About Covid-19
Covid death toll in US likely 16% higher than official tally, study says “The Covid death toll in the US is likely at least 16% higher than the official tally, according to a new study, and researchers believe the cause of the undercounting goes beyond overloaded health systems to a lack of awareness of Covid and low levels of testing.
The second year of the pandemic also had nearly as many uncounted excess deaths as the first, the study found.”
Study shows 43% to 58% lower prevalence of long COVID among vaccinated people “A new study based on 4,605 participants in the Michigan COVID-19 Recovery Surveillance Study shows that the prevalence of long COVID symptoms at 30 and 90 days post-infection was 43% to 58% lower among adults who were fully vaccinated before infection.”
About health insurance/insurers
Former CMS administrator: 'I would like to see Medicare Advantage slowed or stopped' The headline is more dramatic than the interview, which is a more nuanced and thoughtful conversation with Donald Berwick, MD, MPP.
False Claim Act settlements, judgements hit record high in 2023 “There were a record high 543 False Claims Act settlements and judgements in 2023, according to a Feb. 22 Justice Department news release…More than $1.8 billion of those judgements and settlements involved the healthcare industry.
The $1.8 billion reflects recoveries arising only from federal losses, but the Justice Department was also instrumental in recovering additional funds for state Medicaid programs, according to the report.”
In a related story:Pharmacy owners, doctors, marketers charged in alleged Texas-wide kickback scheme
In-network insurance claims jumped after surprise billing ban took effect “FAIR Health used its database of roughly 42 billion commercial insurance claims to examine in-network claims between 2019 and the third quarter of 2023, capturing the period before and after enactment of the No Surprises Act and surprise billing laws in multiple states.
During that period, the share of in-network care increased from about 84% of all claims to 90% of claims nationally.
There was a particularly steep increase of 2.3% between the fourth quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022, when the federal protections took effect.”
What Do Medicare Beneficiaries Value About Their Coverage? From The Commonwealth Fund:
“Survey Highlights
Whether enrolled in Medicare Advantage or traditional Medicare, about two in three beneficiaries overall said their coverage has fully met their expectations. Those who said it fell short of expectations pointed to a lack of coverage for needed services, high costs, or uncertainty about what benefits are covered.
Larger shares of beneficiaries in MA plans than in traditional Medicare reported they experienced delays in getting care because of the need to obtain prior approval (22% vs. 13%) and couldn’t afford care because of copayments or deductibles (12% vs. 7%). By other metrics, access to needed health care was similar. For example, more than a third of beneficiaries in each type of Medicare coverage said they had to wait over a month to see a doctor.
Three in five beneficiaries in MA plans and one-quarter in traditional Medicare said they were asked to undergo a health assessment, which most frequently resulted in a discussion with their doctor. Few said it resulted in any changes to their care plan or in more services or benefits being offered.
Seven in 10 beneficiaries in MA said they used some of their plan’s supplemental benefits in the past year; three in 10 did not use any. Four in 10 reported using their dental or vision benefits or an allowance for over-the-counter medications.”
About hospitals and healthcare systems
Community Health Systems discloses DOJ investigation “Community Health Systems (CHS) disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it is being investigated by the Department of Justice.
The company received a Civil Investigative Demand on Jan. 11 ‘for documents and information relating to a variety of subjects, including practices and procedures related to utilization review, inpatient admissions and inpatient dialysis at our hospitals,’ according to its Form 10-K, released Wednesday.”
About pharma
Pharmacies across America are having trouble processing some prescriptions because of a cyberattack “ Pharmacies across the United States are reporting that they are having difficulty getting prescriptions to patients because of a cyberattack on a unit of UnitedHealth.
The company said in a regulatory filing Thursday its Change Healthcare business, which processes prescriptions to insurance for tens of thousands of pharmacies nationwide, was compromised by hackers who gained access to some of its systems. The company became aware of the cyberattack Wednesday, and, in a separate statement, said it expected the attack to last at least throughout the day Thursday.
