About Covid-19
Tax records reveal the lucrative world of covid misinformation “Four major nonprofits that rose to prominence during the coronavirus pandemic by capitalizing on the spread of medical misinformation collectively gained more than $118 million between 2020 and 2022, enabling the organizations to deepen their influence in statehouses, courtrooms and communities across the country, a Washington Post analysis of tax records shows.”
About health insurance/insurers
Who is winning surprise billing disputes? Providers, facilities and air ambulance companies prevailed in 77% of No Surprises Act payment determinations in the first half of 2023.
Certified independent dispute resolution entities made payment determinations in 83,868 disputes during the first six months of 2023, according to a Feb. 15 report from CMS.
Health plans and issuers were the prevailing party in 23% of payment determinations over that span, according to the report.
The prevailing offer was higher than the qualifying payment amount in 82% of cases. Both parties submitted an offer and paid fees in 79% of cases, while only one party submitted an offer and paid fees in 21% of disputes. |
A smaller percentage of disputes were determined to be ineligible in the first half of 2023 (22%) compared to 2022 (46%), the report said. CMS attributed this to process improvement and disputing parties' greater familiarity with eligibility requirements.”
KFF Health Tracking Poll February 2024: Voters on Two Key Health Care Issues: Affordability and ACA Worth reading the entire article, but below are some excerpts:
—“Inflation and health care affordability continue to be the top issues voters want the 2024 presidential candidates to talk about on the campaign trail, and while national news has recently emphasized an improving national economy alongside expanded consumer spending, most voters (67%) rate the national economy as ‘not so good’ or ‘poor.’…
—Unexpected medical bills and health care costs top the list of expenses that adults, regardless of partisanship, say they worry about affording, with three in four adults saying they are ‘very’ or ‘somewhat worried’ about being able to afford unexpected medical bills (74%) or the cost of health care services (73%) for themselves and their family. Just over half (55%) report worrying about being able to afford prescription drug costs, and about half of insured adults (48%) say they are worried about being able to afford their monthly health insurance premium…
—Voters are divided along party lines over which candidate they think has the better approach to the future of the Affordable Care Act, with partisans overwhelmingly choosing their party’s candidate. Nine in ten Democratic voters (90%) say Biden has the better approach and nine in ten Republican voters (91%) say Trump does. Although the vast majority of Republicans say Trump has a better approach to the ACA, few (30%) Republican voters think Trump has a health care plan to replace it…”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
Rule cuts Medicaid DSH pay for some safety-net hospitals “…some safety-net hospitals will receive lower Medicaid disproportionate share hospital [DSH] payments under a final rule…” The rule '“sets new restrictions on how Medicaid DSH payments are calculated and distributed, carrying out a congressional directive from the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. ”Previously, “hospitals determined their Medicaid shortfalls – the gaps between reimbursements and costs – by estimating annual treatment costs for patients with Medicaid alone and those with other additional forms of coverage, such as Medicare or private health insurance.” Under the new rule, “hospitals will only be able to account for patients with Medicaid as their primary payer.”
About the public’s health
Outcomes of Breast Cancer Screening Strategies Based on Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network Estimates [CISNET] “Estimates from CISNET 2023 showed that annual screening ages 40–79 years improved breast cancer mortality reduction compared with biennial screening ages 50–74 years and biennial screening ages 40–74 years (41.7%, 25.4%, and 30%, respectively). Annual screening ages 40–79 years averted the most breast cancer deaths (11.5 per 1000) and gained the most life-years (230 per 1000) compared with other screening scenarios (range, 6.7–11.5 per 1000 and 121–230 per 1000, respectively). False-positive screening results per examination were less than 10% for all screening scenarios (range, 6.5%–9.6%) and lowest for annual screening ages 40–79 years (6.5%). Benign biopsies per examination were less than 1.33% for all screening scenarios (range, 0.88%–1.32%) and lowest for annual screening ages 40–79 years (0.88%).
Conclusion CISNET 2023 modeling estimates indicate that annual breast cancer screening starting at 40 years of age provides the greatest benefit to women and the least risk per examination.”
Ambitious survey of human diversity yields millions of undiscovered genetic variants “Analyses of up to 245,000 genomes gathered by the All of Us programme, run by the US National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, have uncovered more than 275 million new genetic markers, nearly 150 of which might contribute to type 2 diabetes. The work has also identified gaps in genetics research on non-white populations. The findings were published on 19 February in a package of papers in Nature1,2, Communications Biology3 and Nature Medicine4.”
CARDIOVASCULAR CONDITIONS IN 2024 A really good monograph on cardiovascular epidemiology.
About healthcare IT
Teladoc forecasts slower growth in saturated telehealth market, focuses on boosting bottom line “Teladoc offered a weaker-than-expected forecast for 2024, projecting slower revenue growth as the telehealth market has become crowded with digital health players.
The virtual care giant pulled in $661 million in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2024, up 4% from $638 million in the same period a year ago. Access fees revenue grew 4% to $574 million, and other revenue grew 3% to $87 million. U.S. revenue grew 2% to $565 million, and international revenue grew 15% to $96 million.”
Lawmakers introduce patient-matching bill for EHRs “U.S. lawmakers introduced bipartisan legislation Feb. 16 to better match patients with their EHRs…
The legislation aims to improve the standardization of patients' demographics inputted into certified health IT products and form an anonymous, voluntary system to analyze patient match rates. The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, HIMSS, and the American Health Information Management Association all expressed their support for the bill.”
Comment: The easiest way to accomplish this goal is assigning unique patient identifiers they can use across systems. However, our fear of security has prevented doing so. Recall all entities in the healthcare system have unique identifiers—except patients.
About health technology
Elon Musk says Neuralink patient can control computer mouse with mind “‘"[The] patient seems to have made a full recovery with no ill effects that we are aware of and is able to control the mouse, move the mouse around the screen just by thinking,’ Mr. Musk said during a live audio Spaces session on social media platform X.”
About healthcare finance
Amazon to replace Walgreens in Dow Jones Industrial Average “The index change, which was announced after the market close on Tuesday, was prompted by Walmart Inc.’s decision to split its stock 3-to-1, the index provider said in the release. The latter move will reduce Walmart’s index weight due to the price weighted construction of the Dow. Walmart will remain in the index. The change will go into effect prior to the open of trading on Monday, Feb. 26.”