Hospital Ownership Data; Plus, Novavax Reveals Covid/Flu Vaccine Preliminary Results

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The Biden administration released new data on hospital and nursing house possession on Wednesday in a bid to extend transparency and promote competitors, particularly amongst organizations that obtain Medicare and Medicaid funding. Between 2016 and 2021, greater than 3,000 expert nursing services modified possession and there have been 347 possession modifications amongst hospitals.

The analysis doesn’t take any sturdy stands, but it surely means that policymakers and researchers may use the information to higher assess how possession impacts high quality of care. For instance, one of many causes for enhancing transparency is the surge in non-public fairness funding in nursing properties, whereby companies have purchased the actual property and leased-back the ability to the unique house owners with a markup, which some research have proven diminished high quality and elevated morality.

There was additionally huge variation primarily based on geography. South Carolina noticed possession modifications at 73 of its hospitals, or 19.2%, whereas nearly all of states noticed modifications at 4% or much less. Kentucky, New Jersey, and Connecticut additionally had charges above 10%. “Hospital and nursing facility consolidation leaves many underserved areas with insufficient or costlier well being care choices,” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure stated in an announcement.

Examine Suggests Telemedicine Failed To Counter Healthcare Disparities Throughout The Pandemic

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Telemedicine has typically been touted as an advance which is able to assist scale back disparities in entry to care, however a brand new examine led by researchers on the College of Houston Faculty of Medication means that this has not been the case all through the pandemic. General, nearly 1 / 4 of one million medical visits had been analyzed from 67,733 sufferers, with the analysis discovering that African People had been 35% much less seemingly to make use of telemedicine than white People. Hispanic individuals had been 51% much less seemingly than white individuals to have a telemedicine go to and Asian individuals and American Indian/Alaska Natives and Pacific Islanders had been additionally much less seemingly to make use of telemedicine. The examine concluded a number of components had been liable for these disparities, together with lack of entry to applied sciences that are required for telehealth appointments. Learn extra right here.

Offers Of The Week

Writing New Genes: Tessara Therapeutics, which was based by Flagship Pioneering, has raised a series C round of over $300 million, bringing its whole funding to over $500 million. The corporate’s growing what it calls a “gene writing” platform, aiming to alter the genome with out utilizing Crispr or breaking DNA strands.

Healthcare Staffing: Clipboard Well being, a staffing market that matches nurses and nursing assistants with open shifts at healthcare services, raised $80 million over two rounds bringing the corporate’s valuation to $1.3 billion. The Collection C was led by Sequoia Capital and the Collection B by IVP. Clipboard says it has tens of hundreds of customers and greater than a thousand services throughout 30 U.S. cities.

Mainstreaming Glucose Monitoring: Ranges, an organization that mixes a steady glucose monitor with software program to observe how weight loss program impacts well being, has raised a $38 million Series A at a $300 million valuation. The corporate is betting that people who find themselves not insulin dependent might be prepared to put on the system to change their diets and make higher decisions as a safety measure – lengthy earlier than prediabetes or diabetes units in. The spherical was a mix of particular person founders and operator buyers, crowdfunding and a16z. The product is at the moment out there to a beta neighborhood of 25,000 paying members and the funding will go in direction of making it commercially out there.

Noteworthy

Well being insurer Anthem’s first quarter income reached $1.8 billion because of sturdy enrollment in its Medicaid and Medicare Benefit plans. UnitedHealth Group final week reported $5 billion in revenue within the first quarter led by its Optum well being expertise enterprise and Medicare Benefit progress.

An Ohio physician accused of giving lethal fentanyl prescriptions to 14 critically ailing sufferers discovered not responsible.

Kansas is the twenty sixth state to permit nurse practitioners to apply independently.

Almost 6.2 million sufferers are ready for non-urgent hospital procedures in England, based on new figures from the U.Okay.’s Nationwide Well being Service.

Coronavirus Updates

A new examine reveals that sufferers who’ve been hospitalized with Covid-19 related pneumonia usually tend to develop dementia than sufferers who’ve been hospitalized for different forms of pneumonia. The examine of over 20,000 sufferers revealed that dementia was about 18% extra seemingly in these instances and as excessive as 28% for individuals over the age of 70. A small threat of growing dementia was even current in individuals beneath the age of 35 hospitalized with Covid pneumonia. The median time between the pneumonia and onset of dementia was about 182 days. This is only one of a number of avenues of analysis exhibiting that Covid infections can have an effect on the mind, similar to harm to the cells related to the sense of scent or improvement of blood clots within the mind.

It’s not simply the mind, both. Shifting into yr three of the pandemic it’s clear that Covid can have a number of impacts on the physique. For instance, Covid infections are linked to the formation of retinal vascular occlusions, which might trigger sudden imaginative and prescient loss. A Covid an infection throughout being pregnant greater than doubles the danger of extreme being pregnant issues, together with stillbirths. Covid infections seem to extend the danger of coronary heart illness, even in gentle instances, and even improve the danger of youngsters growing diabetes. That’s not even entering into the problems associated to lengthy Covid. The excellent news is that for a lot of of those Covid-related situations, the danger goes down considerably with vaccination.

U.S. Covid-19 Cases Top 7-Day Average Of 100,000 For First Time Since February

Biden Says ‘Everybody Should Be Concerned’ About Monkeypox

Novavax Claims Constructive Outcomes From Early Trials Of Mixture Covid/Flu Vaccine

Its vaccines use nanoparticles that mimic proteins from the coronavirus or influenza virus.

Getty Pictures

On Wednesday, Maryland-based vaccine producer Novavax launched preliminary outcomes from an early scientific section examine of its mixture Covid/flu vaccine. The outcomes discovered that the mixture vaccine produced immune responses in sufferers that had been comparable with these of its stand-alone flu and Covid vaccines. The corporate additionally discovered the vaccine formulation to be protected, with principally gentle uncomfortable side effects. Learn extra right here.

Different Coronavirus Information

Abbott Laboratories first quarter income eclipsed $2.4 billion because of a surge in gross sales of Covid-19 diagnostic assessments as a result of Omicron variant.

Publicity to air air pollution would possibly improve the probability of contracting Covid-19, based on a brand new examine that provides to a rising physique of analysis demonstrating the function air high quality performs within the pandemic.

The DOJ introduced expenses in opposition to 21 defendants accused of taking part in pandemic fraud schemes starting from making counterfeit vaccination playing cards to promoting pretend homeopathic Covid-19 cures, allegedly leaving the federal authorities with greater than $149 million in losses

About 87% of youngsters hospitalized with Covid-19 when the omicron variant was dominant had been unvaccinated, based on a examine launched Tuesday by the CDC.

The Transportation Safety Administration has dropped a masks mandate for its staff and can now not report what number of of its staff are actively contaminated with Covid.