TODAY IS NATIONAL DOCTOR’S DAY
Read what AMA President Patrice A. Harris, MD, MA has to say about its special importance this year.
About the public’s health
This slideshow from the London Business School is the best overview of COVID-19 that I have seen.
Time Kinetics of Viral Clearance and Resolution of Symptoms in Novel Coronavirus Infection: This Chinese study (with 2 Yale Medical School pulmonologists) observed 16 patients with COVID-19 who were treated and released from the Treatment Center of PLA General Hospital in Beijing between January 28 and Feb. 9. Because of the small size they had particular characteristics (like an average age of 35.5). Researchers found shedding can last as long as 8 days after symptoms were gone but the virus could be detected up to 14 days. The “safe” recommendation is that those who are positively diagnosed should self quarantine 14 days after symptoms are gone.
Abbott launches 5-minute COVID-19 test: “The North Chicago medical device maker today announced the U.S. Food & Drug Administration has authorized the use of its new coronavirus test, which delivers positive results within five minutes and negative results within 13.”
US coronavirus cases top 139,000 as Trump extends social distancing guidelines until April 30: The headline speaks for itself.
'Project Airbridge' To Expedite Arrival Of Needed Supplies, White House Says: “A planeload of health care supplies arrived in New York City on Sunday from China, part of an effort the White House says will expedite the arrival of goods that are badly needed to fight the coronavirus pandemic…Sunday's shipment included 130,000 N95 masks, nearly 1.8 million other face masks and gowns, more than 10.3 million gloves and more than 70,000 thermometers, according to a White House statement. A handful of American health care distributors purchases the supplies, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency paid for the Shanghai-to-New York flight.”
Battelle deploys decontamination system for reusing N95 masks: “Battelle received an emergency go-ahead from the FDA over the weekend to deploy its decontamination system for personal protective equipment (PPE), allowing healthcare workers to clean and reuse scarce N95 respirator masks.
The system is currently operating at Battelle’s Ohio facility—capable of processing up to 80,000 masks per machine, per day…”
Mystery In Wuhan: Recovered Coronavirus Patients Test Negative ... Then Positive: “But some Wuhan residents who had tested positive earlier and then recovered from the disease are testing positive for the virus a second time. Based on data from several quarantine facilities in the city, which house patients for further observation after their discharge from hospitals, about 5%-10% of patients pronounced ‘recovered’ have tested positive again.
Some of those who retested positive appear to be asymptomatic carriers — those who carry the virus and are possibly infectious but do not exhibit any of the illness's associated symptoms — suggesting that the outbreak in Wuhan is not close to being over.”
BUT…My former student Jie Wang, MD in Beijing wrote to me last week about the positive retesting issue: “The bright side is some scientist announced that, it is the broken fragment, not the alive virus, that lead to a positive result. So far, no infectivity was observed in these cases.” So the epidemiological significance of this phenomenon is not yet known.
Apple's New Tool Lets You Screen Yourself For COVID-19: “Apple's new COVID-19 website and app allow users to screen themselves for coronavirus symptoms and receive recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on what to do next.
The tool was developed in partnership with the CDC, the White House's coronavirus task force and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Both the website and the app were made publicly available on Friday.”
About health insurance
Medicare will accelerate payments to providers and suppliers, CMS announces:”Over the weekend, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it is expanding its accelerated and advance payment program for Medicare (PDF) providers based on historical payments when there is a disruption in claims submission and/or claims processing to ensure they have the resources to fight COVID-19.”
Medicaid Block Grants and Per Capita Caps: The Coronavirus Highlights Risks to States: While block grants are used to control predictable costs. crises can cause harmful disruptions on funding of necessary services.
CPT reporting for COVID-19 Testing: This brief algorithm is an excellent summary of codes to use in billing for COVID-19 services.