About Covid-19
End of COVID pandemic is 'in sight' -WHO chief “The world has never been in a better position to end the COVID-19 pandemic, the head of the World Health Organization said on Wednesday, his most optimistic outlook yet on the years-long health crisis which has killed over six million people.
‘We are not there yet. But the end is in sight,’ WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at a virtual press conference.”
About health insurance/insurers
Lowell Nurse Pleads Guilty in $100 Million Home Health Care Fraud and Kickback Scheme “According to the indictment, from January 2013 to January 2017, Newton was part owner and operator of Arbor Homecare Services LLC. Waruru was a Licensed Practical Nurse employed as a home health nurse at Arbor. Waruru and, allegedly, Newton engaged in a conspiracy to use Arbor to defraud MassHealth and Medicare of at least $100 million by committing health care fraud and paying kickbacks to induce referrals. Newton then allegedly laundered the ill-gotten gains.
Specifically, it is alleged that Arbor, through Newton and others, including Waruru, failed to train staff, billed for home health services that were never provided or were not medically necessary and billed for home health services that were not authorized. Arbor, through Newton and others, developed employment relationships as way to pay kickbacks for patient referrals, regardless of medical necessity requirements. They also allegedly entered sham employment relationships with patients’ family members to provide home health aide services that were not medically necessary and routinely billed for fictitious visits that did not occur. As alleged in the civil complaint, Newton either directly or through Arbor, targeted particularly vulnerable patients who were low-income, on disability and/or suffering from depression and/or addiction.”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
World's Best Smart Hospitals 2023 and World's Best Specialized Hospitals 2023 Both from Newsweek, FYI.
About healthcare quality
Joint Commission Official Statement on Standards Review Tuesday “we announced the beginning of a review of all Joint Commission ‘above-and-beyond’ requirements, those that go beyond the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Conditions of Participation (CoPs) and are not on crosswalks to the CoPs.
During the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), CMS put many requirements on hold. As the PHE nears its end, CMS has been reviewing the waived requirements to determine whether some should be permanently retired. The Joint Commission will similarly address the necessity of our own unique requirements.
Specifically, we will review each requirement to answer:
Does the requirement still address an important quality and safety issue?
Is the requirement redundant?
Are the time and resources needed to comply with the requirement commensurate with the estimated benefit to patient care and health outcomes?
In addition to a direct review of each requirement, we will conduct quantitative analyses of scoring patterns and tests for redundancy. Where necessary, we also will conduct literature and field reviews and engage experts within the field.”
About pharma
Novartis headquarters raided in Swiss competition authority's patent probe “The Swiss Competition Commission (COMCO) said it has opened an investigation into an unnamed pharma company about possible unlawful use of a patent to stymie competition. As part of the probe, the agency conducted an early morning raid of the company’s offices on Tuesday, the agency said Thursday.
Novartis then identified itself as the target in its own statement Thursday…
The exact drug under question remains unknown. Among Novartis’ offerings, the one skin drug that might come close to a dominant status is psoriasis treatment Cosentyx.”
About the public’s health
Biden admin officials worried about potential polio spread “The high-level meetings and the involvement of national security officials speak to the concern Biden officials have about the possible spread of a potentially deadly virus that until recently had not been recorded in the United States for decades.
New York has recorded one polio case but has found additional poliovirus samples in the state’s wastewater, prompting Gov. Kathy Hochul last week to declare a public health emergency.”