you, they actually give you answers. They're not just listening toyou. All right, you, uh, you already answered the question I was going to ask about AI. So how, try this one. A federal judge recently blocked a rule that would have removed medical debt from credit reports and that would have helped maybe 15 million Americans. So curious, how do you respond?And uh what's your message to patients who might be stuck with debt that is affecting their credit reports? Number one cause of bankruptcy in America is a health issue. Number the number one driver of aging, it turns out are financial issues if you include things like divorce, which often present with those kinds of catastrophes. So, uh, we have to deal with the medical debt problem which dwarfs all of the debt that we have. Um, we also have to deal with it by reducing what it costs to get care in America and by empowering people to know what it's gonna get, uh, what's gonna cost and No Surpriss Act did just that, we just never actually enforced do we have laws now that are out there to protect patients that have not been used, and hospitals should be able to tell you ahead of time what it's gonna cost. You should be able to choose accordingly. We should have protection on some of these expensive drug platforms that you might not realize you're walking into, uh, but the American people are powerful if you arm them with information. Interestingly, the health care marketplace really isn't a marketplace because in a marketplace you have willing parties with full information you don't buy stocks in a vacuum you know a lot about the companies and it's mandated and then it's, it's also enforced. We don't do that in health care. That's one of the big opportunities with the digital transformation of the system because once you have transparency, you'll say just that hospital across town charges half what they charge at my hospital for MRI scan. I'm gonna complain to my doctor and guess what happens? The doctor calls the hospital administrator, they dropped their MRI costs. The whole system doesbetter. Yeah, so, um, last question, Dr. Oz, I know we're on a short time here, uh, is you ran for Senate in the state of Pennsylvania. You're now head of CMS, and, uh, is politics in your future? Do you plan, uh, after your stint here, another run for office, uh, governor or something else? I, I literally go to bed at night trying to think of what I'm doing tomorrow. I haven't no, I haven't made vacation plans. I haven't, I, I almost missed my wife's birthday, so I've got much bigger risks. Uh, I look, I, I, I, as I started this interview off and I'm with it, I'm in the change business, and right now I'm in the best place I believe and the planet for me to be to try to help make these changes. I'm surrounded by brilliant individuals who aremission aligned. I have a president who's spectacularly desirous of making change, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Bobby Kennedy, who's a superstar both as a personal friend, but also as a mentor, just wants to push for for us to be bravely in front of a lot of the issues plaguing the Americanpeople. All right, question. Last question is this. I know you recently, uh, uh, enrolled, I believe, in Part A in Medicare. Is that right? Very, very, yeah, thank you for clarifying that. I, I enrolled in part A because I have health insurance that to get you for that's that's great. But Part A, you should all sign up for. It doesn't cost the government anything because if you have other insurance, the part A will be inthe background. Yeah, and then all right, I lied. One last question. I watched your video. Wait, wait, I know it's I know you know who your producer is. She's the same producer I am. I know, but actually this is my own question. I just watched your video on hospice I, I just take a moment to talk about the, the need for adults to protect themselves against scams that could put their Medicare number at risk. Uh, this is a reprehensible, uh, activity. It's, uh, run by criminal syndicates. These are not small time operators. They take advantage of people at their most vulnerable time. Takes a lot of gumption to deal with hospice issues, to make it a choice, a decision that you're done with the traditional pathway and you're you're reconciling to what might happen and to allow you, therefore to make some bold steps like joining hospice, hope, our desire is to make sure that's a clean and safe process. The reputable hospice teams are coming to us, companies and saying there's a lot of fraud out there. We're hearing all these horror stories about people who thought they're entering legitimate hospice and there's nothing there for them. And even worse, because you're not really sick, people are on these hospice programs for so we're going after them in a big way. We already have actions in several states. The Department of Justice is pursuing a lot of these leads. Uh, we will leave no stone unturned. There is a new sheriff in town, I promise you, if you're cheating the American people, we will come after you. And if you're doing it to hurt folks who are most vulnerable, we'll be doubly vigilant at that. Doctor, Doctor Oz, thank you ever so much for uh chatting with us, sharing your knowledge, your wisdom, your insight. That's greatly appreciated. Thank bless you. Take what do you think of what Dr. Oz had to say? I'll tell you what I think. A lot of questions, a lot of unanswered questions, and a lot of questions still to be asked. And that's our goal here on Decoding Retirement is to keep asking the hard questions and provide you with the information that you need to plan for and live in retirement and plan for those health care costs in retirement. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Decoding Retirement. Thanks for listening. This content was not intended to be financial advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional financial services. 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14 hours ago
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AstraZeneca CFO talks tariffs & shifting focus to US market
