World Health Day!
About the public’s health
World Health Day: What does the WHO do?: “The Constitution of the World Health Organization, initially signed by 61 countries in New York in 1946, went into effect on April 7, 1948 — the day we now call World Health Day.” This article is an interesting, short piece about WHO- origin, funding and what it does.
How the U.S. Compares to Other Countries in Responding to COVID-19: Populations at Risk, Health System Capacity, and Affordability of Care: Interesting comparisons from the Commonwealth fund. Not only responses, but population differences are discussed.
How Will We Know When It’s Time to Reopen the Nation?: Aaron E. Carroll’s opinion piece in the New York Times. He sets these 4 conditions in answer to the headline’s question:
Hospitals in the state must be able to safely treat all patients requiring hospitalization, without resorting to crisis standards of care.
A state needs to be able to at least test everyone who has symptoms.
The state is able to conduct monitoring of confirmed cases and contacts.
There must be a sustained reduction in cases for at least 14 days.
COVID-19 vaccine packed into skin patch shows promise in mice: Fascinating technology. “Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine say they’ve… developed a vaccine that can be delivered into the skin with a Band-Aid-like patch made of 400 tiny needles. When they tested it in mice, the vaccine produced antibodies to fend off the virus within two weeks.”
Researchers harness new technology for rapid COVID-19 vaccine development: “…scientists working for a spinoff of Massachusetts General Hospital called Voltron Therapeutics…formed a joint venture with Hoth Therapeutics, named HaloVax, and tasked it with using a vaccine technology developed at MGH to find a COVID-19 candidate…
The Voltron candidate came from a platform developed at MGH called VaxCelerate, which is designed to quickly generate and test ‘self-assembling’ vaccines that spark immune responses to viruses. The experimental COVID-19 vaccine uses a heat shock protein to activate the immune system, rather than one of the chemical adjuvants that are commonly employed by vaccine developers, the company said. The vaccine will also include a variable component that targets specific characteristics of COVID-19.”
WTO Reports Heavy Tariffs on Critical COVID-19 Supplies:”Tariffs on protective supplies used in the fight against the virus are as high as 27 percent in certain countries, with the average tariff being 11.5 percent, the WTO said.”
About healthcare IT
VA suspends Cerner EHR rollout amid COVID-19 pandemic:”The Department of Veterans Affairs is postponing its $16 billion Cerner EHR implementation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.” Yet another of many delays.
About health insurance
2021 Medicare Advantage and Part D Rate Announcement Fact Sheet: This CMS Fact Sheet has details about rates for these programs for 2021. Overall, Medicare Advantage, PACE and Part D organizations will get a 1.66 percent raise. Here are more details: Announcement of Calendar Year (CY) 2021 Medicare Advantage (MA) Capitation Rates and Part C and Part D Payment Policies.
The Potential National Health Cost Impacts to Consumers, Employers and Insurers Due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19): This analysis by Covered California projects (emphases in the article):
The one-year projected costs in the national commercial market range from $34 billion to $251 billion for testing, treatment and care specifically related to COVID-19 — with the potential that costs could be higher than the high end of the range.
Potential COVID-19 costs for 2020 could range from about 2 percent of premium to over 21 percent of premium if the full first-year costs of the epidemic had been priced into the premium.
Health carriers are in the process of setting rates for 2021. If carriers must recoup 2020 costs,
price for the same level of costs next year, and protect their solvency, 2021 premium increases to individuals and employers from COVID-19 alone could range from 4 percent to more than 40 percent.
About hospitals
Quorum Health files for bankruptcy: “Brentwood, Tenn.-based Quorum Health, which operates 23 hospitals in 13 states, announced April 7 that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The company, a spinoff of Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems, said the bankruptcy filing is part of a plan to recapitalize the business and reduce its debt by about $500 million. Quorum said it reached an agreementon the plan with a majority of its noteholders and term loan lenders.”