About Covid-19
Twitter labeled factual information about covid-19 as misinformation “Over the past week, Twitter has flagged dozens of tweets with factual information about covid-19 as misinformation and in some cases has suspended the accounts of doctors, scientists, and patient advocates in response to their posts warning people about the illness’s dangers.
Many of the tweets have since had the misinformation labels removed, and the suspended accounts have been restored. But the episode has shaken many scientific and medical professionals, who say Twitter is a key way they try to publicize the continuing risk of covid to a population that has grown weary of more than two years of shifting claims about the illness.”
Laboratory-Confirmed COVID-19–Associated Hospitalizations Among Adults During SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2 Variant Predominance — COVID-19–Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network, 14 States, June 20, 2021–May 31, 2022 From the CDC: “Increased hospitalization rates among adults aged ≥65 years compared with rates among younger adults were most pronounced during the Omicron BA.2–predominant period. Among hospitalized nonpregnant patients, 44.1% had received primary vaccination and ≥1 booster or additional dose. Hospitalization rates among unvaccinated adults were approximately triple those of vaccinated adults.”
About health insurance/insurers
Association of Medicare Advantage Premiums With Measures of Quality and Patient Experience
”Findings This retrospective cross-sectional study found statistically significant but small-to-medium sized (1-3 points of 100) improvements for most clinical and patient experience quality measures with higher premiums. There was a negative association for 1 measure; in contrast, at each premium level, there was substantial variation (≥5 points) in the quality of care among Medicare Advantage plans.
Meaning These findings suggest that although there were modest improvements in the mean quality of care offered by high-premium Medicare Advantage plans, plans with high quality of care are available at every premium level.”
Read, also, the accompanying editorial: Getting the Most From Payments to Medicare Advantage Health Plans—Thoughts on the Controversy
Overall inflation has not yet flowed through to the health sector “While medical care prices increased by 4.8% between July 2021 and July 2022, the prices of many other consumer goods increased by significantly more.” Read this excellent summary by KFF with its usually well-done graphics.
About hospitals and healthcare systems
CHS faces class-action fraud suit “The lawsuit alleges CHS misstated its financial position in documents provided to investors. In refusing to dismiss the action on Aug. 17, Judge Eli J. Richardson said the complaint adequately pleaded fraud, according to the report.
The for-profit hospital operator allegedly used unreasonable accounting practices to produce financial documents that were unlikely to trigger defaults. The question of whether the practices were actually unreasonable is a question for the jury, the judge said.”
About pharma
Moderna sues Pfizer and BioNTech for infringing on mRNA vaccine patents used in blockbuster Covid shots “Moderna alleges that Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine copied parts of its vaccine technology that it had patented between 2010 and 2016, when it was developing an mRNA vaccine for MERS. Moderna filed its lawsuit in a US district court in Massachusetts and the Regional Court of Düsseldorf in Germany, it said in a press release.
The lawsuit centers around two components of the mRNA vaccines and their three related patents. First, Moderna says that Pfizer and BioNTech made the same chemical modification to the mRNA to help it evade the immune system. And second, it says that Pfizer and BioNTech also used the full-length spike protein in its vaccine, which is a design Moderna says it patented.”
Drug manufacturers must submit reports on quality problems to FDA. Almost half of sites still don't, new report finds “The reports, known as Field Alert Reports (FARs), are crucial for the agency to root out manufacturing issues that can cause recalls or lead to harm.
But a new report from the agency found that of the 1,143 manufacturing sites that were eligible to submit a FAR from 2018 to 2021, almost half (49%) of the sites did not submit a report.
Sites that did not submit FARs tend to be foreign, producing non-sterile products, and have fewer approved applications, the agency said.”