COVID-19: World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the end of the COVID-19 pandemic is “in sight,” after weekly global deaths reached their lowest point since March 2020 and new weekly cases simultaneously declined by 28%.
In a long-awaited Lancet Commission report released to U.N. member states, agencies and bodies, researchers wrote that the pandemic has been “a massive global failure at multiple levels,” noting that “too many governments” did not adhere to norms and were influenced by misinformation, resulting in disrespect and protests “against basic public health precautions.”
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researchers found that Americans over 65 who have had COVID-19 faced a higher risk within a year of being newly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The study, which was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and analyzed electronic health records of more than 6 million people older than 65, noted that the findings do not show that COVID-19 causes Alzheimer’s.
Reproductive rights: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) introduced a bill to ban abortion nationwide after 15 weeks, about three months after he said in a Fox News interview that “there’s nothing in the Constitution giving the federal government the right to regulate abortion.” With the midterms looming, some Republicans distanced themselves from the bill, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who told reporters that most Senate GOP lawmakers would rather abortion “be dealt with on a state level.”
A group of 30 Democratic senators led by Patty Murray of Washington asked the Biden administration in a letter to use the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act to bar providers and health care personnel from sharing patients’ reproductive health information “without explicit consent.” The lawmakers specifically want HIPAA protections applied in cases involving law enforcement and with those who pursue legal action tied to abortion.
The FDA scheduled a joint meeting for Nov. 18 to consider Perrigo Co. PLC’s application to make its daily birth control pill available over the counter. If the FDA’s Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee and Obstetrics, Reproductive, and Urologic Drugs Advisory Committee sign off on the plan, Perrigo’s pill would be the first nonprescription daily birth control offering in the United States.
Payers and providers: The House passed a bill that would modernize Medicare Advantage, requiring insurers in the network to opt in to electronic prior authorization programs, submit lists of items and services subject to prior authorization on a yearly basis and implement beneficiary protection rules. With more than 300 co-sponsors in the House, and backing from provider and payer groups, there’s optimism among lawmakers that the bill, which is called the Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act, will sail through the Senate after the midterm elections.
More than 375 health systems, health-related companies and trade associations signed on to a letter urging Senate leaders to issue an extension of Medicare telehealth flexibilities for two years after the COVID-19 public health emergency officially ends. Amazon.com Inc., the Cleveland Clinic, CVS Health Corp., the Federation of American Hospitals, Alphabet Inc.’s Google, MedStar Health and One Medical were among the signers of the letter, which also asked Senate leadership to “push for a permanent extension.”
Preliminary data released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services showed that about 1 in 4 hospitals will not be assessed penalties for readmissions for the coming fiscal year, and those that fell short of the Medicare benchmark over the past few years will receive lower reimbursement cuts. CMS for the first time used pandemic-era data to calculate payment adjustments, and for fiscal year 2023, 25.33% of hospitals will not face readmissions penalties, up from 17.81% the previous year.
The American Medical Association, the Medical Society of New Jersey and the Washington State Medical Association signed on to a class-action lawsuit against Cigna Corp., joining plaintiffs that allege that the insurer reimbursed provider claims in the third-party MultiPlan network at its lower nonparticipating providers rate. Cigna did not respond to a request for comment.
