About Covid-19
Americans hold mixed views on getting back to ‘normal’ after Covid-19, new polling shows “In a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey about the Biden administration’s original plan to end the public health emergency by May, 59% of Americans said they expected the decision to have no impact on them or their family, with the remainder about evenly split between the 20% who thought it would have a positive effect and the 21% who thought the impact would be negative.
Only 24% of Americans personally feel that the pandemic is over, a recent Monmouth University poll found, with 20% saying it will end eventually and 53% saying that it’ll never be over. Those numbers were very similar to Monmouth’s polling last fall, suggesting that a sense of some lingering abnormalcy may well be the new normal.”
Free COVID testing will fade with US health emergency in May “When the COVID-19 public health emergency ends in the U.S. next month, you’ll still have access to a multitude of tests but with one big difference: Who pays for them.
For the first time, you may have to pick up some or all of the costs, depending on insurance coverage and whether the tests are done at home or in a doctor’s office.”
About health insurance/insurers
A smart move on tax day: Sign up for health insurance using your state's tax forms “A growing number of states – including Colorado, New Mexico and Massachusetts – are using tax forms to point people toward the lower-cost coverage available through state insurance marketplaces; by next year, it will be at least ten, including Illinois, Maine, California and New Jersey.”
Equifax, Experian and TransUnion Remove Medical Collections Debt Under $500 From U.S. Credit Reports “Equifax®, Experian, and TransUnion are jointly announcing that medical collection debt with an initial reported balance of under $500 has been removed from U.S. consumer credit reports. With this change, now nearly 70 percent of the total medical collection debt tradelines reported to the Nationwide Credit Reporting Agencies (NCRAs) are removed from consumer credit files. This change reflects a commitment made by the NCRAs last year.”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
Froedtert, ThedaCare plan to merge, hope to launch combined health system by end of 2023 “Froedtert Health and ThedaCare have begun the process of merging their organizations into one, with the goal of launching a combined health system by the end of 2023…
The announced Froedtert and ThedaCare merger is the most recent in Wisconsin and comes after Gundersen Health System merged with Bellin Health, and Advocate Aurora Health combined with Atrium Health in late 2022. Marshfield Clinic Health System and Essentia health also announced merger talks last year.”
The plans still need regulatory approval.
About pharma
2023 Biosimilars Report A great update from Cardinal. Check the chart on page 7.
Takeda hit with another pay-for-delay lawsuit, this time on gout drug Colcrys “Takeda has already faced claims it used an illegal "pay-for-delay" deal to push back competition to constipation drug Amitiza. Now, a group of drug purchasers is going after the company, alleging illegal conduct on the gout medicine Colcrys.”
About the public’s health
Juul agrees to pay $462 million to 6 states and D.C., and to share documents “The e-cigarette maker Juul has agreed to pay six states and Washington, D.C., $462 million for its alleged role in fueling the recent significant rise in youth vaping, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Wednesday.
The settlement, which includes California and New York, is the largest to date between Juul and state attorneys general, and will also require Juul to disclose a number of previously secret documents, which will be housed in an academic archive.”
Litigation is still pending/ongoing in other states.
U.S. STI Epidemic Showed No Signs of Slowing in 2021 – Cases Continued to Escalate “Reported cases of the sexually transmitted infections (STIs) chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis all increased between 2020 and 2021 – reaching a total of more than 2.5 million reported cases – according to CDC’s final surveillance data. To reverse this trend, CDC is calling for more groups from local, healthcare, industry, and public health sectors to contribute to STI prevention and innovation efforts.”
China’s struggles with lab safety carry danger of another pandemic Excellent review of this issue in The Washington Post
“Chinese government reports, bolstered by interviews and statements by Western and Chinese officials and scientists who visited the facilities as recently as 2020, describe ongoing equipment problems and inadequate safety training that in some cases resulted in lab animals being illegally sold after being used in experiments, and contaminated lab waste being flushed into sewers. The problems are exacerbated, experts say, by a secretive, top-down bureaucracy that sets demanding goals while reflexively covering up accidents and discouraging any public acknowledgment of shortcomings.”
