Category:

As Covid-19 drives many patients away from in-person care and toward virtual visits, experts warn that the nation’s most vulnerable members may be shut out of the booming telehealth business...Federal policymakers temporarily relaxed regulations to make it easier to provide virtual care during the pandemic, fueling a shift toward telemedicine that has become so popular among patients and providers that there are now a number of proposals to make the changes permanent. Just this week, President Trump signed an executive order that would permanently extend some of those policies...But a pair of new studies published this week show that there are barriers to virtual visits that regulatory changes alone can’t fix...READ MORE

The state joins New York and Minnesota in providing COVID-19 vaccination access through pharmacy...New Hampshire has passed into law authorization for pharmacists to administer vaccinations for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)...once it becomes available...READ MORE

Whether or not the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine helpful in treating patients with COVID-19 has been a topic of debate for months now...“Recommendations of many of the people including doctors. many think it is extremely successful,” the President said...In Reno, one local doctor says the drug has helped several dozen of his patients...“Frankly, everyone that I have treated has gotten better”...Doctor Bruce Fong is Medical Director at Sierra Integrative Medical Center in south Reno. He says when paired with azithromycin and zinc, hydroxychloroquine has been effective...Many of the nation’s top medical experts do not agree, and Fong feels he knows why...“There was nobody bothering us about it and trying to put up regulations about it prior to President Trump saying something about it. It seems like his political enemies try to make him look bad.”...READ MORE

Hospital groups are imploring either the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services or Congress to step in and help providers facing loan repayments happening as soon as Aug. 1...The...deadline has sparked concerns from some experts and hospital groups that worry providers couldn’t afford to lose out on Medicare revenue as they combat revenue losses caused by the pandemic. While the program was intended to be a short-term solution, COVID-19 surges are proving that is not the case for some hospitals...At the onset of the pandemic in March, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services extended the advance payment program, which has been used previously to help providers beset by disasters...CMS had given out $100 billion of loans before suspending the program...The goal behind the program is to help providers stay afloat and was meant to be a short-term solution, as repayment starts 120 days after a provider gets the first payment...READ MORE

Unhappy with the price and availability of Gilead’s remdesivir—the only drug with FDA clearance to treat COVID-19—dozens of state attorney generals have called for the federal government to exercise march-in rights to allow for broader production of the medicine...In a letter to the heads of the FDA, HHS and NIH, 34 attorneys general wrote that Gilead has been unable to ensure “sufficient” supply and has priced the medicine out of reach for many patients who need it. Gilead is charging $3,120 per treatment course for patients with commercial insurance, Medicare or Medicaid, and $2,340 for patients on certain smaller federal programs...READ MORE

As the world awaits a COVID-19 vaccine, the next big advance in battling the pandemic could come from a class of biotech therapies widely used against cancer and other disorders - antibodies designed specifically to attack this new virus...Scientists are still working out the exact role of neutralizing antibodies in recovery from COVID-19, but drugmakers are confident that the right antibodies or a combination can alter the course of the disease...READ MORE

The planned introduction of a wide-ranging bill granting certain businesses enhanced immunity from COVID-19 related death or illness lawsuits has drawn the ire of officials from hospitals and other health care facilities, who say it unfairly opens them up to the threat of lawsuits...the enhanced liability protections envisioned in the bill would be granted to casino resorts, government agencies, nonprofits and other kinds of business while explicitly carving out health care facilities...That exemption...has drawn a sharp rebuke from the Nevada Hospital Association and other health care providers, who say it would prohibit them from transferring patients between facilities or prohibit visitors from coming to visit patients...READ MORE

A recent study suggests that fewer patients sought camcer(sic)-related care as a result of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic...Published in JCO Clinical Care Informatics...the study...measure(d) the effects of the pandemic on normal cancer care activities, including cancer screening efforts...the most significant findings...relate to cancer screening...declines in mammograms and colorectal cancer screenings...According to the investigators, the data indicate underlying trends observed using diagnosis data and suggest a potential increase in the presentation of later-stage disease for newly diagnosed patients in future months...READ MORE

As countries scramble to test for the novel coronavirus, a Chinese company has become a go-to name around the world...BGI Group, described in one 2015 study as “Goliath” in the fast-growing field of genomics research, is using an opening created by the pandemic to expand its footprint globally. In the past six months, it says it has sold 35 million rapid COVID-19 testing kits to 180 countries and built 58 labs in 18 countries. Some of the equipment has been donated by BGI’s philanthropic arm, promoted by China’s embassies in an extension of China’s virus diplomacy...But as well as test kits, the company is distributing gene-sequencing technology that U.S. security officials say could threaten national security. This is a sensitive area globally. Sequencers are used to analyse genetic material, and can unlock powerful personal information...READ MORE

The Trump administration is taking steps to give telehealth a broader role under Medicare, with an executive order that serves as a call for Congress to make doctor visits via personal technology a permanent fixture of the program...The order President Donald Trump signed...applies to one segment of Medicare recipients — people living in rural communities. But administration officials said it’s intended as a signal to Congress that Trump is ready to back significant legislation that would permanently open up telehealth as an option for all people with Medicare...READ MORE