About the public’s health
One in Three Americans Would Not Get COVID-19 Vaccine: Update on the public’s attitude toward a COVID-19 vaccine: ”…many Americans appear reluctant to be vaccinated, even if a vaccine were FDA-approved and available to them at no cost. Asked if they would get such a COVID-19 vaccine, 65% say they would, but 35% would not.
The results are based on July 20-Aug. 2 polling in Gallup's COVID-19 tracking survey…”
The most striking differences are still along political affiliation.
LabCorp COVID tests free for three months to aid plasma donations:”Leading testing company LabCorp is offering a ‘no charge’ antibody COVID-19 testing program in the hope it will boost blood plasma donations.
A number of biopharmas, including the likes of Takeda, are hoping to use donated blood plasma from those who have recovered from COVID-19 and tap their antibodies as a potential therapy for the disease.”
US signs $1.5B deal for 100 million doses of Moderna's coronavirus vaccine candidate:”The U.S. federal government inked an agreement valued at up to $1.525 billion with Moderna Aug. 11 for 100 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
The vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273, will be manufactured while its clinical trials are underway. Moderna is developing the vaccine with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.”
Facebook says it has taken down 7 million posts for spreading coronavirus misinformation: “Facebook said Tuesday that it took down 7 million posts pushing covid-19 misinformation from its main social media site and Instagram between April and June as the company tried to combat the rapid spread of dangerous information…”
Fauci: 'I seriously doubt' Russia's coronavirus vaccine is safe and effective: The headline speaks for itself.
Comparison of Heart Team vs Interventional Cardiologist Recommendations for the Treatment of Patients With Multivessel Coronary Artery Disease: “The heart team’s recommended treatment for patients with multivessel coronary artery disease differed from that of the original treating interventional cardiologist in up to 30% of cases. This subset of cases was associated with a lower frequency of unanimous decisions within the heart team and less concordance between the interventional cardiologists; discordance was more frequent when percutaneous coronary intervention or medication therapy were considered.”
The article highlights the value of teams over individual decisions.
LabCorp, Quest Diagnostics say turnaround time for COVID-19 test results down to 1-3 days:The headline speaks for itself.
About health insurance
CMS launches new alternative payment model for rural healthcare providers: “The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) will use the model to test whether seed funding, predictable capitated payments, and operational and regulatory flexibilities will enable rural health care providers to improve access to high quality care while reducing health care costs, according to a release issued Tuesday.”
The initiative is called the Community Health Access and Rural Transformation (CHART).
Humana sues Trump administration over ACA cost-sharing reduction [CSR]payments: “Humana estimates that it [has] nearly $2 million in unpaid CSR payments from October, November and December 2017.”
Dawn of the Virtual Medicare Advantage Plan from Alignment Health : “Alignment will make its virtual plan available to eligible consumers, a plan which emphasizes digital, concierge-style solutions for primary care and specialty care services…
Although the plan promotes virtual care, members will not be restricted to the virtual platform if that is not the most effective channel for treatment. For patient interactions that require face-to-face engagement with a provider, the virtual plan will cover in-person visits.”
OIG’s Top Unimplemented Recommendations: Solutions To Reduce Fraud, Waste, and Abuse in HHS Programs: This annual report from the HHS OIG reviews unimplemented recommendations for all HHS programs, ranging from Medicare/Medicaid/CHIP to the NIH to the Indian Health Service. Well worth at least reviewing the list, which starts on page 4.
Patient and Plan Spending after State Specialty-Drug Out-of-Pocket Spending Caps: High out of pocket charges usually work to discourage unnecessary, discretionary care. However, specialty medications are usually used for serious conditions out of the patient’s control. So it is no wonder that putting caps on patient out-of-pocket spending saves them money and does not cost the plans more. Cost controls in these cases require different strategies (see the section in Chapter 7 covering cost containment strategies for specialty pharmaceuticals).
About healthcare quality
266 hospitals with 5 CMS stars for patient experience: When you read the list, notice the absence of teaching hospitals (except Mayo clinic).
About healthcare personnel
26 states will soon face shortage of ICU doctors: “The most recent update finds that 26 states will soon face shortages in ICU doctors, up from only five last week. Ten states are at risk of running low on critical care nurses. Seven face shortages in doctors trained to work in hospitals. Nine states will not have enough respiratory therapists, up from zero last week. Six states will face shortages in pharmacists.”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
Sentara, Cone Health to form $11.5B system: “Sentara Healthcare and Cone Health plan to merge in a deal that would create a 17-hospital system with more than 2,400 physicians and advanced practice clinicians…
The health systems also operate health plans. Sentara runs Optima Health Plan and Virginia Premier Health Plan, which serve 858,000 members, while Cone Health runs a Medicare Advantage plan with 15,000 members. Mr. Akin said the health systems plan to eventually combine their health plan operations.”
About healthcare IT
MIT’s AI system diagnoses chest conditions on x-rays, but knows when a radiologist could do better: Really interesting AI application. As the article notes: “Radiologists have largely moved past the idea that artificial intelligence is here to replace them. And a new platform released recently is a perfect example of how imaging experts and AI can coexist.”
The most dangerous health IT trends: Insights from 8 execs: Interesting opinions from 8 CIOs ranging from system vulnerability to lack of data integration.