About Covid-19
Federal judge voids mask mandate for airplanes, in other transportation settings “U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle of the Middle District of Florida said the mandate exceeds the statutory authority of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Federal officials last week had extended the mask mandate for commercial flights and in other transportation settings, including on buses, ferries and subways, until at least May 3.”
How the Test-to-Treat Pillar of the US Covid Strategy Is Failing Patients “…large swaths of the country had no test-to-treat pharmacies or health centers listed as of April 14. And the website of the largest participant, CVS, has significant technical issues that make booking an appointment difficult.”
Americans Over 60 Should Get Second Booster, Official Says “Americans over 60 should get a second booster shot of a coronavirus vaccine, Dr. Ashish K. Jha, the new White House Covid-19 response coordinator, said on Sunday, citing “pretty compelling” new data from Israel indicating that a fourth shot significantlyreduced infections and deaths among older people there.”
HHS Distributing $1.75 Billion in Provider Relief Fund Payments to Health Care Providers Affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic “The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)… announced more than $1.75 billion in Provider Relief Fund payments to 3,680 providers across the country. With this disbursement, HRSA has distributed approximately $13.5 billion from the Provider Relief Fund to nearly 86,000 and nearly $7.5 billion in American Rescue Plan (ARP) Rural payments to more than 44,000 providers since November 2021.
FDA greenlights first breathalyzer test for COVID-19 “A portable breathalyzer developed by InspectIR Systems aims to deliver a result within three minutes by looking for the exhaled chemical compounds that can come with an infection.
The device includes its own miniaturized mass spectrometer, shrunk down to about the size of a carry-on suitcase. It’s designed to be used under the supervision of a healthcare professional in locations such as doctors' offices, hospitals and mobile testing sites…
While positive results should be confirmed with a secondary PCR test, the FDA said the device’s negative results could be accurate enough for use in widespread screening settings when placed in context with the person’s recent exposures and their current signs and symptoms.”
New COVID-19 nasal spray outperforms current antibody treatments in mice: A single inhaled dose treated or even prevented infection by COVID-19 and its variants “Designed computationally and refined in the laboratory, the new protein therapies thwarted infection by interfering with the virus' ability to enter cells. The top protein neutralized the virus with similar or greater potency than antibody treatments with Emergency Use Authorization status from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Notably, the top protein also neutralized all tested SARS-CoV-2 variants, something that many clinical antibodies have failed to do.”
HHS Distributing $1.75 Billion in Provider Relief Fund Payments to Health Care Providers Affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic “The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), today announced more than $1.75 billion in Provider Relief Fund payments to 3,680 providers across the country. With this disbursement, HRSA has distributed approximately $13.5 billion from the Provider Relief Fund to nearly 86,000 and nearly $7.5 billion in American Rescue Plan (ARP) Rural payments to more than 44,000 providers since November 2021.”
About health insurance
Kaiser Permanente pledges $200 million to fight homelessness “Responding to a growing need for affordable housing, Kaiser Permanente announced Friday the company will invest $200 million for new housing and community needs for low-income residents.
The Oakland-based health care giant plans to shift funds from its investment portfolio to support affordable housing and support services. The company sees the investment as an extension of its health care services, saying that public health is bolstered by stable living conditions and shelter.”
5 Charts About Public Opinion on the Affordable Care Act From a Kaiser Family Foundation poll.
“Following Republican efforts to repeal the ACA in the summer of 2017, KFF Health Tracking Polls found a slight uptick in overall favorability towards the law, and since then a somewhat larger share has held a favorable than an unfavorable view. The most recent KFF Tracking Poll conducted in March 2022 found slightly more than half of the public (55%) hold a favorable opinion of the ACA while about four in ten (42%) hold a negative opinion of the law. Views of the ACA are still largely driven by partisanship: nearly nine in ten Democrats (87%) along with six in ten independents (58%) view the law favorably, while eight in ten Republicans (79%) hold unfavorable views.”
The most popular provisions are:
1. Prohibiting health insurance companies from denying coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.
2. Prohibiting health insurance companies from charging sick people more.
3. Prohibiting health insurance companies from denying coverage to pregnant women.
4. Requiring health insurance companies to cover the cost for most preventive services.
5. Prohibiting health insurance companies from setting a lifetime limit.
Bright Health Group Continues to Drive Focus on Consumer Retail Markets with Fully Aligned Model “Bright Health Group, Inc… the first technology-enabled, Fully Aligned system of care built for healthcare's consumer retail market…announced its decision to focus Bright HealthCare’s geographic footprint by no longer offering Individual and Family Plans in Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia after 2022. These markets are forecasted to contribute less than 5% of total Bright Health Group revenue for 2022 and will have an immaterial impact on revenue in 2023 and beyond.