About healthcare IT
I declined to share my medical data with advertisers at my doctor’s office. One company claimed otherwise “Phreesia was asking for consent to mine the data I entered through the check-in process to show me targeted ads. Buried eight paragraphs down is language informing me I can opt out without losing access to my providers, but most readers likely click through hurriedly so they can get to their appointment in time. My OB-GYNs are committed to the ethics of patient confidentiality. Why would they encourage me to give away my reproductive privacy at the digital front door to their office?”
Comment: Read this article!
Pandemic-Era Telehealth Rules Set to Expire in May, Shifting HIPAA Compliance Obligations “OCR issued four Notifications of Enforcement Discretion under HIPAA in 2020 and 2021 to allow covered entities to set up COVID-19 testing sites, disclose testing data to health authorities, conduct telehealth appointments, and use web-based scheduling applications for COVID-19 vaccinations...
Although HIPAA-covered entities have been expecting the end of the PHE for some time, HHS granted them a 90-calendar day transition period to come into compliance with HIPAA rules in respect to telehealth.”
Outcome Health executives found guilty in $1B fraud case “Three former executives of healthcare technology startup Outcome Health were found guilty by a federal jury April 11 on 47 charges of fraud and acquitted of seven charges.
The verdict followed a 10-week trial for Chicago-based Outcome Health's co-founder and former CEO Rishi Shah, former President Shradha Agarwal and former COO and CFO Brad Purdy, who were charged for their alleged role in a scheme involving approximately $1 billion in fraudulently obtained funds.”
Comment: If you are not familiar with the case, read the entire article. The “fake it till you make it” argument did not persuade the jury that the executives were practicing normal business procedures.
Experiences with information blocking in the United States: a national survey of hospitals “The 21st Century Cures Act Final Rule’s information blocking provisions, which prohibited practices likely to interfere with, prevent, or materially discourage access, exchange, or use of electronic health information (EHI), began to apply to a limited set of data elements in April 2021 and expanded to all EHI in October 2022…
Overall, 42% of hospitals reported observing some behavior they perceived to be information blocking. Thirty-six percent of responding hospitals perceived that healthcare providers either sometimes or often engaged in practices that may constitute information blocking, while 17% and 19% perceived that health IT developers (such as EHR developers) and State, regional and/or local health information exchanges did the same, respectively. Prevalence varied by health IT developer market share, hospital for-profit status, and health system market share.”
Comment: Where is the enforcement?
About healthcare personnel
The cost of nurse turnover in 24 numbers Really good review of this topic. For example, “The average cost of turnover for a staff RN is $52,350, with the range averaging $40,200 to $64,500. This is up from the average cost of turnover for an RN in 2021, which was $46,100.
Each percent change in RN turnover will cost or save the average hospital $380,600 per year.”
About health technology
Novo Nordisk pens $725M deal with Aspect Biosystems for 3D-printed tissue treatments for diabetes “In a deal announced Wednesday, Novo is offering up hundreds of millions of dollars to help Aspect Biosystems develop bioprinted tissues that could help treat the root causes of diabetes on a cellular level…
Aspect’s bioprinting platform is essentially a 3D printer for tissue therapeutics. Researchers first use Aspect’s software to design tissues with an aim of attacking a health condition at the root—by replacing, repairing or bulking up an existing cellular process inside the body—after which the printer combines therapeutic cells and other biomaterials to churn out new tissues that can be surgically implanted.”
Assessment of heterogeneity among participants in the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative cohort using α-synuclein seed amplification: a cross-sectional study A test that shows great promise for Parkinson’s diagnosis.
”This study represents the largest analysis so far of the α-synuclein SAA for the biochemical diagnosis of Parkinson's disease. Our results show that the assay classifies people with Parkinson's disease with high sensitivity and specificity, provides information about molecular heterogeneity, and detects prodromal individuals before diagnosis. These findings suggest a crucial role for the α-synuclein SAA in therapeutic development, both to identify pathologically defined subgroups of people with Parkinson's disease and to establish biomarker-defined at-risk cohorts.”