About health insurance
CMS announces two payment initiatives for COVID-19 drug treatment and counseling:”CMS will make payment available to physicians and providers to counsel patients at the time of COVID-19 testing about the importance of self-isolation after they are tested and prior to the onset of symptoms. The agency is also implementing new procedure codes to allow Medicare and other insurers to identify the use of the therapeutics remdesivir and convalescent plasma for treating hospital inpatients with COVID-19.
These new codes are being implemented into the International Classification of Diseases Procedure Coding System, ICD-10-PCS. They go into effect on August 1. “
Medicare coverage for Alzheimer brain scans in question:”A big study to help Medicare officials decide whether to start covering brain scans to check for Alzheimer’s disease missed its goals for curbing health care costs, calling into question whether the pricey tests are worth it.
The results announced Thursday are from a $100 million study of more than 25,000 Medicare recipients. It’s been closely watched by private insurers too, as the elderly population grows and more develop this most common form of dementia, which currently has no cure…
The study missed its goal of curbing hospitalizations by 10% in the year after the scan: Rates were 24% among those scanned versus 25% of the others.
However, among those scanned, there were fewer hospitalizations for those with Alzheimer’s versus those without the disease.”
Oscar Health unveils $0 Virtual Primary Care program, 2021 expansion plans: “The expansion will bring the startup health plan's geographic footprint to 19 states and 47 markets, pending regulatory approvals…
Alongside the plans to further expand its reach, Oscar unveiled its new $0 Virtual Primary Care, which will offer a slew of digital and in-home services to its individual and family plan members in 10 markets, including Houston, Miami, New York City and Los Angeles, at no cost.”
About the public’s health
Age-Related Differences in Nasopharyngeal Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Levels in Patients With Mild to Moderate Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): VERY IMPORTANT RESEARCH FINDING THAT CHANGES HOW WE HANDLE THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: “Our analyses suggest children younger than 5 years with mild to moderate COVID-19 have high amounts of SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA in their nasopharynx compared with older children and adults. Our study is limited to detection of viral nucleic acid, rather than infectious virus, although SARS-CoV-2 pediatric studies reported a correlation between higher nucleic acid levels and the ability to culture infectious virus. Thus, young children can potentially be important drivers of SARS-CoV-2 spread [emphasis added] in the general population, as has been demonstrated with respiratory syncytial virus, where children with high viral loads are more likely to transmit. Behavioral habits of young children and close quarters in school and day care settings raise concern for SARS-CoV-2 amplification in this population as public health restrictions are eased.”
Yesterday, a reporting problem in New Mexico was provided as an example of what probably nationwide issues getting an accurate assessment of COVID-19. Today, two more reporting problems are in the news:
Florida health department says it doesn't collect COVID-19 healthcare worker death data; former employee says it does and
Missouri COVID-19 data backlog cleared, but delays persist, health officials say
Observations of the global epidemiology of COVID-19 from the prepandemic period using web-based surveillance: a cross-sectional analysis: “Cases with travel links to China, Italy, or Iran accounted for almost two-thirds of the first reported COVID-19 cases from affected countries. Among cases with age information available, most were among adults aged 18 years and older. Although there were many clusters of household transmission among early cases, clusters in occupational or community settings tended to be larger, supporting a possible role for physical distancing to slow the progression of SARS-CoV-2 spread.”
Use of Chest Imaging in the Diagnosis and Management of COVID-19: A WHO Rapid Advice Guide: “The World Health Organization (WHO) undertook the development of a rapid guide on the use of chest imaging in the diagnosis and management of COVID-19…he rapid guide includes three diagnosis recommendations and four management recommendations. The recommendations cover patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 with different levels of disease severity, throughout the care pathway from outpatient facility or hospital entry, to home discharge”
Netflix’s Wellness Programming Is Irresponsible and Misleading: The headline is self explanatory and the article has many examples to back up the assertion.
About pharma
Moderna stock sinks as patent case spurs concern for COVID-19 vaccine:”A patent court has sided with Arbutus Biopharma in its dispute with Moderna, raising concerns that the intellectual property dispute could stymie COVID-19 vaccine development. The news sent shares in Moderna down 9% despite it being unclear whether the patent is relevant to its COVID-19 vaccine.
The case centers on an Arbutus patent covering lipid formulations for the delivery of nucleic acids. In filing the patent, Arbutus said the technology is based on a ‘surprising discovery.’ Moderna disputed the novelty of the idea and took Arbutus to court on the grounds that it would have been obvious at the time of the invention.
The decision is the third ruling in a series of cases brought by Moderna against Arbutus with mixed, but largely unnoticed, results.”
AstraZeneca, Lilly, GSK and more will share COVID-19 antibody secrets to speed manufacturing scale-up:”Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Roche's Genentech unit, Amgen, GlaxoSmithKline and Lilly partner AbCellera can now share manufacturing information that could help speed up coronavirus antibody production, thanks to a business review letter [reported here last week] from the Justice Department's antitrust division…Two things those drugmakers can't collaborate on, though? Production costs and pricing.”
US to pay Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline up to $2.1B for development, 100M doses of coronavirus vaccine:”The majority of the funding will go to Sanofi, which is developing the vaccine candidate based on recombinant protein-centric technology used in its influenza vaccine. Sanofi is partnering with GlaxoSmithKline to incorporate its adjuvant technology into the vaccine for improved efficacy.
More than half of the funding is apportioned for the vaccine's development, and the rest will go to manufacturing costs and an initial supply of 100 million doses. The U.S. has the option to obtain an additional 500 million doses later on.”