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Despite making significant strides in reducing teenage birth rates, lowering HIV infection rates and diminishing tobacco and alcohol use among young people, Nevada has dropped seven spots in a national ranking of state health outcomes since a statewide assessment was last published in 2019...The 2022 State Health Assessment, published earlier this month, was developed in partnership between Nevada’s Division of Public and Behavioral Health and other health care entities. The report, which is updated every three to five years, is a data-driven resource outlining the state’s health care strengths and challenges and recommending priorities...READ MORE

As the world enters the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare industry faces a variety of ongoing challenges and shifts in delivery of care, according to a new 2022 predictions report...They identified five key predictions for the coming year:

1. Health disparities will negatively impact rural Americans twice as much as urban Americans

2. Labor shortages will double the medication error rate among providers

3. Healthcare will no longer be considered a trusted industry as misinformation and cyberattacks continue

4. Sixty percent of virtual care visits will be related to mental health

5. The number of hospital-at-home providers will triple...READ MORE

Yet, while we’re hyper-focused fighting COVID-19, our country’s opioid epidemic is growing worse...A report released...suggests that overdose deaths have increased due to COVID-19. The Washington Post reported that suspected overdoses jumped 18% in March, 29% in April and 42% in May. The figures are based on data from ambulance teams, hospitals and police...What’s not being reported is the potential threat of drug diversion within healthcare settings, which is often undetected and underreported...Given the social, economic and healthcare implications of COVID-19, it’s not hard to see how drug diversion might escalate...data suggest a rise in depression and mental health disorders with the coronavirus stemming from isolation, "shelter at home" guidelines and the economic fallout of the pandemic. Healthcare providers, who are more likely to treat patients with COVID-19, may be more susceptible to mental health issues such as depression and burnout...READ MORE

Nevada on Saturday reported a record daily increase of additional confirmed COVID-19 cases. But health officials later said the bulge largely resulted from laboratory data entry errors that delayed the posting of hundreds of cases from two previous days...The state Department of Health and Human Services reported an additional confirmed 1,099 cases, mostly from metro Las Vegas...The number of additional cases reported Saturday was more than double the previous record of 507 reported Thursday. Bur the Southern Nevada Health Agency said the reported daily increase included over 600 cases that should have been reported earlier in the week but were not...READ MORE

The care given in emergency departments came under fire yesterday with the release of a government study saying that 250,000 Americans die every year due to misdiagnoses...The findings spurred an immediate response from the president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, who questions the study’s veracity and methodology...Christopher S. Kang, M.D., president of the ACEP, said in a statement that “in addition to making misleading, incomplete and erroneous conclusions from the literature reviewed, the report conveys a tone that inaccurately characterizes and unnecessarily disparages the practice of emergency medicine in the United States.”...The study, conducted by Johns Hopkins for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, states that among 130 million ED visits in the U.S. per year, 7.4 million patients are misdiagnosed. In addition, 2.6 million suffer an adverse event, and about 370,000 suffer serious harm from diagnostic errors...READ MORE

With Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine rollout off to a slower than expected start, the recent news that millions of doses were ruined in a production error came as a rude awakening. But the Emergent BioSolutions plant at the heart of the issue has faced scrutiny for its shortcomings from federal regulators before...An FDA investigator last April discovered improper training, record keeping, testing procedures and more at Emergent BioSolution's Baltimore Bayview facility...The inspection came just two months before the CDMO snared an eye-popping $628 million deal from the U.S. government to scale up production capacity...READ MORE

A new report from the hospital industry predicts half of all U.S. hospitals will be operating in the red by the end of the year unless more federal relief is approved...The report...prepared on behalf of the American Hospital Association, paints a grim picture of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospital operating margins...Hospital margins could sink to negative 7% in the second half of 2020, and half of all hospitals are likely to operate with a negative margin...Hospitals were slammed financially by low patient volume and cancellation of elective procedures to preserve capacity to combat COVID-19...Normally, hospitals overall operate with a 3.5% operating margin. But margins are expected to drop to negative 3% in the second quarter of this year...That drop would have been negative 15% without funding from Congress, which gave providers $175 billion a few months ago...READ MORE

List prices of branded drugs in the U.S. rose by an average of nearly 5% last year, according to a report released...by Iqvia, a consultancy and research services provider. After accounting for the rebates and discounts pharmaceutical companies often pay insurers, however, the average increase was 1%, the fifth year in a row that net price growth has tracked below general inflation...Rebates and discounts on drugs don't necessarily translate to lower out-of-pocket costs for patients, and some, such as people covered by Medicare Part D or on high-deductible insurance plans, are more vulnerable to rising list prices, often referred to as a drug's wholesale acquisition cost...READ MORE

In the United States, methamphetamine overdose deaths surged from 2011 to 2018, according to a report from the National Institute on Drug Abuse...Rapid increases were seen across all racial and ethnic groups, but American Indians and Alaska Natives were most affected. Deaths involving methamphetamines more than quadrupled among non-Hispanic American Indians and Alaska Natives from 4.5 to 20.9 per 100,000 people, with sharp increases for both men and women in those groups...Methamphetamine use is linked to a range of serious health risks, including overdose deaths. Unlike for opioids, there are currently no FDA-approved medications for treating methamphetamine use disorder or reversing overdoses. However, behavioral therapies such as contingency management therapy can be effective in reducing harms associated with use of the drug, and a recent clinical trial reported significant therapeutic benefits with the combination of naltrexone and bupropion in patients with methamphetamine use disorder...READ MORE

Nearly one in five diabetes drugs and one in 20 asthma drugs experienced a significant price increase in the past year or two, with average one-year increases about 11.2 percent and 19.3 percent, respectively, according to the third annual drug pricing report released by the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services last week...The state identified 117 essential diabetes drugs and 13 essential asthma medications that had a significant price increase over the previous one or two years, meaning that their costs increased by more than the rate of medical inflation. Manufacturers attributed the price increases to a number of factors, including changes in marketplace dynamics, research and development and manufacturing cost...the findings of the report continued to be consistent with the results of the first two diabetes drug pricing reports...Here are some of the key findings of the report:...READ MORE