About the public’s health
Suicide Rates by Industry and Occupation — National Violent Death Reporting System, 32 States, 2016: The CDC issued this report today. It is a good resource for those dealing with potential patient suicides. As an example, men working in construction and mining trades have a much higher risk of suicide than the average population.
US Surgeon General: Not enough smokers are being told they should quit: This story was in many media outlets today. The basic message is in the headline with details in the Surgeon General’s report.
About healthcare quality
CMS tool to help consumers make informed care decisions: “Administrator Seema Verma announced on Thursday that the agency is planning to combine and standardize its eight separate Compare tools on Medicare.gov—Hospital, Nursing Home, Home Health, Dialysis Facility, Long-term Care Hospital, Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility, Physician and Hospice)—to enable consumers to better differentiate providers.” The revised tool is scheduled to be available later this year.
About healthcare IT
FDA issues cybersecurity warning on GE medical equipment that monitors patients: “The Food and Drug Administration released a warning on Thursday to health-care providers, facilities and consumers about a vulnerability in certain electronic health-care data equipment made by General Electric.
The flaw could allow a person to tamper with the devices in order to “silence alarms, generate false alarms and interfere with alarms of patient monitors connected to these devices,” the release says.” This instance is yet another example of the hack-ability of medical peripherals.
Epic releases software update to help identify coronavirus infections: The update revises Epic’s standard travel screening questionnaire “to remind clinicians and other front-line staff to ask patients about recent international travel. If the patient has traveled from China or has symptoms of Wuhan novel coronavirus, the provider is advised to start isolation precautions to contain potential infection.”
About pharma
Want to know how contentious drug pricing is in Washington? Check the receipts: “Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and the 31 other major drug makers that belong to the trade group PhRMA together spent more than $120 million lobbying Congress in 2019, according to recently released federal disclosures.
That helped pay for an army of over 450 lobbyists who helped the drug makers and their trade group vehemently oppose the sweeping proposals lawmakers and the Trump administration put forth in their efforts to lower prescription drug prices.
PhRMA also broke its all-time annual lobbying record this year. It spent $28.9 million in 2019, surpassing its previous record of $27.5 million, set last year.”
Read the article for more details of this massive lobbying campaign.
About medical devices
FDA approves Medtronic's tiny, wireless, minimally invasive pacemaker implant: This technology is a real breakthrough: a pacemaker that does not require the wiring of separate electrodes between the implant and the heart.
“Less than one-tenth the size of traditional pacemakers and described as one of the world’s smallest, the Micra AV device is designed to be placed entirely within the heart’s right ventricle and attach itself to the muscle wall using small tines.
It is implanted via a catheter and a minimally invasive procedure…”
About health insurance
The answer to America’s health care cost problem might be in Maryland: Maryland is different from other states in how its hospitals are paid.
”Since the 1970s, the state has set the prices hospitals can charge for medical care, known as all-payer rate setting.” Even Medicare regs dovetail with this system. Further, since 2014, “it’s also capped how much health spending can grow overall, including how much revenue each hospital can take in.”
This Vox article is a good summary of this system and how controls cost.