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 dwelling 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 amenities modified possession and there have been 347 possession modifications amongst hospitals.

The analysis doesn’t take any robust stands, however it means that policymakers and researchers might use the info to raised 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 lowered high quality and elevated morality.

There was additionally vast variation based mostly on geography. South Carolina noticed possession modifications at 73 of its hospitals, or 19.2%, whereas the vast majority 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 dearer well being care choices,” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure mentioned in an announcement.

Research Suggests Telemedicine Failed To Counter Healthcare Disparities Throughout The Pandemic

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Telemedicine has usually 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 School of Medication means that this has not been the case all through the pandemic. Total, virtually 1 / 4 of one million medical visits have been analyzed from 67,733 sufferers, with the analysis discovering that African People have been 35% much less doubtless to make use of telemedicine than white People. Hispanic folks have been 51% much less doubtless than white folks to have a telemedicine go to and Asian folks and American Indian/Alaska Natives and Pacific Islanders have been additionally much less doubtless to make use of telemedicine. The examine concluded a number of elements have been accountable 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 amenities, raised $80 million over two rounds bringing the corporate’s valuation to $1.3 billion. The Sequence C was led by Sequoia Capital and the Sequence B by IVP. Clipboard says it has tens of hundreds of customers and greater than a thousand amenities throughout 30 U.S. cities.

Mainstreaming Glucose Monitoring: Ranges, an organization that mixes a steady glucose monitor with software program to watch how food regimen 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 will likely 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 mixture of particular person founders and operator traders, crowdfunding and a16z. The product is at the moment obtainable to a beta group of 25,000 paying members and the funding will go in the direction of making it commercially obtainable.

Noteworthy

Well being insurer Anthem’s first quarter income reached $1.8 billion because of robust 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 know-how enterprise and Medicare Benefit progress.

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

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

Almost 6.2 million sufferers are ready for non-urgent hospital procedures in England, in keeping with 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 doubtless in these circumstances and as excessive as 28% for folks over the age of 70. A small danger of growing dementia was even current in folks below 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 displaying that Covid infections can have an effect on the mind, corresponding to injury to the cells related to the sense of scent or improvement of blood clots within the mind.

It’s not simply the mind, both. Transferring 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 may 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 delicate circumstances, and even improve the danger of kids growing diabetes. That’s not even moving 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.

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

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

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On Wednesday, Maryland-based vaccine producer Novavax launched preliminary outcomes from an early medical part examine of its mixture Covid/flu vaccine. The outcomes discovered that the mixture vaccine produced immune responses in sufferers that have been comparable with these of its stand-alone flu and Covid vaccines. The corporate additionally discovered the vaccine formulation to be protected, with largely delicate unwanted 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 checks as a result of Omicron variant.

Publicity to air air pollution may improve the probability of contracting Covid-19, in keeping with 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 prices 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 kids hospitalized with Covid-19 when the omicron variant was dominant have been unvaccinated, in keeping with a examine launched Tuesday by the CDC.

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