The strategic decision reflects the company’s increasing focus on growing in markets where it can deliver the greatest impact, drive differentiated value through its Fully Aligned care model and achieve operational excellence.
About hospitals and healthcare systems
Crozer Health quietly threatening to shut off paramedic services for municipalities — unless they pay up “Crozer Health, the four-hospital system in Delaware County, has been quietly reaching out to municipalities, threatening to shut off emergency medical services unless they pay up…
Crozer has delivered its Advanced Life Support response vehicles, also known as chase cars, to the municipalities for quite some time. The vehicles, while they don’t transport patients, are staffed by a paramedic, who has the highest level of prehospital care education.”
About pharma
Bristol Myers settles HIV antitrust suit, but J&J, Gilead still await their day in court “Bristol Myers Squibb will hand over up to $11 million to settle a lawsuit claiming it, Gilead Sciences and Johnson & Johnson used anticompetitive marketing tactics to block generic competition to HIV drugs. Importantly, the other two companies aren't involved in the settlement.
About the public’s health
E-cigs using synthetic nicotine come under FDA oversight “U.S. regulators will soon begin cracking down on vaping companies using a now-closed loophole, including a line of fruit-flavored e-cigarettes that have become teenagers’ top choice….
Food and Drug Administration can regulate e-cigarettes and similar products that use synthetic nicotine.
The action targets Puff Bar and several other vaping companies that recently switched their formulas to laboratory-made nicotine to skirt FDA oversight.”
FDA Authorizes Marketing of Tobacco Products that Help Reduce Exposure to and Consumption of Nicotine for Smokers Who Use Them “U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the marketing of 22nd Century Group Inc.’s “VLN King” and “VLN Menthol King” combusted, filtered cigarettes as modified risk tobacco products (MRTPs), which help reduce exposure to, and consumption of, nicotine for smokers who use them. These are the first combusted cigarettes to be authorized as MRTPs and the second tobacco products overall to receive “exposure modification” orders, which allows them to be marketed as having a reduced level of, or presenting a reduced exposure to, a substance.”
About healthcare personnel
American Board of Medical Specialties and New Standards for Continuing Certification “The Standards reflect 2 foundational changes in how ABMS and the ABMS member boards deliver on their professional self-regulatory mission. The first foundational change reflects the intent of the Standards to bring value to both the public and the profession… This is achieved through balancing formative and summative assessment methods, enhancing relevance to practice, and providing opportunities to address identified knowledge deficits prior to certificate loss. The requirement for a 10-year high-stakes examination has been removed and replaced by modular or longitudinal formative assessments that support learning through means convenient to diplomates…
The second foundational change recognizes that the network of professional self-regulation of medical care represents the collective responsibility of multiple organizations, not just the member boards… The improving health and health care standards require the member boards to work with their specialty societies and others to define a quality agenda for each specialty, including focusing on important disparities within and across specialties. To facilitate implementation of the improving health and health care standards, a learning community is being established that is codirected by leadership from ABMS and the specialty societies.”
Federal malpractice database may not work as intended “Hospitals are required by law to submit a report to the data bank if a doctor is retiring to avoid investigation. However, the only way the data bank or other government agencies can find out that a hospital has broken the law is through the actions of whistleblowers.”
First Criminal Trials Over Wage-Fixing, Hiring Practices End in Loss for Justice Department “Dialysis provider DaVita Inc… and its former chief executive officer, Kent Thiry, were acquitted Friday in Denver on three counts of conspiring with other companies to not recruit each other’s senior-level employees. Separately on Thursday, a Texas jury acquitted the former owner and clinical director of a home-health staffing company of conspiring with rivals to reduce their contractors’ pay.The two prosecutions marked the first ever federal criminal cases focused on alleged labor-market collusion. The antitrust division has pursued civil cases in recent years against companies that entered into agreements to not raid each other’s workers, but charging the conduct as a crime marked a major escalation of the government’s approach.”
About healthcare finance
$1B joint venture sets sights on ASCs, medical office buildings “Big Sky Medical, a real estate investment manager, and Newmark, a real estate advisory and services company, have partnered to create a medical office building portfolio worth $1 billion…
The joint venture, seeded by a more than $400 million medical office portfolio that Big Sky Medical aggregated over the past year, will target medical office buildings across the country.
The seed portfolio includes 24 ASCs and medical office buildings that total more than 1 million square feet across seven states in the South and the Midwest, according to the report. Tenants include Cleveland Clinic; Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health; Dallas-based Baylor Scott & White Health and Texas A&M Health Science Center in Bryan.”