The cyberattack prevented some pharmacies from processing prescriptions to insurance companies to receive payment.”
Long-term CAR-T data bolsters autoimmune argument “After stealing the show at December’s American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting with promising early data of lupus patients treated with CAR-T cell therapy, a team of German scientists has now published updated results in the NEJM that suggest the one-time treatment can lead to sustained remission for patients with several autoimmune diseases.
At 29 months of follow-up, all eight patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) had no signs of disease activity.”
About the public’s health
This article gets the poor wording award: Families of Infertile Men Face Higher Cancer Risks
Variability and patterns in children's media use and links with language development “The current study examines how and why young children are using media and its association with language development. It is clear that media use, especially video watching, is pervasive even by 17–30 months. Children at this age reportedly watch an average of nearly 2 hours of video each day, compared to an hour of reading. This is a 100% increase from prior estimates. Moreover, children with high video watching (but not other media) had lower vocabulary.”
Air pollution tied to signs of Alzheimer’s in brain tissue, study finds “For the study, published this week in the journal Neurology, researchers examined the association between concentrations of ambient air pollution and signs of Alzheimer’s disease in the human brain. They found that people who were exposed to higher concentrations of fine particulate matter air pollution, also known as PM2.5, at least a year before their death were more likely to have higher levels of plaques — abnormal clusters of protein fragments built up between nerve cells, which is a sign of Alzheimer’s in brain tissue. The research also found a strong association between the pollution and signs of the disease for people who were not already genetically predisposed to Alzheimer’s.”
Deadly opioid detected in wastewater for the first time “University of Queensland researchers and international collaborators have found a deadly synthetic drug in wastewater in the United States – the first such detection globally.
Dr Richard Bade from UQ’s Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences led a team which analysed wastewater samples from eight locations in seven US states: Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington.
Dr Bade said wastewater from two of the sites, in Illinois and Washington, recorded a type of opioid called protonitazene.
‘Protonitazene is a novel synthetic opioid around three times more potent than fentanyl, and even very small amounts can produce life-threatening toxic effects,’ Dr Bade said.”
Florida surgeon general defies science amid measles outbreak “As a Florida elementary school tries to contain a growing measles outbreak, the state’s top health official is giving advice that runs counter to science and may leave unvaccinated children at risk of contracting one of the most contagious pathogens on Earth, clinicians and public health experts said.
Florida surgeon general Joseph A. Ladapo failed to urge parents to vaccinate their children or keep unvaccinated students home from school as a precaution in a letter to parents at the Fort Lauderdale-area school this week following six confirmed measles cases.
Instead of following what he acknowledged was the “normal” recommendation that parents keep unvaccinated children home for up to 21 days — the incubation period for measles — Ladapo said the state health department “is deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance.”
About healthcare IT
AHIP, AMA and employer groups team up to accelerate digital health adoption “Fourteen organizations representing providers, payers, consumer technology companies and employers are teaming up to cut through the noise and raise higher standards for finding digital health solutions that work and are worth the investment.
The new Digital Health Collaborative, supported by the Peterson Health Technology Institute, brings together provider groups, purchasers and end users and initial work will focus on pulling together a national purchaser survey, grantmaking and convenings, the organization said.
The Peterson Health Technology Institute formed in July 2023, armed with $50 million in funding, to evaluate digital health technologies and help cut through the hype to identify innovations that actually benefit patients. PHTI focused on providing independent, evidence-based assessments of emerging products, something that is currently lacking in the market.”
About health technology
Study shows a frontline Alzheimer’s blood test could be as accurate as spinal fluid exams “The researchers—some of whom previously worked with the Washington University’s spinout C2N Diagnostics…and developer of the PrecivityAD blood tests for Alzheimer’s—say this new assay is capable of performing on par with PET scans and analyses of cerebrospinal fluid by picking out the tau and amyloid beta proteins in plasma that are associated with the neurodegenerative disease.”