About healthcare IT
Final ONC, CMS interoperability rules under review by OMB: Despite industry protests of moving too fast, the Office of the National Coordinator has submitted its final rules regarding interoperability and data blocking to the Office of Management and Budget.
Senators introduce bill to expand use of telehealth in Medicare: This bipartisan bill is called Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act of 2019.Its overall aims are to:
“Provide the Secretary of Health and Human Services with the authority to waive telehealth restrictions when necessary.
Remove geographic and originating site restrictions for services like mental health and emergency medical care.
Allow rural health clinics and other community-based health care centers to provide telehealth services.
Require a study to explore more ways to expand telehealth services so that more people can access healthcare services in their own homes.”
About the public’s health
Health, United States 2018: This annual publication by the CDC is an excellent resource on US health statistics. Among the “higher level” findings:
”Life expectancy at birth in the United States for the total population was 78.6 years in 2017, 0.5 year higher than in 2007. Despite the higher life expectancy in 2017 compared with 2007, life expectancy at birth has decreased in recent years. Life expectancy at birth decreased 0.2 year between 2014 and 2015, did not change between 2015 and 2016, and then decreased another 0.1 year between 2016 and 2017.”
US effort to remove ‘sexual health’ from UN agreement may violate law, say senators: “The Trump administration may have violated federal law by lobbying more than 70 countries to remove protections for ‘sexual and reproductive health’ from a UN agreement, according to a letter from four US [Democratic] senators…” The claim is that the action violates the Siljander Amendment (1981), which
prohibits the use of funds to lobby for or against abortion- including those used for foreign operations. See: The U.S. Government and International Family Planning & Reproductive Health: Statutory Requirements and Policies for a list and brief explanation of such laws.
White House launches website aimed at addiction treatment: “The Trump administration has unveiled a website aimed at helping millions of Americans with substance abuse issues learn about and locate treatment options… FindTreatment.gov [use this link] modernizes an obscure directory of 13,000 licensed treatment providers maintained by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, adding user-friendly search criteria and tools. For instance, it will now allow users to search based on the type of treatment sought — such as inpatient, detox or telemedicine — by payment option and whether the treatment is medication-assisted.
Users also will be able to select between options that focus on youth, veterans and LGBT Americans.
The website also is meant to be an educational resource for those needing care and their loved ones with information on how to pay for treatment.”
About pharma
Pfizer, GSK, J&J and more strike $248M deal to exit long-running Medicaid fraud suit: “After 14 years of litigation, a slew of drugmakers—including several Big Pharma giants—are finally settling a protracted battle with the state of Illinois over claims they fudged wholesale drug prices to increase Medicaid reimbursements.
For Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson and a handful of others, the bill tallies up to $248 million.”
About health insurance
Senate Democrats fail in bid to block Trump’s Obamacare opt-out: Senate Democrats finally called for a vote to block administration rules aimed at giving states more leeway to circumvent ACA requirements. Except for Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), the vote was along party lines and failed. The Democrats predicted the failure, but wanted Republicans on the record voting for laxer requirements that might take away such protections as no discrimination for pre existing conditions.
American’s values and beliefs about national insurance reform: While this survey was just released and reviewed in the New York Times, the answers were obtained July 10 – August 11, 2019. In more than 2 months, a lot can happen on this very fluid issue. Still, at the time of the data gathering, respondents were about equally split in their preferences among Medicare for All, modifying the ACA and replacing the ACA with state health plans.