Book Recommendation:
Jellyfish Age Backwards: Nature’s Secrets to Longevity by Nicklas Brendborg
A very well-written, evidence-based book about the science and possible “treatments” of aging.
About Covid-19
Moderna, Pfizer hit with new patent lawsuits over COVID vaccines
“Promosome sued Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech in federal court in San Diego on Tuesday, accusing their COVID-19 vaccines of infringing a patent related to mRNA technology, as reported in Fidelity.
The biotech firm accused the companies of copying technology that allows for doses of mRNA that are small enough to use safely and effectively in the vaccines. It is asking the court for a share of royalties from the shots.
Pfizer earned $37.8 billion from sales of its BioNTech-partnered COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty last year, while Moderna made $18.4 billion from its vaccine Spikevax.
Promosome said its technology enables the immune system to produce sufficient proteins to fight the virus with small doses of mRNA.
The lawsuits claim Promosome met with Moderna between 2013 and 2016 to discuss licensing the technology and that Promosome's president demonstrated it to a senior BioNTech scientist in 2015, although it said neither company agreed to a license.”
About health insurance/insurers
Health Insurance Coverage and Postpartum Outcomes in the US The presence of insurance does not always improve health: “The findings of this systematic review suggest that evidence evaluating insurance coverage and postpartum visit attendance and unplanned care utilization is, at best, of moderate SoE [Strength of evidence]. Future research should evaluate clinical outcomes associated with more comprehensive insurance coverage.”
Humana opens 250th primary care center as it continues to focus on growth “The Medicare Advantage giant has established a multiyear effort to continue scaling CenterWell and expects to open between 30 and 50 centers per year through 2025. In addition to the senior-focused primary care clinics, CenterWell also houses Humana's home health business, another key strategic focus, and is sister to the Conviva Care Center brand.
Collectively, Humana's Primary Care Organization cares for 266,000 seniors across its markets.”
Judge certifies class action in Aetna, Optum 'dummy code' lawsuit “A federal judge in North Carolina certified class action status June 5 in a lawsuit alleging Aetna and OptumHealth Care Solutions conspired to use "dummy code" to make administrative fees appear to be billable medical charges.
The lawsuit, which was originally filed in 2015, alleges the two insurers tricked plaintiff Sandra Peters, other patients similarly situated and their employers into paying administrative fees by disguising them as medical expenses. The lawsuit alleges the defendants violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
Racial, Ethnic, and Payer Disparities in Adverse Safety Events: Are there Differences across Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades? The highlights are on page 6 and are as you would expect; however, this finding was a bit of a surprise:
”Relative to privately insured patients, Medicare patients averaged significantly higher rates of adverse safety events on 10 of 11 PSIs [patient safety indicators]and statistically similar rates on 1 PSI. Relative to privately insured patients, Medicaid patients had significantly higher rates of adverse safety events on 8 of 11 PSIs and statistically similar rates on the remaining 3 PSIs. Again, we observed little pattern between a hospital’s overall letter grade and the size of the difference in adverse safety events between patients with Medicare or Medicaid coverage and those with private insurance.”
About the public’s health
U.S. Gun Violence in 2021 [Published June, 2023] “In 2021, for the second straight year, gun deaths reached the highest number ever recorded. Nearly 49,000 people died from gun violence in the U.S. in 2021. Each day, an average of 134 people died from gun violence—one death every 11 minutes.
Gun homicides continued to rise in 2021, increasing 7.6% over the previous year. Gun suicides reached record levels, increasing 8.3%, the largest one-year increase recorded in over four decades. Guns, once again, were the leading cause of death among children and teens in 2021 accounting for more deaths than COVID-19, car crashes, or cancers.”