DCMedical News: Friday, June 12, 2020
DCMedical News-DCMN
Washington, D.C.
Friday, June 12, 2020
DCMedical News is published every day both the House and the Senate are in session and on pre-pandemic Regularly Scheduled Session days (see CQ calendar, below).
THE BIG STORY IN HEALTH CARE
Coronavirus News: (reference pages below under Reading & References)
Tracking by Johns Hopkins shows on 6-11 at 8:00 p.m. EST worldwide 7,487,676 confirmed cases; 420,236 deaths worldwide; 113,774 U.S. deaths (27%). Time lapse: University of Iowa College of Public Health graphs time lapse (here) day by day COVID-19 cases in metro and non-metro U.S. counties, January-June.
COVID-19 and Society
Spreading Coronavirus in the U.S.
The Financial Times reports (here) that “The seven US states that reported the highest number of new coronavirus cases on Thursday were in the south and west of the country . . . Most of those seven states showed increases that were at or near all-time highs, including Florida, which reported 1,698 new positive tests over a 24-hour period, a one-day record. New daily cases in Florida have exceeded 1,000 for eight of the past 10 days, compared with a rate of just over 600 a month ago. The prospect of a new wave of cases . . . has spooked investors, sending the benchmark S&P 500 down nearly 6 per cent [and the DJIA nearly 7%] in Thursday trading.”
Health Care Companies Fare Badly
Seeking Alpha reports that health and hospital companies are (so far) “losers on COVID-19 doubts.” “Hospital groups are solidly in the red, leading the selloff in the healthcare sector, on concerns about reopening amid more reports of rising COVID-19-related hospitalizations. Selected tickers: Universal Health Services (UHS -6.6%), Surgery Partners (SGRY -15.2%), SunLink Health Systems (SSY -1.3%), Select Medical Holdings (SEM -9.0%), Tenet Healthcare (THC -8.5%), Community Health Systems (CYH -3.5%), HCA Healthcare (HCA -5.9%), Humana (HUM -3.1%), iShares U.S. Healthcare Providers ETF (IHF -3.7%).”
HOSPITALS, NURSING HOMES AND OTHER HEALTH CARE FACILITIES
Safety Net Bailout Money ($10 Billion) Distributed, but Timing of Receipt Uncertain
HHS announced (here) “the distribution of $10 billion in Provider Relief Funds to . . . hospitals that serve a disproportionate number of Medicaid patients or provide large amounts of uncompensated care. Qualifying hospitals will have: A Medicare Disproportionate Payment Percentage (DPP) of 20.2 percent or greater; Average Uncompensated Care per bed of $25,000 or more. For example, a hospital with 100 beds would need to provide $2,500,000 in Uncompensated Care in a year to meet this requirement; Profitability of 3 percent or less, as reported to CMS in its most recently filed Cost Report. Recipients will receive a minimum distribution of $5 million and a maximum distribution of $50 million.” Becker’s lists state-by-state totals of hospitals and amounts here.
National Trends in the Safety Performance of Electronic Health Record Systems From 2009 to 2018
Not good. A report in JAMA Network (here) says “These findings suggest that despite broad adoption and optimization of EHR systems in hospitals, wide variation in the safety performance of operational EHR systems remains across a large sample of hospitals and EHR vendors . . . Overall, substantial safety risk persists in current hospital EHR systems.”
UHS Faulted in UK Scandal
Penn Little reports in Seeking Alpha (here) on a BBC video of alleged mental health abuses in Universal Health Services facilities in the United Kingdom, under the brand Cygnet. He writes: “A startling, disturbing, and graphic video of patient abuse at a UHS hospital in the U.K. was released last Wednesday in the U.K. UHS, which came under intense scrutiny in 2016, is facing similar abuse allegation in the U.S. Members of Parliament speak out. Arrests began last Friday morning, according to the Independent.”
MEDICARE, MEDICAID AND COMMERCIAL HEALTH INSURANCE
RWJ Study Finds Medicaid Expansion Likely with High Unemployment
A May study from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (here) finds likely Medicaid enrollment increases. The report says “Steep increases in Medicaid coverage will strain state budgets . . . To help blunt this, current legislation has already enhanced the federal matching rate for Medicaid financing.” Other steps which would help, according to the report: “Second, finally taking up the Medicaid expansion in non-expansion states, enhancing marketplace subsidies and providing COBRA subsidies for former employees could mitigate much of the large increases in the number of uninsured. . . Third, it will be critical to provide sufficient outreach and enrollment efforts to maximize enrollment among those who become newly eligible for Medicaid/CHIP and marketplace subsidies and ensure adequate resources for eligibility systems and workers so they can address the surge in applications.” State by state estimates on table 4. The National Association of Medicaid Directors addresses the subject here.
DRUGS & DEVICES
FDA Walks Back Testimony on Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) from China, India
Bloomberg Health Law and Business reports (here) that the FDA gave inaccurate testimony in a Senate hearing on how much API comes from China and India, having referred erroneously to the number of facilities involved, not the volume of drugs. In fact, the FDA says it doesn’t know the volume.
READINGS & REFERENCES
The National Academy of Sciences, “Shorter Lives, Poorer Health,” from 2013, here.
Coronavirus Public Health Resources and References (alphabetical):
Association of American Medical Colleges Clinical Guidance Repository, here.
AMA resource page for physicians here. AMA guide to medical education and COVID-19, here.
American Public Health Association information here.
CDC information page for professionals here, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports on Coronavirus, here.
CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) Current Emergencies website, here.
Council of State Governments, here.
JAMA Network’s COVID-19 resource center here.
Library of Congress Coronavirus Research Guide, (here) from the In Custodia Legis blog of the Library of Congress (LoC), with links to Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports.
NIH information page here.
National Library of Medicine Coronavirus page here,
New England Journal of Medicine update here, New England Journal of Medicine Journal Watch here.
The Lancet COVID-19 Resource Centre here and real-time dashboard to monitor clinical trials, here.
The New York Times Coronavirus coverage, here.
State actions, Kaiser Family Foundation, here.
UC Hastings College of Law’s “The Source” (on health care prices and competition) COVID-19 page, here.
The White House open research dataset (CORD-19) here.
World Health Organization COVID-19 page here.
U.S. House of Representatives:
Members at https://www.house.gov/representatives
Committees and Members at https://www.house.gov/committees
U. S. Senate:
Committees and Members at https://www.senate.gov/committees
CQ 2020 Calendar of Regularly Scheduled Sessions, here.
PUBLICATION SCHEDULE FOR DCMEDICAL NEWS
June 15, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 26
July 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31
August, none
Notes to: Fred Hyde, MD, JD, MBA; fredhyde@aol.com.