About Covid-19
From the CDC: “The current 7-day moving average of daily new cases (136,558) decreased 12.7% compared with the previous 7-day moving average (156,341). The current 7-day moving average is 99.3% higher than the value observed approximately one year ago (68,527 new cases on July 20, 2020). The current 7-day moving average is 46.2% lower than the peak observed on January 10, 2021 (254,016) and is 1,076.0% higher than the lowest value observed on June 18, 2021 (11,613). A total of 40,523,954 COVID-19 cases have been reported as of September 8, 2021.”
HHS Announces the Availability of $25.5 Billion in COVID-19 Provider Funding: “This funding includes $8.5 billion in American Rescue Plan (ARP) resources for providers who serve rural Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), or Medicare patients, and an additional $17 billion for Provider Relief Fund (PRF) Phase 4 for a broad range of providers who can document revenue loss and expenses associated with the pandemic.”
CNBC poll shows very little will persuade unvaccinated Americans to get Covid shots: “Among the 29% of U.S. voters who are unvaccinated, 83% say they do not plan to get the lifesaving shots, the survey shows.
Growing vaccine hesitancy could make it difficult to reach the up to 90% vaccination rate that some health officials have suggested is necessary to achieve nationwide herd immunity to Covid.”
Departing FDA officials say it's too soon for COVID-19 boosters as White House plans rollout next week: “Even with the wave of delta variant-driven coronavirus cases in the U.S., the authorized vaccines appear to be staving off severe infections, according to a paper published in The Lancet. The group of authors includes top officials with the World Health Organization.
The paper stands in stark contrast to the Biden administration’s own booster shot plan, which some have criticized for jumping ahead of federal regulators. The White House has been planning to roll out the extra doses to the general population as early as next week following the FDA’s meeting on Friday to discuss Pfizer’s application for an extra shot.“
U.S. could authorize Pfizer COVID-19 shot for kids age 5-11 in October -sources: “If Pfizer submits its EUA by the end of September, and the data support its use, ‘by the time we get to October, the first couple of weeks of October... the Pfizer product will likely be ready,’ Fauci said…
Fauci said that Moderna Inc will likely take about three weeks longer than Pfizer to collect and analyze its data on children age 5-11... He estimated that a decision on the Moderna shot could come around November.”
Convalescent plasma for hospitalized patients with COVID-19: an open-label, randomized controlled trial: “Intubation or death occurred in 199/614 (32.4%) patients in the convalescent plasma arm and 86/307 (28.0%) patients in the standard of care arm—relative risk (RR) = 1.16 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.94–1.43, P = 0.18). Patients in the convalescent plasma arm had more serious adverse events (33.4% versus 26.4%; RR = 1.27, 95% CI 1.02–1.57, P = 0.034)…
Convalescent plasma did not reduce the risk of intubation or death at 30 d in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. Transfusion of convalescent plasma with unfavorable antibody profiles could be associated with worse clinical outcomes compared to standard care.”
About healthcare IT
Hospital telehealth visits leveling off at 10%-20% of appointments as claims hit lowest level since pandemic: “About 40% of hospital executives report that up to 10% of their appointments are done virtually and the same percentage said 11% to 20% of their volume is virtual, according to a recent survey by KLAS Research and the Center for Connected Medicine.
The small handful of respondents (12%) are currently conducting more than 30% of their appointments virtually but note that their volumes are still inflated by the pandemic and expect their long-term volumes to be lower, the survey report said.
Telehealth use overall has stabilized at levels 38 times higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic, ranging from 13% to 17% of visits across all specialties, according to an analysis from McKinsey released in July.”
About the public’s health
Young adult cannabis consumers nearly twice as likely to suffer from a heart attack, research shows: “Whether you smoke it, vape it or eat it as an edible, cannabis may be significantly increasing your risk of a heart attack.
Adults under 45 years old, who consumed cannabis within the last 30 days, suffered from nearly double the number of heart attacks than adults who didn't use the drug, according to research… in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.”
About health insurance
Vermont All-Payer Model (VTAPM) Evaluation of the First Two Performance Years: 2018-2019: “The Vermont All-Payer Accountable Care Organization Model (VTAPM), launched on January 1, 2017 with an anticipated end date of December 31, 2022, aims to assess whether scaling an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) program across all payers in the state can reduce program expenditures while preserving or improving care quality by generating sufficient incentives and alignment across payers for broad delivery system transformation…
While the Vermont All-Payer Model failed to achieve its all-payer and Medicare scale target goals, in its first two performance years, the Model achieved statistically significant Medicare gross spending reductions at both the ACO and state levels, as well as Medicare net spending reductions at the state level.
There were declines in acute care stays (at the ACO and state levels) and in 30-day readmissions at the state level.
These decreases in utilization and spending may reflect rising spending in the comparison groups and relatively flat spending in the VTAPM groups that began in the baseline period and continued into the first two performance years.”
In a related article: State’s largest hospital, UVM Medical Center, asks for $204 million increase: “UVM Medical Center officials say the increased revenue would help the hospital recover from disruptions caused by Covid and hospital system failures, including a cyberattack that stalled patient services for six weeks and the closing of the Fanny Allen surgical center because of a persistent carbon monoxide contamination problem.”
Humana Expands Upon Its Bold Goal Initiative with $25 Million Affordable Housing Investment: “Humana’s Bold Goal social health initiative seeks to provide people with more Healthy Days and better lives by focusing on critical social determinants of health, including housing stability.
Humana’s national housing strategy aims to address members’ housing needs through a three-part approach, including interventions and investments that reduce health care costs and improve outcomes for vulnerable members and communities.
$25 million investment will help expand the supply of affordable housing in the states of Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas.”