Category:

With the sudden financial hardship—such as sharp declines in revenues and cash flow due to the cancellation of elective procedures because of the COVID-19 pandemic—a greater number of health systems may fall short of agreements tied to their borrowing compared to prior years...As Moody's Investors Service analysts explain in a report released this week, more hospitals are likely to experience a "technical default," meaning they have not met required covenants connected to their borrowing agreements such as maintaining certain debt service coverage and days cash on hand...Hospitals' revenues have declined by an average of 30% to 40%...READ MORE

Gov. Steve Sisolak announced casinos could reopen June 4. Then the Nevada Gaming Control Board updated its health and safety policy, which outlines requirements aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19. Gaming companies quickly followed suit and unveiled which of their properties would be reopening along with some of the steps they’re taking to protect both workers and guests...But the process hasn’t appeased the powerful Culinary Workers Union Local 226, which represents roughly 60,000 employees who work in casinos-resort properties as guest room attendants, cooks, porters, baristas, bartenders and cashiers, among other roles...READ MORE

After the FDA identified a likely carcinogen in samples of the broadly used diabetes med metformin, recalls appeared likely. Now it's official...The FDA said Thursday it had asked five metformin manufacturers to pull their extended-release metformin products, after pushing recalls of heartburn med Zantac and "sartan" blood pressure drugs for the same reason. A likely human carcinogen, N-Nitrosodimethylamine, was discovered in samples of all three...READ MORE

Months after FDA said it was investigating the carcinogenic ingredient N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) in metformin products, the agency’s testing has found elevated levels of NDMA (N-Nitrosodimethylamine) in extended release (ER) metformin but not in the immediate release (IR) formulation...FDA is contacting companies with ER metformin above the acceptable level and will continue to take quick and appropriate action...READ MORE

Amid worldwide clamor for Covid-19 medicines and vaccines, the European Medicines Agency is being urged by several international clinical evidence experts...to publish all trial data on the same day any product is authorized for use against the novel coronavirus...In a letter to the European regulator, four country directors from the independent watchdog Cochrane and leaders from Germany’s Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care argued that it is critical to promptly release clinical study reports to support further research and proper medical care. The reports are go-to documents that contain myriad details about the methods and results of a clinical trial...READ MORE

The United States has supplied Brazil with 2 million doses of hydroxychloroquine for use against the coronavirus, the two governments said...despite medical warnings about risks associated with the anti-malaria drug...The White House released a joint announcement on the drug, whose use has been touted both by U.S. President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, just days after the World Health Organization suspended testing it in COVID-19 patients because of safety concerns...HCQ will be used as a prophylactic to help defend Brazil’s nurses, doctors and healthcare professionals against the virus. It will also be used as a therapeutic to treat Brazilians who become infected...READ MORE

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned this week that some coronavirus antibody tests are inaccurate and cautioned that even the better tests should not be used to determine who can safely return to work or school...“Suffice to say, CDC is adequately worried about all the junk (antibody) tests that FDA let out on the market,” Mark Pandori, the director of Nevada State Public Health Laboratory, said...The CDC’s guidance comes at a time when public health agencies in Nevada are ramping up to offer the antibody tests to the public...READ MORE

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak has touted open government as a crucial aspect to the state’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak. “You deserve transparency,” he proclaimed during an April 8 news conference, a statement reflecting the Nevada Public Records Act’s promise of open access to most government documents...But records vital to evaluating how Sisolak’s administration and state agencies have navigated the unprecedented emergency have proved difficult to obtain...Even a simple request for daily reports on hospital capacity made in early April, which would have spanned only a few pages at the time, was met with a response from a senior policy analyst in Sisolak’s office to wait “eight to 10 weeks” to receive the record...Among the requested documents that state agencies have delayed in producing or denied access to are the following:

■ Emergency management plans related to disease outbreaks or widespread health emergencies. Officials took more than 40 days to deny the request.

■ Documents tracking testing of prison inmates and staff for COVID-19. Denied by officials after 13 days.

■ Written communications among top prison officials about COVID-19 testing. Officials said they would respond “in the next 45 days.”

■ Records related to Nevada’s government stockpile of personal protective gear for medical workers. Officials said it will take “eight to ten weeks or longer” to compile the documents....READ MORE

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is reducing insulin copays for seniors who are eligible for Medicare via an executive order from President Donald Trump...Participating enhanced Medicare Part D plans in 2021 will provide a broad set of insulins at a maximum $35 copay for a month’s supply of each type of insulin, the White House said in a fact sheet on the new initiative...CMS estimates that beneficiaries could save $446, or 66%, a year for their insulins, the agency said in a press release...READ MORE

The United States will end its relationship with the World Health Organization over the body’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday, accusing the U.N. agency of becoming a puppet of China...The move to quit the Geneva-based body, which the United States formally joined in 1948, comes amid growing tensions between Washington and Beijing over the coronavirus outbreak...Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, Trump said Chinese officials “ignored their reporting obligations” to the WHO about the virus - that has killed hundreds of thousands of people globally - and pressured the agency to “mislead the world.”...READ MORE