AstraZeneca's (AZN) revenue hit a record high in the second quarter, driven by cancer drug sales and growth in the US market. AstraZeneca CFO Aradhana Sarin sits down with Market Catalysts host Julie Hyman and Yahoo Finance Senior Healthcare Reporter Anjalee Khemlani to discuss the company's strategy to focus on the US and the impact of tariffs. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Catalysts here. I wonder on the Obviously, the company is celebrating the fact that you hit the largest revenues reported for the quarter. That's really good news, especially as the stated goal is to grow by 2030, and half of that to be part of the US. Talk to me about that and the shift to being a quote-unquote American company now, rather than a sort of UK-based one that we've thought of all these years. Uh, so we, you know, last May, we set this ambition of achieving 80 billion in revenues by 2030, which was almost, you know, doubling our revenues from a 2023 base. Um, and, uh, the US is our our fastest growing market. Uh, when we stack, we don't stack very highly right now, uh, in the US when when you compare pharma revenues because a lot of the pharma companies in the US have much bigger sort of revenue base, but we're growing very fast and our hope is that we'll come, you know, in in in the top five and have half of our revenue. We also set an ambition to have 20 new medicines by 2030. And, um, we already have nine of them and, uh, we announced results for another five of them. So hopefully, uh, that shows that we're on track to to achieve that goal. Well, talk to me about why the US is growing that much far faster. Is it because the dynamics of the healthcare system help boost revenues with more prescribing the the way the PBM system is set up? What are the factors that are helping you grow and are helping you stay confident about achieving that goal? So, there are a bunch of different factors. Um, I think the US is still probably the the best market in the world that rewards innovation. Uh, and we are an innovation-driven company. And so, when new therapies come, you know, we we had a product for breast cancer in her two. Uh, we announced data for another breast cancer product. But as soon as new therapy comes, um, the US market is almost the first to provide access to patients for that new therapy. Uh, secondly, physicians are really, um, you know, we go to Congresses like ASCO where there's, you know, tens of thousands of oncology physicians. They're really into, um, looking at the data and making data-driven decisions. So, again, the, you know, the physicians want the best for their patients and patients are able to get access to medicines very quickly once, you know, drug is approved and so forth in the in the innovative space. In many other markets in the world, that whole process to get approval and then get access and reimbursement just takes a very long time. So that's one reason. Um, the second reason, uh, I think particularly beneficial for oncology medicines, uh, is the part D reform. Uh, so on one hand, the part D reform that was enacted hurts us because we are responsible for paying 20% in the catastrophic phase. But from a patient standpoint, if you're a patient, um, you know, in Medicare, your out of pocket is capped at $2,000. So you can get the best therapy and have no more to pay out of pocket, right? So being in that patient population and getting the best access to medicines and the best care and have your out of pocket limited, uh, is is also great for patients. Um, so I think it's it's where physicians and patients and innovation is rewarded. And that's why it's growing faster given our portfolio is all innovative medicines. So, so let's turn then to the manufacturing base rate and the investment that you're making in the US. And I have to ask about tariffs because we even as we discussed it this morning, this new EU sort of framework agreement, it's still sort of unclear. Are pharmaceuticals coming from the EU exempt? Are they not exempt? It seems a little unclear. So how under what assumption are you operating and how do you operate in that kind of environment? Um, yeah, so you know, I would say this is not a tariff is obviously new, but how we've been thinking about our strategic manufacturing, um, is probably goes back three, four years. So post COVID, we made a strategic decision because we're such a global company that we needed to have segregated supply chains. Um, so for example, uh, in in China and in the emerging markets, we supply a lot of that product from China. Um, in the US, majority of the product is supplied from the US and and so forth in Europe. There is, uh, you know, small minority of product, handful of products actually that we still import from Europe into the US. But we do have excess capacity in the US to manufacture those products. Uh, so what we're, you know, we have 11 manufacturing sites in in the US. So our intention once the tariffs, etc. were were announced and there was talks of tariffs, uh, in the short term was just manage through inventory, so build more inventory in in the US. Um, but we've also started tech transfers for those products which we do import and that those tech transfers would be completed, you know, within a within a year or so, so that we can be fully, you know, not just have the majority, but 100% of it being manufactured in in the US. Um, this new facility that we announced, uh, was part of the plan anyway, but that's a separate has nothing to do with tariffs. It's actually based on the demand that we see potentially for our cardiovascular for new cardiovascular medicine. So, um, but you know, you're right, I think there is a little bit of confusion on when the tariffs are going to be implemented. Um, there is from what I've heard, it is a 15%, but there's also talk that that's the cap. Uh, and, uh, the administration is sort of going to wait for the 232 investigation to actually put them into effect or decide. So, uh, in either case, I think we're very well prepared and and we probably have less exposure than than many companies. 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