About Covid-19
Gene variant may be why some test positive for virus with no covid symptoms “During the nine-month study period, 1,428 unvaccinated individuals reported a positive coronavirus test, and 136 of them had no symptoms. Among the asymptomatic participants, 20 percent carried a common HLA variant called HLA-B*15:01. People carrying two copies of this variant — one passed down from each parent — were more than eight times more likely to remain asymptomatic than those carrying other HLA variants.”
About health insurance/insurers
2 brothers plead guilty to roles in $67M Medicare fraud scheme “Daniel M. Carver owned and managed call centers that he used to target Medicare beneficiaries, talking the individuals into paying for unnecessary genetic testing and durable medical equipment, the DOJ said. Meanwhile, his brother, Louis, worked the phones at the call centers and pretended to own a laboratory where false genetic testing claims were submitted, according to the release.”
Comment: When did you last hear about such fraud occurring with a private insurance company?
Elevance Health grows profits 13.2% in Q2, reaching $1.9B “The company reported $1.6 billion in the prior year quarter, according to its earnings report released Wednesday morning. Revenues also grew by double digits, increasing by 13% to $43.7 billion in the second quarter from $38.6 billion in the second quarter of 2022. The results both surpassed Wall Street's expectations, according to Zacks Investment Research.”
Comment: Despite the resumption of pre-Covid elective procedures, insurance companies continue to be very profitable.
About pharma
Cost Plus Drugs could be selling drugs to hospitals by this fall “Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co. plans to be selling drugs to hospitals and clinics by September or October, the company's CEO and co-founder Alex Oshmyansky, MD, PhD, told Dallas-based D Magazine.
The pharmaceutical company launched its mail-order pharmacy services in January 2022 with about 100 drugs. It now sells more than 1,000 generics and 10 brand-name medications, has a network of independent pharmacies spanning 38 states, and partners with pharmacy benefit managers and Capital Blue Cross.”
About the public’s health
They're illegal. So why is it so easy to buy the disposable vapes favored by teens? A very informative piece from NPR. Read the entire article. One interesting fact: “Nearly all the world's e-cigarettes — 90% — come from factories in Shenzhen, China…”
Extreme heat drives $1B in excess healthcare utilization per year, study estimates “The study—released online Monday and currently being submitted for publication in a scientific journal—found between 2016 and 2020 an average of roughly 234,000 excess emergency department visits across the country tied to heat event days. Excess hospital admissions averaged just over 56,000, according to the study conducted by Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan public policy advocacy group.”
Comment: Another cost of global warming.
Screening for Lipid Disorders in Children and AdolescentsUpdated Evidence Report and Systematic Review for the US Preventive Services Task Force “No direct evidence on the benefits or harms of pediatric lipid screening was identified. While multifactorial dyslipidemia is common, no evidence was found that treatment is effective for this condition. In contrast, FH [familial hypercholesterolemia] is relatively rare; evidence shows that statins reduce lipid levels in children with FH, and observational studies suggest that such treatment has long-term benefit for this condition.”
About healthcare IT
Teladoc doubles down on Microsoft partnership to bring AI, voice tech into telehealth visits “Teladoc and Microsoft teamed up in 2021, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, to streamline the technology and administrative processes associated with virtual care and integrate the company's Solo enterprise platform within Microsoft Teams.
The company is taking that collaboration a step further and leveraging Microsoft's 2022 acquisition of speech recognition tech company Nuance to bring Azure OpenAI Service, Azure Cognitive Services and the Nuance Dragon Ambient eXperience into its virtual care solution for hospitals and health systems.”
About healthcare personnel
Should nurses with doctorates be called doctor? Lawsuit targets Calif. rule. “…last month, Palmer and two other nurses with doctorates of nursing practice sued the California attorney general and leaders of the Medical Board of California and California Board of Registered Nursing, arguing that they have a right to call themselves doctors. The lawsuit seeks to permanently prevent the state from enforcing the law.”
Comment: Physician Assistants are still lobbying to change their designation to Physician Associates.
Association of Established Primary Care Use With Postoperative Mortality Following Emergency General Surgery ProceduresAbout health technology “Question Is preoperative primary care utilization associated with postoperative mortality following an emergency general surgery operation?
Findings In this cohort study of 102 384 Medicare patients, those with preoperative primary care exposure had significantly lower rates of in-hospital, 30-day, 60-day, 90-day, and 180-day mortality following an emergency general surgery operation.
Meaning Preoperative primary care utilization was associated with lower odds of postoperative mortality; this protective association may be due to improved diagnosis and management of medical comorbidities.”
About healthcare technology
Medtronic Recalls Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators (ICDs) and Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Defibrillators (CRT-Ds) with Glassed Feedthrough for Risk of Low or No Energy Output During High Voltage Therapy The story is in the headline from the FDA. Other news media estimate there are 350,000 units subject to the recall.