HHS delays effective date of controversial sunset rule to 2022 in response to lawsuit: “The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has delayed the effective date of a controversial rule that calls for the agency to review more than 17,000 regulations until 2022.”
About Covid-19
Covid cases are rising in 21 states as health officials warn against reopening too quickly: “The 7-day moving average of new infections plateaued at 54,666 as of Friday after declining for weeks, according to a CNBC analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.”
AstraZeneca US trial shows 79% efficacy against Covid: “AstraZeneca’s US clinical trial of its Covid-19 vaccine developed with Oxford university has shown 79 per cent efficacy at preventing symptomatic disease and 100 per cent efficacy against severe or critical disease and hospitalisation. The results are similar to those from other Covid-19 vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna, said Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at Oxford and co-designer of the vaccine.”
FDA authorizes first AI-powered armband for COVID-19 screening: “Tiger Tech Solutions’ wearable monitor is strapped to the upper arm and uses light sensors to sense blood flow, similarly to many consumer electronics and fitness trackers. Within three to five minutes, it uses an artificial intelligence model to crunch the data on the person’s pulse rate and other factors to determine whether their blood could be clotting more easily than normal.
This state of hypercoagulation, among other signs, has been linked to coronavirus infections—and, when combined with temperature checks, it could help spot people over the age of 5 who are carrying the virus without showing any symptoms. “
Fauci: COVID-19 variant likely accounts for up to 30 percent of US infections: “Fauci specifically sounded the alarm at a White House press conference Friday over the B.1.1.7 variant, which was first discovered in the United Kingdom and has since spread across the globe.”
FDA Warns of Misleading Registration Certificates for COVID-19 Devices: “The FDA is taking action against devicemakers that have been touting phony FDA registration certificates which give the false impression their products have received the agency’s clearance…
The FDA’s Office of Regulatory Programs has sent letters to 25 manufacturers, distributors and sellers, telling them to stop producing and issuing these false certificates.”
COVID-19 antibodies can effectively last for at least nine months: Chinese study in Lancet: “Study results published in The Lancet suggest that 40% of COVID-19 patients in China's Wuhan, Hubei province have the neutralising COVID-19 antibodies that can effectively last for at least nine months…”
About hospitals and health systems
Hospitals Hide Pricing Data From Search Results: “Hospitals that have published their previously confidential prices to comply with a new federal rule have also blocked that information from web searches with special coding embedded on their websites, according to a Wall Street Journal examination.
The information must be disclosed under a federal rule aimed at making the $1 trillion sector more consumer friendly. But hundreds of hospitals embedded code in their websites that prevented Alphabet Inc.’s Google and other search engines from displaying pages with the price lists, according to the Journal examination of more than 3,100 sites.
The code keeps pages from appearing in searches, such as those related to a hospital’s name and prices, computer-science experts said. The prices are often accessible other ways, such as through links that can require clicking through multiple layers of pages.”
14 Defendants Sentenced to 74+ Years in Forest Park Healthcare Fraud: “Fourteen defendants convicted in the Forest Park Medical Center bribery scam have been sentenced to a combined 74+ years in federal prison and ordered to pay a total of $82.9 million in restitution…
The $200 million scheme was designed to induce doctors to steer lucrative patients – particularly those with high-reimbursing, out-of-network private insurance – to the now defunct hospital.
Most of the kickbacks, which totaled more than $40 million, were disguised as consulting fees or ‘marketing money’ doled as a percentage of surgeries each doctor referred to Forest Park.”
About health insurance
House passes bill to stave off millions in Medicare sequester cuts: “The House passed a bill on Friday to extend the moratorium on 2% Medicare payment cuts caused by a federal budget sequestration and avert $36 billion in payment cuts triggered by the American Rescue Plan.
Legislators voted 246 to 175 to pass H.R.1868, which postpones Medicare sequester payment cuts until the end of the year and exempts the budgetary effects of the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill from the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010.”
New cost-cutting Medicare rule may add costs to patients: “For years, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) classified 1,740 surgeries and other services so risky for older adults that Medicare would pay for them only when these adults were admitted to the hospital as inpatients. Under the new rule, the agency is beginning to phase out that requirement. On Jan. 1, 266 shoulder, spine and other musculoskeletal surgeries were crossed off what is called the ‘inpatient-only list.’
By the end of 2023, the list — which includes a variety of complicated procedures including brain and heart operations — is scheduled to be gone.
CMS officials said the change was designed to give patients and doctors more options and help lower costs by promoting more competition among hospitals and independent ambulatory surgical centers. But they forgot one thing.
While removing the surgeries from the inpatient-only list, the government did not approve them to be performed anywhere else. So patients will still have to get the care at hospitals.”
States are eyeing public option health plans. Many obstacles stand in the way.: The article offers a really good analysis of state-sponsored public option plans- focusing on Washington state. One problem is: “The high premiums for the public option plan stemmed from a failure to cap payment rates to health-care providers…” It tried to pay providers based on Medicare fee schedules but : “Even with the higher rates, the state struggled to get health-care providers to agree to participate in the plan. That’s because hospitals are used to receiving much higher payments from private insurance plans than from Medicare — an average of 247 percent more…”
Also, “Opposition to public options is fierce.
The Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, an alliance of hospital, health insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyists, is spending $1 million to combat a plan in Colorado that would trigger the creation of a public option if the health-care industry cannot bring down costs on its own before 2024.”
About pharma
Americans Struggle to Afford Medications as COVID-19 Hits Savings and Insurance Coverage:”Prescription drugs are still unaffordable for many Americans. According to a new GoodRx survey, one in three Americans saw their out-of-pocket medication costs increase in 2020. Nearly 40% of people reported difficulty affording their prescription medications, and over 20% said they struggled to pay for basic necessities like food and shelter as a result.
Patients have responded to this lack of affordability by tapping into their savings, taking on more debt, and making potentially dangerous changes to their prescribed medication regimen.”
Biotech's top 10 money raisers of 2020: FYI: “In 2020, the biotech sector raised just under $20 billion, outstripping 2018 on every measure, except the total number of financing rounds.”
About healthcare IT
Clinical data sharing improves quality measurement and patient safety: “ A total of 15% of all quality measure calculations changed (P < .001) when including HIE data sources, affecting 19% of patients. Changes in quality measure calculations were observed across measures and organizations.
These results demonstrate that quality measures calculated using single-site EHR data may be limited by incomplete information. Effective data sharing significantly changes quality calculations, which affect healthcare payments, patient safety, and care quality.”
About healthcare professionals
Match Day 2021 largest on record: 6 notes: Among the stats:
”A record 48,700 people submitted applications for 38,106 open positions at residency programs — the most available in the program's history. Of these open positions, about 95 percent were filled….
A record 5,915 programs participated in Match Day, 88 more than last year….
Of the 35,194 positions available for first-year residents, about half were for primary care specialties like family medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics.”