In the News

• JPMorgan, Amazon, and Berkshire Hathaway’s Health-Care Venture Dies. Costs Remain a Problem (Barron’s)

• CMS Home Based Hospital Care Wavier Called  “Enormous Step Forward” (HealthLeaders)

• UnitedHealth Group subsidiary indicted on antitrust charges (Fierce Health)

• FTC Loses Bid to Block Philadelphia Hospital Merger in Extraordinarily Busy Year of Hospital Merger Enforcement (National Law Review)

• In fight over drug discounts, HHS lawyer sides with hospitals (Med City News)

• New guidance from the American College of Cardiology provides a checklist for same-day discharge for elective percutaneous coronary interventions (Medscape)

• Hospital margins continue to fall amid rising expenses (Healthcare Finance)

• What Final Medicaid Value-Based Purchasing Rule Means for Payers (Health Payer)

• Seattle-based Virginia Mason merges with CHI Franciscan health system to operate 11 hospitals and nearly 300 care locations (Seattle Times)

• AHA reported that 89% of hospitals and health systems have experienced an increase in claim denials over the past 3 years, with 51% saying the increase has been “significant.” (RevCycle)

• AHA White Paper: Addressing Commercial Health Plan Abuses to Ensure Fair Coverage for Patients and Providers

• Study: Non-Profit Health Plans Need a New Medicare Advantage Strategy as Share Losses Widen (Chartis Group)

• Study finds evidence of lasting immunity after mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 infection (Medicalxpress)

• Study: Genetic data can help predict IBD risk (UPI)

• The thymus as key to healthy pregnancies (Eureka Alert)

• National Health Care Spending In 2019: Steady Growth For The Fourth Consecutive Year (Health Affairs)

• Provider groups are concerned about the details of a new surprise billing solution that would hold patients harmless for emergency care and have payers and providers negotiate the rest (RevCycle)

• Gross margins and medical loss ratios indicated that payers continued to make a profit through the third quarter of 2020 (Health Payer)

• Study Findings: Despite greater social risk factors, Medicare Advantage beneficiaries receive more outpatient visits and more preventive screenings while seeing more appropriate use of prescription drugs and less unnecessary hospitalizations (BetterMedicareAlliance)

• Report: Building Better Care - The Role of Medicaid Managed Care in Long Term Services and Supports (AHIP)

• Report: Primary Care Spending: High Stakes, Low Investment (Primary Care Cooperative)

• Who Didn’t Get a Second Shingrix Shot? Implications for Multidose COVID-19 Vaccines (KFF)

• Healthcare leaders are working to discover accurate, targeted cancer treatments using big data analytics tools (Health IT)

• GAO Issues Report On Artificial Intelligence In Health Care (Insurance News)

• Report:Benefits and Challenges of Technologies to Augment Patient Care (GAO)

• Policy Brief: Closing the Health Insurance Gap: Two Options for Connecticut and the Challenge of Affordable Coverage for the Near Poor (Connecticut Health Foundation)

• One in Four Kids Seen at Urgent Care, Retail Clinics in 2019 — Pre-pandemic snapshot may change after telehealth ramp-up (Medpage Today)

• CMS will implement 21 new ICD-10 procedure codes for COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics; the agency also assigned MS-DRGs for 6 new ICD-10 diagnosis codes for conditions related to COVID-19 as of January 1, 2021 (RevCycle)

• Related: CMS Announces Comprehensive Strategy to Enhance Hospital Capacity Amid COVID-19 Surge (CMS)
• Characteristics of Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients Discharged and Experiencing Same-Hospital Readmission — United States, March–August 2020 (MMRW November 13, 2020 in PDF)

• Insurer Participation on the ACA Marketplaces, 2014-2021 (KFF)

• Study finds over 64% of people reported new health issues during 'work from home' (Eureka Alert)

• CMS Reports Improper Payment Rate Continues Decline (Home Care)

• Justice Department: Medicare Advantage Provider to Pay $6.3 Million to Settle False Claims Act Allegations (Insurance News)

• What the New Rebate Rule Means for Medicare Part D Plans (Health Payer)

• Study: Association Between State Medicaid Expansion and Emergency Access to Acute Care Hospitals in the United States (JAMA Network)

• FTC sues to block Tenet's Memphis hospital deal with Methodist Le Bonheur (Health Care Dive)

• Massachusetts' Survey: Consumers Want Healthcare Price Information, But Few Realize It’s Available (Pioneer Institute)

• HHS Releases Final 2020-2025 Federal Health IT Strategic Plan (RevCycle)

• CMS set to bump MA rates for 2022 in win for payers (HealthCareDive)

• CMS Finalizes Price Transparency Rule with Self-Service Tool (Health Payer)

• Medicare and Home Health: Taking Stock in the COVID-19 Era (The Commonwealth Fund)

• Providers seek extension of 2% Medicare sequester cut relief through 2021 (McKnights)

• Medicare Advantage Enrollees Less Satisfied with End-of-Life Care (Hospice News)

Blogs We Follow

Popular Site Destinations

Job Bank

No current postings at AHPA

Federal Agency Blogs

COVID-19 Information

Starting Points:

• U. S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

• CASES, DATA & SURVEILLANCE

• State Health Departments
• NACCHO Directory Local Health Departments
• CMS Nursing Home Covid Data (1st report 5/24/2020)

• Related GAO Report: Infection Control Deficiencies Were Widespread and Persistent in Nursing Homes Prior to COVID-19 Pandemic

Guides & Resources for Reopening Workspaces:

• Kaiser Permanente Releases COVID-19 Playbook: Planning For The Next Normal At Work
• CDC Interim Guidance for Businesses and Employers Responding to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

• CDC Workplace Decision Tree
• Summary of CDC guidelines on reopening businesses after the pandemic (Tech Republic)

Additional Resources:

• CDC’s COVID-19 Vaccination Program Interim Playbook for Jurisdiction Operations
• The Costs of Coronavirus (JAMA Network)
• Largest COVID-19 contact tracing study to date finds children key to spread, evidence of superspreaders (Princeton)
• Evidence-Based Practice for Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response (National Acadamies 2020)
• National Insitutes of Health
• John Hopkins ABX Guide: Coronavirus COVID-19
• The Covid Tracking Project:
• Oxford Martin School’s Our World Data -Covid 19
• University Of Minnesotta CIDRAP Covid Resources
• JAMA Sponsored Live Stream Q & A with CDC
• Kaiser Family Foundation COVID-19 News and Reports
• NEJM : A collection of articles and other resources on the Coronavirus (Covid-19)
• Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME): COVID-19 Resources
• Xtelligent Healthcare: Ongoing Updates on Latest Coronavirus for the Healthcare Community
• Penn Center for Research on Coronavirus and Other Emerging Pathogens Webinars (You Tube Channel)

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