"I don't mind that you think slowly but I do mind that you are publishing faster than you think."
- Wolfgang Pauli, physicist, Nobel laureate
About Covid-19
Choice of arm for second Covid jab could influence immune response, new research says “… those immunised on the same side, or ipsilaterally, generated more antibodies against the virus than those who got jabbed on the opposite side, or contralaterally.
Further, median levels of CD8 T-cells generated in response to the spike-protein of the coronavirus were found to be significantly lower in those contralaterally vaccinated.
Meanwhile, after contralateral vaccination, 43% of individuals were found to have detectable levels of CD8 T-cells, compared to 67% after ipsilateral vaccination.”
About health insurance/insurers
UnitedHealth gets provisional OK to acquire UK company “The U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority has given UnitedHealth a provisional OK in response to the company's proposed acquisition of the health technology firm EMIS Group.
Bordeaux UK Holdings II — a unit of UnitedHealth's Optum business — agreed to acquire the U.K.-based EMIS Group in January 2022 in a $1.51 billion deal. The Competition and Markets Authority began investigating the proposed merger in January and referred the deal for an in-depth investigation in March.
NYC judge blocks $15B Aetna Medicare Advantage contract for city retirees “A state Supreme Court judge has permanently blocked the implementation of New York City's plan to switch 250,000 retired city employees from traditional Medicare to an Aetna Medicare Advantage plan.”
Healthcare billing fraud: 12 recent cases FYI
UnitedHealth was Q2's most profitable payer. Here's what its rivals earned FYI
DOJ taking a closer look at UnitedHealth's $3.3B bid for Amedisys “The Department of Justice (DOJ) is requesting more information from Amedisys regarding its proposed $3.3 billion deal to be acquired by UnitedHealth Group, which pushes back the timing of the deal.”
Vermont All-Payer ACO Successfully Drove Down Costs, Acute Care Over 4 Years “In PY4 [Performance Year 4], the net ACO impact on Medicare spending was –9.7%. The cumulative impact through PY4 was –5.7%. The net state impact on Medicare spending was –13.3% in PY4 with a cumulative impact over 4 years of –9.7%. Over the first 4 years, the model was associated with a cumulative gross reduction in Medicare spending of $1177 per beneficiary per year and a net reduction of $1143 per beneficiary per year.
Primary care and evaluation and management (E&M) visits were up 17.3% in the ACO analysis and 17.0% in the state analysis. Acute care stays were down 10.0% in the ACO analysis and 18.7% in the state analysis. Specialty care E&M visits were down 27.2% in the ACO analysis and 25.8% in the state analysis.”
About pharma
Popular weight-loss drugs like Wegovy may raise risk of complications under anesthesia “Some anesthesiologists in the U.S. and Canada say they’ve seen growing numbers of patients on the weight-loss drugs who inhaled food and liquid into their lungs while sedated because their stomachs were still full — even after following standard instructions to stop eating for six to eight hours in advance.
The drugs can slow digestion so much that it puts patients at increased risk for the problem, called pulmonary aspiration…”
About the public’s health
Associations of Oral Contraceptive Use With Cardiovascular Disease and All‐Cause Death: Evidence From the UK Biobank Cohort Study “OC use was not associated with an increased risk of CVD events and all‐cause death in women and may even produce an apparent net benefit. In addition, the beneficial effects appeared to be more apparent in participants with longer durations of use.”
About healthcare IT
HCA notifies 11 million patients affected in data breach “Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare is sending out letters to patients affected in a July data breach.
In a filing with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the health system said that 11.27 million patients were affected in the breach. After the data breach, HCA sent emails to the affected patients, according to an Aug. 14 HCA Healthcare news release.
The data, stolen from an external storage location, includes:
Patient name, city, state and ZIP code
Patient email, telephone number, date of birth and gender
Patient service date, location and next appointment date”