Plague

Health care "The budget package extends several pandemic-era provisions for people on Medicare," LeaMond says. "These provisions will help many older adults access medical care more easily." Telehealth:  The spending package would extend for two years — until the end of 2024 — the expansions to telehealth medicine that were put in place in Medicare during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the coronavirus hit, Medicare coverage for telehealth was limited, available mainly to people in rural areas for whom getting to a doctor's appointment was difficult. In March 2020, these virtual visits were made available to all Medicare beneficiaries. In addition, Medicare expanded the types of providers that could get paid for telehealth sessions, enabling nurse practitioners, clinical psychologists and licensed...

The U.S. health care system ranks last on measures of equity among similar high-income countries. 1 Although policymakers and payers have increasingly looked to hospitals to help reduce inequities, there's been less focus on their role in addressing health-related social needs (HRSNs). Such needs are related to food insecurity, housing instability, a lack of access to transportation, an inability to afford utility bills, and exposure to interpersonal violence, among other concerns. Despite the strong links between HRSNs and health outcomes, recent evidence suggests that only one quarter of U.S. hospitals screen for these five needs. 2 To address this issue, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced the adoption of three health-equity measures in the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting program. The first measure, which will be implemented for the 2023 reporting period, evaluates hospitals on five domains: commitment to health equity as a strategic pri...

Happy Monday, everyone. If you watched White Lotus, no spoilers please. Send your tips, compliments and complaints to rachel.roubein@washpost.com. Today's edition: The latest on the prospects for a broader spending package, the last chance for new health policies to get passed this year. Mistakes across several administrations allowed the fentanyl crisis to grow. But first …  House and Senate Democrats have released their covid response probes Democratic congressional investigators are calling for significant investments and large-scale changes to the country's efforts to better prepare for the next pandemic. But some advocates and health experts are skeptical the nation will take those steps. Two sweeping reports from Democrats in Congress faulted years of poor planning, chronic underfunding and the Trump administration's leadership for the inability to curb the coronavirus pandemic at the outset. Both offered a spate of recommendations aimed at bolstering the nat...

[unable to retrieve full-text content] 19,000 Polyclinic, Everett Clinic patients face in-network insurance loss    The Seattle Times

Recently, I came across a letter to the editor by Mrs. Jean Farina, who broke her pelvis and spent 17 days in Kelowna General Hospital this November. Her letter began, "Grateful. Thankful. Fortunate. Lucky", and for me, her words, plus one more – Hopeful – say it all. Mrs. Farina writes, "Michael (my nurse) telling me I was a wonderful patient – oh how those kind words buoyed me up. Leanne (physio) saying to me 'let's go for a walk' when I didn't think it was possible to take a step. She made me believe I could walk again – and I did." As the CEO of the KGH Foundation, I have the privilege of witnessing the 'big little miracles' that Mrs. Farina speaks of in her letter at KGH, JoeAnna's House, Hospice House and in healthcare settings across our community every day. As we close another very difficult year, I hope Mrs. Farina's words inspire you as much as they did me. Because isn't it kindness and generosity that buo...

Listen to the article 6 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. The agency tasked with policing competition was able to thwart a number of hospital tie-ups this year, but in a closely watched deal, regulators did not challenge a megamerger between Advocate Aurora Health in the Midwest and Atrium Health in the South. A challenge would have represented a rare attempt by the Federal Trade Commission to block a so-called "cross-market" merger in healthcare. Instead, regulators stuck to challenging the kinds of provider deals they've historically contested, raising questions about its antitrust enforcement in an industry that continues to see deals evolve beyond traditional geographic markets. "It would be reckless to take away from this that th...

Hyderabad: A viral post accompanied by a graphic claims that there has been a pandemic every 100 years. It claims there was a plague in 1720, a cholera outbreak in 1820, Spanish flu in 1920, and the coronavirus in 2020. So, what is a pandemic? WebMD quotes Dan Epstein, a spokesman for the Pan American Health Organization, as saying, "A pandemic is basically a global epidemic--an epidemic that spreads to more than one continent." FACT CHECK Let's see the timeline of each pandemic outbreak. Plague (1347–1351): According to the National Human Genome Research Institute, "Black Death," a plague that swept through Europe during the 14 th century, killed anywhere between 30-50% of the population. WHO explains that plague is "caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, a zoonotic bacterium usually found in small mammals and their fleas'. Cholera (1817–1821): According to one study, "The first pandemic (1817–1821) known as 'Asiatic cholera' began in Je...