About Covid-19
BA.5 is causing more Covid-19 reinfections, data suggests, but they don't appear to be more frequent “It's not your imagination: As the rapidly spreading BA.5 coronavirus subvariant causes a surge in infections across the United States, more people are catching Covid-19 for the second or third time.
But on average, these reinfections do not seem to be happening more rapidly, according to a new analysis from the gene sequencing company Helix.
BA.5, another offshoot of the Omicron variant, is now causing about 80% of new Covid-19 infections in the United States, according to the latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
A Novel COVID-19 Vaccine Using Modified Bacterial DNA “The research involved building plasmids genetically altered to contain bits of genetic material specifically intended to target a vulnerability in the SARS-CoV-2 virus’s spike protein, a portion of the virus critical to binding and infecting cells. Plasmids are small, circular DNA molecules from bacteria that are physically separate from chromosomal DNA and can replicate independently. They can be used by scientists to transfer genetic material from one cell to another, after which the introduced genetic material can replicate in the receiving cell.”
The findings are publish in the July 21, 2022 online issue of PLOS Pathogens.
About health insurance
Survey Finds 36% of Americans Have Researched Healthcare Service Prices, 60% of Those Who Do Would Look to Health Insurance Companies for Pricing “In the national survey of more than 2,000 adults, 36% indicated they have researched prices for healthcare services. Of these individuals, 60% would look to their insurance provider for pricing information, with nearly half (44%) reporting they would look on the websites of health insurers, and more than a quarter (29%) would call their health insurance company. (Respondents could select more than one option):
44% would try looking for pricing information on the health insurance company website
39% would visit a physician or hospital website
34% would opt to call their physician or hospital for pricing information
32% would access a patient portal for the information
29% would call their insurance company
Additionally, 44% of survey respondents say their health insurance company does not provide pricing information for local healthcare providers, and 34% don't know if this information is available.”
High-Performing and Low-Performing Hospitals Across Medicare Value-Based Payment Programs “Over the past decade, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has introduced 3 major hospital value-based payment programs that aim to improve quality: the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program (HVBP), the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP), and the Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program (HACRP)…
Less than 5% of US hospitals demonstrate high performance across all 3 of Medicare’s hospital value-based payment programs. This could reflect efforts by CMS to capture separate domains of quality and would imply that very few US hospitals provide high-quality care globally. Alternatively, it may result from idiosyncrasies of program design and measures that hamper reliable assessment of hospital quality and that may warrant attention and reform.
Hospitals that performed poorly across programs were more likely to be located in areas with a higher proportion of socially vulnerable populations, including immigrants and racial and ethnic minority groups. Nearly half of low-performing hospitals were located in the Southeastern US, where many communities experience disproportionately poor health outcomes. Financial penalties levied by hospital value-based programs, particularly when compounded, may exacerbate disparities in care for these populations.”
State of Medicare Advantage REPORT July 2022 From Better Medicare Alliance: “Today, more than 28 million Americans, 45% of the total Medicare population, have made an active choice for the quality, affordable, coordinated coverage and care uniquely found in Medicare Advantage.
It’s not hard to see why: seniors are saving nearly $2,000 per year, taxpayers are seeing lower per-beneficiary government spending, beneficiaries report a 94% satisfaction rate, and 99.9% of Medicare Advantage plans are offering supplemental benefits unavailable in fee-for-service Medicare.”
A good resource about current MA statistics. One surprise (for me was the state with the highest percentage enrollment- Alabama at 53.35%.
About hospitals and healthcare systems
HCA, Tenet profits sink: 10 things to know FYI
340B DSH Hospitals Increased Uncompensated Care in 2020 Despite Significant Financial Stress “To understand how the events of 2020 impacted the health care safety net in which 340B DSH hospitals play a vital role, this study compares 340B DSH hospitals to non-340B hospitals on two financial metrics: operating margins and the provision of uncompensated and unreimbursed care. We found:
340B DSH hospitals experienced a sharp decline in their average operating margin, which already was negative, of 2.6 percentage points or 74%. In fiscal year (FY) 2019, 340B hospitals’ average operating margin was -3.5%, and in FY 2020 the average was -6.1%.
At the same time, 340B DSH hospitals increased their average provision of uncompensated and unreimbursed care by nearly 10%. In FY 2020, 340B DSH hospitals provided 67% of all such care while representing only 44% of hospitals.
The experience of non-340B hospitals was substantially different. For these hospitals, the average operating margin increased by 21% while the average level of uncompensated and unreimbursed care remained flat.
This pattern provides important evidence that 340B DSH hospitals are continuing to fulfill the program’s purpose as set out by Congress in 1992.”
About pharma
FDA Explains Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations in Draft Guidance “To qualify for therapeutic equivalence, a drug product must show pharmaceutical equivalence, bioequivalence and the same clinical effect and safety profile for the conditions of use specified in the labeling as the reference product, the agency said.
To determine pharmaceutical equivalence, the product needs to be identical in dosage form and route or routes of administration, contain identical amounts of the identical active drug ingredient and meet the identical compendial or other applicable standard of identity, strength, quality and purity, including potency and, where applicable, content uniformity, disintegration times and/or dissolution rates…
The deadline for comment on the draft is Sept. 19.
Read the draft guidance here: bit.ly/3OpEctK.”
About the public’s health
Assessment of Patterns in e-Cigarette Use Among Adults in the US, 2017-2020 “In this cross-sectional study involving 994 307 adults from US states and territories that reported data on e-cigarette use in the 2017, 2018, and 2020 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, the prevalence of current e-cigarette use increased from 4.4% to 5.5% between 2017 and 2018 but decreased slightly to 5.1% in 2020; this decrease, though modest, was observed mainly among those aged 18 to 20 years. The prevalence of daily e-cigarette use increased consistently, from 1.5% in 2017 to 2.1% in 2018 and 2.3% in 2020, with the most significant increase among adults aged 21 to 24 years.”
La. schools prepare to add eating disorder education to curriculum “With a new school year coming up, Louisiana schools are adding a new element to their curriculum- talking about eating disorders. In Calcasieu Parish, teachers are turning to LSU Ag Center program “Health Rocks” to educate students in grades six through 12 on healthy eating habits and to warn them of the dangers of eating disorders.”
About healthcare IT
54% of healthcare organizations hit with cyberattacks in the last year, survey says “More than half of healthcare organizations have been targeted by hackers in the past year, with most organizations feeling ill-prepared for such attacks, according to a survey from digital security company SecureLink…
It found that 54 percent of healthcare organizations said that they'd experienced a third party data breach in the past 12 months, and 65 percent said that they felt their IT systems don't make security and access a top priority. More than half of the companies surveyed also said that managing third-party security was a burden.”
About healthcare personnel
Average salary for 55 hospital jobs Look at the bottom for who makes the most and by how much.
When peer comparison information harms physician well-being “Motivating physicians to adhere to medical best practices is a constant concern for health system leaders and policymakers. Meanwhile, burnout rates among physicians are rising—often resulting in mental health problems, job turnover, and higher healthcare costs. In our study, a commonly used behavioral intervention—informing physicians about how their performance compares to that of their peers—has no statistically significant impact on performance. However, it does decrease physicians’ job satisfaction and increase burnout. We uncover one mechanism behind this backfiring effect, namely, that the intervention may signal a lack of leadership support. Consistent with this account, we find that training leaders to offer support offsets the negative impact. We discuss lessons for the design, implementation, and evaluation of behavioral interventions and policies.”