Global health champion Dr. Paul Farmer has died: “In 1987, Farmer co-founded Partners in Health in Haiti with the mission to provide high-quality care to patients from impoverished backgrounds and those living far from health care facilities. Over the next three decades, PIH expanded to countries across Africa and Latin America, to Russia and to the Navajo Nation in the United States.”
About Covid-19
Biden to extend U.S. national emergency due to COVID-19 health risk: “President Joe Biden said on Friday the U.S. national emergency declared in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic will be extended beyond March 1 due to the ongoing risk to public health posed by the coronavirus…
The emergency would have been automatically terminated unless, within 90 days prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the president sent a notice to the Congress stating it is to continue beyond the anniversary date.”
And in a related article: Payers, Medicaid officials ask Congress for 90-day glide path to end of COVID-19 emergency: “Several major payer groups and Medicaid advocates are pressing Congress for a 90-day heads up when the COVID-19 public health emergency ends, arguing they need as much time as possible to make Medicaid enrollees aware they could lose coverage.”
New York State Department of Health Highlights Healthcare Workforce Booster Progress and Announces Additional Efforts To Bring Boosters Directly To Healthcare Workers: “In order to avoid potential staffing issues and give healthcare workers more time to get boosted, the State will no longer enforce the booster requirement that will go into effect on February 21.The State will reassess in three months whether additional steps need to be taken to increase booster rates among the healthcare work force. The original vaccination requirement for healthcare workers remains in effect.”
The C.D.C. Isn’t Publishing Large Portions of the Covid Data It Collects: “Two full years into the pandemic, the agency leading the country’s response to the public health emergency has published only a tiny fraction of the data it has collected, several people familiar with the data said….
Kristen Nordlund, a spokeswoman for the C.D.C., said the agency has been slow to release the different streams of data ‘because basically, at the end of the day, it’s not yet ready for prime time.’ She said the agency’s ‘priority when gathering any data is to ensure that it’s accurate and actionable.’
Another reason is fear that the information might be misinterpreted, Ms. Nordlund said.”
Got a Covid Booster? You Probably Won’t Need Another for a Long Time: “The Omicron variant can dodge antibodies — immune molecules that prevent the virus from infecting cells — produced after two doses of a Covid vaccine. But a third shot of the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech or by Moderna prompts the body to make a much wider variety of antibodies, which would be difficult for any variant of the virus to evade, according to the most recent study…”
In a related article: A fourth Covid-19 shot might be recommended this fall, as officials 'continually' look at emerging data: “In the United States, health officials emphasized late last year that fourth doses were not yet needed and said it was too premature to be discussing a potential fourth dose of coronavirus vaccine for most people.
Now, the US Food and Drug Administration ‘is indeed continually looking at the emerging data on the pandemic and variants in the United States and overseas in order to evaluate the potential utility and composition of booster doses,’ FDA spokesperson Alison Hunt wrote in an email to CNN on Friday.”
Estimated 73% of US now immune to omicron: Is that enough?: “The IHME [Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation] estimates a wide range — from 63% to 81% of Americans.”
The answer to the headline’s question is not revealed in the article, which emphasizes the measurement difficulties in assessing immunity and the wide variation among estimates and localities.
About health insurance
Early Changes in Billing and Notes After Evaluation and Management Guideline Change: “The American Medical Association updated guid- ance in 2021 for frequently used billing codes for outpatient eval- uation and management (E/M) visits. The intent was to account for provider time outside of face-to-face encounters and to reduce onerous documentation requirements…”
As a result of these changes, level 3 codes decreased slightly, while levels 4 and 5 increased slightly. “These changes varied by specialty. We found no meaningful changes in measures of note length or time spent in the EHR.”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
342 hospitals have received price transparency noncompliance notices from CMS: “CMS told Becker's that no monetary penalties have been issued to date. The maximum penalty for noncompliance is $2 million.
’To date, each hospital that has come under compliance review has resolved its deficiencies, or is in the process of doing so,’ CMS said. ‘Therefore, it has not been necessary for CMS to issue any penalties.’”
Ascension's operating margin falls below 1% in Q2: “Although the health system's overall revenue decreased, its expenses increased year over year to just under $7.3 billion. In the same period last year, Ascension's expenses totaled $6.7 billion.”
About pharma
Risk Factors and Hospital-Level Characteristics With Medicare Part B Drug Spending Differences Between 340B and Non-340B Hospitals: “In this cross-sectional study that included 35 364 beneficiaries and 2446 hospitals, there was no statistically significant difference in Medicare Part B drug spending between 340B hospitals and non-340B hospitals, after controlling for beneficiary-level risk factors and hospital-level characteristics.
Meaning These findings raise doubt about the financial incentive theory of 340B program drug discounts and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ 340B drug payment policy rationale.”
The top 10 biotech IPOs of 2021: FYI
About the public’s health
New DNA computer assesses water quality: Genetic networks mimic electronic circuits to perform a range of logic functions: “Northwestern University synthetic biologists have developed a low-cost, easy-to-use, hand-held device that can let users know — within mere minutes — if their water is safe to drink.
The new device works by using powerful and programmable genetic networks, which mimic electronic circuits, to perform a range of logic functions.”
Raw and Cooked Vegetable Consumption and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease: A Study of 400,000 Adults in UK Biobank: “Higher intakes of raw, but not cooked, vegetables were associated with lower CVD risk. Residual confounding is likely to account for much, if not all, of the observed associations. This study suggests the need to reappraise the evidence on the burden of CVD disease attributable to low vegetable intake in the high-income populations.”
About healthcare IT
Electronic Medical Records in Healthcare: An excellent monograph on the security of EHRs, from the HHS Office of Information Security.
Hospitals should be wary of these 5 cyberthreats: “Cyberattacks on healthcare organizations remain frequent, as nearly 2 million health records were breached in the U.S. in January.” The article explains five significant cyberthreats, according to recent federal advisories.
About healthcare personnel
Physician Burnout & Depression Report 2022: Stress, Anxiety, and Anger: The top three on the burnout list are emergency, critical are and OB/GYN physicians. At les than half the rate, at the bottom, are public health and preventive medicine practitioners.
6 schools launching nursing programs: Examples of 6 organizations launching or expanding programs.
American Healthcare Workers Persevering, but Remain Stressed: Highlights from the poll:
Four in five (80%) of healthcare workers report being somewhat or very satisfied with their current job, down slightly from the 89% saying the same in a Spring 2021 Kaiser Family Foundation/Washington Post poll.
Three quarters (73%) agree with the statement “I love working in healthcare”.
A majority report feeling “hopeful” (59%), “motivated” (59%), or “optimistic” (56%) about going to work. However, the number saying hopeful (to 59% from 76%) or optimistic (to 56% from 67%) is down compared to last year.
About half (52%) report feeling “burned out”, on par with the 2021 numbers (55%).
Over a third (39%) report agreeing with the statement “the American healthcare system is on the verge of collapse”.
A third either disagree (16%) or don’t know how they feel (18%) regarding if they could pick a career over again, “I would still decide to go into health care”.
A quarter of healthcare workers (23%) say they are likely to leave the field in the near future.[Emphasis added]
About health technology