DCMedical News: Thursday, July 30, 2020
DCMedical News-DCMN
Washington, D.C.
Thursday, July 30, 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). New resource: National Conference of State Legislatures, an interactive guide to what states have done (by category, health, education, etc.) with Coronavirus relief funds, here. Also, the AAMC publishes (report here, summary here) a guide to “reset” the U.S. approach to the pandemic.
THE BIG STORY IN HEALTH CARE
Tracking by Johns Hopkins shows on 7-29 at 8:00 p.m. EST worldwide 16,849,365 confirmed COVID-19 cases; 662,738 deaths worldwide; 150,159 U.S. deaths (22.6%). Former CDC chief Frieden and his “Resolve to Save Lives” group on mis- and under-reporting, here, with British Medical Journal commentary on the Frieden report here.
The Federal Reserve at Work: The Financial Times reports (here) on the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting, which includes this statement “The path of the economy will depend significantly on the course of the virus.”
The Congress at Work: CQ reports (here) that “Congressional leaders and the Trump administration remained at a standstill on COVID-19 aid negotiations Wednesday despite the U.S. hitting a grim milestone with 150,000 deaths and millions out of work.” The Hill reports (here) that COVID-19 is “poised to be the third-leading cause of death this year, behind only heart disease and cancer. It has already killed more people in the United States than the number of Union soldiers who died in the Civil War . . .The number of new cases confirmed on a daily basis has topped 50,000 on all but two days of the month. The United States is conducting more than 750,000 tests every day, and many of the new cases being identified are among people who show no or few symptoms . . . More than 57,000 people are hospitalized, according to figures released by state health departments and collected by the COVID Tracking Project, an independent group of researchers. More than 1,000 people have died on seven of the past eight days.”
What do We Know About School Reopenings? A Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center group reports (here) in JAMA that “Between March 9, 2020, and May 7, 2020, school closure in the US was temporally associated with decreased COVID-19 incidence and mortality; states that closed schools earlier, when cumulative incidence of COVID-19 was low, had the largest relative reduction in incidence and mortality.” The group cautions that “It remains possible that some of the reduction may have been related to other concurrent nonpharmaceutical interventions.” CDC guidelines on school reopening (from March) here. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NAS) report on school reopening here, opinion piece (viewpoint) from the NAS Committee leaders in JAMA here, JAMA editorial on the NAS report, here. Guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics, here.
DOCTORS, NURSES AND OTHER HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS
Surprise “Surprise Billing” Report from HHS
The Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation issued a report (here) on surprise (out-of-network) medical billing, quickly endorsed (here) by key legislators although the ASPE document proposed no specific legislative solution, nor did the “bipartisan” legislator group. The legislators expressed support for a “transparent, market-based solution that will lower patients’ premiums and will not interfere with strong protections states already have in place. It’s time for Congress to solve this problem for the American people.”
HOSPITALS, NURSING HOMES AND OTHER HEALTH CARE FACILITIES
More Than Just a Loan
CNBC reports (here) that “Hospitals want Congress to forgive $100 billion in accelerated Medicare payments made earlier this year as part of coronavirus relief aid that must be repaid starting next month,” in fact beginning (as reductions in ongoing Medicare payments) August 1.
CYH, Sometimes Given Up for Dead, Shows Q2 Profit, Positive Cash Flow
Community Health Systems (ticker CYH) reported on its second quarter of 2020 (here) with 10 fewer hospitals (compared to the same 2019 period) (1) a $70 million operating profit (compared to a $167 million loss for the same 2019 time period), largely due to $448 million in pandemic CARES act funds, and (2) $1.7 billion in operating cash flow largely due to the $1.2 billion Medicare advance (see story above). Earnings call transcript from Seeking Alpha here, slide deck here.
DRUGS & DEVICES
Scientists Fear Rush to Vaccine Approval, Delay in Testing Results
Kaiser Health News reports (here) on the possible shortcomings in a hasty FDA approval and rush-to-vaccinate, and (here) on COVID-19 test result reporting delays. “The latest fiasco is perhaps the most Kafkaesque: Tests are now widely available in many places, but results are often taking so long to come back that it is more or less pointless to get tested.”
READINGS & REFERENCES
New England Journal of Medicine Begins a New Series on Health Policy
From the introduction, “With this issue, the Journal is launching a brief Perspective series that will provide a primer on both the main challenges facing the U.S. health care system and key policy solutions that can address those challenges. The first article in the series [here] describes what we know about U.S. health care today and the policy context for what an engineer might call our ‘perfectly designed system.’”
Illustration from the 2019 OECD comparison of health expenditures per capital and expected life span at birth.
Coronavirus Public Health Resources and References (alphabetical):
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.
The Guardian and Kaiser Health Network, report on health professionals dead from COVID-19, 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.
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.
Reproduction rate (rt), website https://rt.live/ tracks the highest and lowest COVID-19 reproduction.
State actions, Kaiser Family Foundation, here.
UC Hastings College of Law’s “The Source” (on health care prices and competition) COVID-19 page, 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
July 31
August, none
September 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 25, 30
October 1, 2
Notes to: Fred Hyde, MD, JD, MBA; fredhyde@aol.com.