About COVID-19
Age groups that sustain resurging COVID-19 epidemics in the United States: “We estimate that as of October 2020, individuals aged 20-49 are the only age groups sustaining resurgent SARS-CoV-2 transmission with reproduction numbers well above one, and that at least 65 of 100 COVID-19 infections originate from individuals aged 20-49 in the US. Targeting interventions – including transmission-blocking vaccines – to adults aged 20-49 is an important consideration in halting resurgent epidemics and preventing COVID-19-attributable deaths.”
White House plans to send millions of vaccine doses to retail pharmacies: “The White House next week will start shipping coronavirus vaccines directly to retail pharmacies alongside ongoing deliveries to states, increasing weekly supplies of shots nationwide to 11.5 million, a top aide said on Tuesday.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 response coordinator, Jeff Zients, said the program will launch on Feb. 11 and will make 1 million doses available to 6,500 stores. As supply grows, the program could expand to as many as 40,000 stores, he said.”
Amazon spreads vaccine misinformation, iSchool researchers find: “Amazon's search algorithm gives preferential treatment to books that promote false claims about vaccines, according to research by UW Information School Ph.D. student Prerna Juneja and Assistant Professor Tanu Mitra.
Meanwhile, books that debunk health misinformation appear lower in Amazon's search results, where they are less likely to be seen, the researchers wrote in a paper that was recently accepted to CHI, the top annual conference on human-computer interaction.”
City of Chicago turns to Zocdoc to help get COVID-19 vaccines into arms: “The city of Chicago is teaming up with Zocdoc to help get COVID-19 vaccines into the arms of its 2.7 million residents.
The online medical appointment booking company will aggregate real-time appointment availability from select Chicago point-of-dispensing sites as well as from local care organizations such as Amita Health and Rush University Medical Center to serve as Chicago's central site for eligible residents to find and book vaccinations, officials from Zocdoc said.
Chicago is the first city to implement Zocdoc's vaccine scheduler tool, a new service care organizations or public health agencies can use, free of charge, to support streamlined vaccine scheduling.”
Oxford coronavirus vaccine shows sustained protection of 76% during the 3-month interval until the second dose: This vaccine is unique in that the booster provides better coverage if delivered three months after the first dose, rather than the 3 weeks with the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. This finding highlights the need to assess each vaccine separately.
GSK and CureVac to develop vaccines to tackle Covid variants: “The UK’s GlaxoSmithKline and Germany’s CureVac will work together on a new generation of Covid-19 vaccines to tackle emerging variants of the virus that have shown some resistance to existing ones. The two companies have agreed a €150m deal to develop jointly a product using mRNA technology that would work on multiple variants of the Sars-Cov-2 virus and could be ready for use in 2022, subject to approval. GSK will also help manufacture up to 100m doses of CureVac’s mRNA vaccine candidate at its plant in Belgium. The CureVac vaccine, the only mRNA shot that is stable at conventional fridge temperatures, is in the final phases of testing.”
About health insurance
More Americans Choosing Medicare Advantage Plans Amid Pandemic: “Based on preliminary open enrollment data collected from October 15 to December 7, 2020, 36% of the 67.7 million Medicare beneficiaries in the United States are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage (MA) plan this year, marking a 9% year-over-year increase…
While 29% chose the plan for its prescription drug coverage, and 16% for its affordability, 9% of MA enrolled Americans chose it for its supplemental benefits.
Of those 9%, more than one-third (35%) cited COVID-19 supplemental benefits specifically and 27% referenced its telehealth benefits.”
When will Biden ask the Supreme Court to uphold Obamacare?: “The challenge for Biden's Justice Department is not only telling the justices it manifestly opposes the position taken by the Trump administration in the case, but how to pull off the task. Changing its position on the Affordable Care Act wouldn't end the lawsuit, which was brought by Texas and other Republican-led states, but could inform how the justices look at the case.”
Annual Out-Of-Pocket Spending Clusters Within Short Time Intervals: Implications For Health Care Affordability: The study, based on 2017, data “found that although most commercially insured people had several health care encounters throughout the year, their out-of-pocket spending was mostly concentrated within short time intervals. Nearly one-third of people with above-the-median total annual health care spending (plan plus out-of-pocket spending) incurred half of their annual out-of-pocket spending in just one day.” The purpose of insurance is to protect against catastrophic loss. Perhaps in addition to annual out-of-pocket limits there ought to be a month maximum, or totals spread over months.
Humana Reports Fourth Quarter 2020 Financial Results; Provides Full Year 2021 Financial Guidance: Highlights:
—”Reports 4Q20 loss per common share of $2.07 on a GAAP basis, $2.30 on an Adjusted basis; reports full year (FY) 2020 earnings per diluted common share (EPS) of $25.31 on a GAAP basis, $18.75 on an Adjusted basis (in-line with the company's initial FY 2020 Adjusted EPS guidance as communicated throughout the year)
—Announces FY 2021 EPS guidance in a range of $20.82 to $21.32on a GAAP basis, $21.25 to $21.75 on Adjusted basis; while acknowledging the heightened uncertainty surrounding the ongoing pandemic
—Reaffirms FY 2021 expected individual Medicare Advantage membership growth range of approximately 425,000 to 475,000 members, representing expected year-over-year growth of approximately 11 to 12 percent”
Anthem's pharmacy revenues ballooned in 2020: “While Anthem's fourth-quarter financial results may have disappointed investors, the insurer's in-house pharmacy benefit manager — IngenioRx — saw significant growth in the final quarter of 2020, according to recent financial filings.
In the fourth quarter of 2020, IngenioRx recorded revenues of $5.9 billion, up 81.4 percent year over year. Its operating gain for the fourth quarter of 2020 was $363 million, higher than Anthem's combined operating gain for its commercial/specialty and government insurance businesses. For the year ended Dec. 31, 2020, IngenioRx brought in $21.9 billion in revenue, up 305.6 percent from $5.4 billion in 2019.”
About healthcare IT
HIMSS21 still a 'go' for Vegas in August with 400 exhibitors signed up, organizers say: The news is that the planned conference will be in person, not virtual.
FDA names its first medical device cybersecurity director: “The FDA has appointed its first medical device cybersecurity chief to help guide the agency’s regulatory strategies as more devices become interconnected—and potentially more vulnerable to digital attacks and breaches.
Kevin Fu, an associate professor and research fellow at the University of Michigan, was named to the post. He will serve a one-year term as an expert-in-residence at the agency’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) as well as at its nascent Digital Health Center of Excellence, which launched last fall.”
AT&T And U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Will Pilot Healthcare Innovations With AT&T 5G And Multi-Access Edge Computing: From the AT&T press release of this first-of-kind program:
“AT&T has delivered AT&T 5G capabilities across the entirety of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle in a public-private partnership with the VA. VA expects to pilot a variety of healthcare use cases with our 5G and multi-access edge computing (MEC ) technologies to explore how they can improve healthcare delivery to the approximately 9 million Veterans who use VA healthcare services each year.
Multi-access edge computing is essentially a computer and cellular network architecture that brings real-time, high-bandwidth, low-latency access to latency dependent mobile applications... Among the healthcare-focused use cases that could be piloted are:
Mobile-to-mobile connectivity across/between medical devices, allowing the tracking of people and assets within the facility.
Improved medical procedures and training through the use of emerging technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).
Remote and virtual pain management using AR and VR.
Remote and/or near real-time surgical assistance via the ability to layer multiple surgical techniques using AR.”
Epic named top overall software suite: 6 insights from 2021 'Best in KLAS' rankings: Not a promotion for Epic. Look at the list in this article and notice a variety of “bests” for different uses.