About Covid-19
COVID-19 cases to jump 80% by Dec. 7, Mayo forecasts The headline is the story.
Analysis of Failure Rates for COVID-19 Entrance Screening at a US Academic Medical Center “We found limited benefit in maintaining hospital entrance screening for COVID-19 symptoms, exposures, or travel. Of the nearly 1 million persons screened, less than 0.1% had a failed screening.”
Read the Discussion section for caveats.
About health insurance/insurers
Providers in Direct Contracting Model saved Medicare $70M in 2021, CMS reports “The Direct Contracting Model saved Medicare $70 million in 2021 as the Biden administration plans a major overhaul to the value-based care program next year.
Recently released data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) found that 53 direct contracting entities generated savings for Medicare and 38 organizations earned $47 million in shared savings in 2021, the first year of the model. In response to the public health emergency, the start of the performance year was delayed to April 1, 2021, leading to nine months of experience reflected in these results.
All 53 direct contracting entities received quality scores of 100 percent in areas such as patient satisfaction and unplanned admissions for patients with chronic conditions, according to an emailed announcement from CMS.”
Surprise Medical Billing Disputes Pile Up as Lawsuit Unfolds “Litigation over the Biden administration’s process for resolving surprise medical billing disputes threatens to exacerbate a growing backlog in claims and leave doctors without paychecks, health-care lawyers said.
A federal district court in Texas is slated to decide the validity of the Department of Health and Human Services’ revised process for settling disagreements between health insurers and providers over payment rates. It will hear arguments Dec. 20 in a case brought by the Texas Medical Association over a final rule outlining the independent dispute resolution process.”
Most common treatments subject to prior authorization Genetic testing and Specialty drugs top the list.
About the public’s health
WHO renames monkeypox as ‘mpox’ “The World Health Organization announced Monday that “mpox” is now the preferred name for monkeypox.
’Both names will be used simultaneously for one year while “monkeypox” is phased out,’ the organization said.”
Cervical Cancer Incidence Among US Women, 2001-2019 “Between 2001 and 2019, cervical cancer incidence declined or remained stable among US women except for the 30- to 34-year-old age group, in whom incidence increased 2.5% per year after 2012. The observed increase in incidence among 30- to 34-year-old women could be real as a result of a true increase in cervical cancer incidence or due to increased early detection with a stable disease occurrence. If the increase is real, it could be a result of missed screening opportunities at earlier ages, as suggested by the increase in squamous cell carcinoma and localized disease. It may also stem from a decrease in screening at younger ages.”
About healthcare IT
Prevalence and Sources of Duplicate Information in the Electronic Medical Record “In this cross-sectional analysis of 104 456 653 routinely generated clinical notes, 16 523 851 210 words (50.1% of the total count of 32 991 489 889 words) were duplicated from prior documentation. Duplicate content was prevalent in notes written by physicians at all levels of training, nurses, and therapists and was evenly divided between intra-author and inter-author duplication.”
Amwell exploring $200M buyout of online therapy provider Talkspace: media report The headline is the story.
Google Health strikes deal with iCAD to commercialize mammography AI “Google Health struck a deal with medical technology company iCAD to integrate its artificial intelligence technology into the company's breast imaging solutions.
It marks the first licensing and commercialization agreement for Google Health's mammography AI models and will integrate the technology into real-world clinical practice, according to the company. ICAD's tech is used in health systems and imaging centers across the U.S. and globally.”
Athenahealth looks to go public again “EHR vendor Athenahealth is looking to go public just 10 months after it was bought by Bain Capital and another private equity firm for $17 billion, the Boston Globe reported Nov. 28…
The company has gotten out of the hospital business, instead focusing on software and services for medical practices, adding more than 2,000 of them this year, according to the Globe. The vendor also sold its headquarters for $526 million to Alexandria Real Estate Equities in 2019.”