What We’re Reading: Rising Hospital Care Costs; New Antibiotic; Disenrolled Medicaid Beneficiaries

Hospital Care Costs Rose 26% for COVID-19 Patients Over Pandemic, Study Shows

A study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open reported that the average direct cost for hospital treatment in the United States for patients with COVID-19 rose by 26% during the pandemic from 2020 to 2022, according to CIDRAP. The researchers noted that costs continued to increase despite vaccination rollout and as new variants emerged. To conduct this study, they reviewed 1,333,404 inpatient stays from March 1, 2020, to March 31, 2022; patients had a primary or secondary COVID-19 diagnosis, and the mean length of stay was 8.9 days. The researchers found the average mean inpatient stay cost to be $11,275 (95% CI, $11,252-$11,297) overall, increasing from $10,394 (95% CI, $10,228-$10,559) at the end of March 2020 to $13,072 (95% CI, $12,528-$13,617) by the end of March 2022.

New Antibiotic Targets Deadly Drug-Resistant Bacteria, Study Says

Scientists have developed a new antibiotic to treat Acinetobacter baumannii, a deadly bacteria resistant to most current antibiotics, according to CNN. The CDC explained that the bacteria can cause serious infections in the lungs, blood, and urinary tract, and it is resistant to carbapenems, a class of broad-spectrum antibiotics; carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) caused an estimated 8500 infections in hospitalized patients and 700 deaths in 2017. The FDA has not approved a new class of antibiotics to treat CRAB in more than 50 years, but researchers reported that the new antibiotic zosurabalpin can effectively kill the bacteria. They noted that zosurabalpin stunts the bacteria's growth by preventing the movement of lipopolysaccharides to the outer membrane, resulting in high toxicity levels that cause the cell itself to die. Zosurabalpin was effective against more than 100 CRAB clinical samples and is now in phase 1 clinical trials to assess the safety, tolerability, and pharmacology of the molecule in humans.

Utah Survey Found Why So Many Beneficiaries Were Disenrolled From Medicaid Last Year

A survey conducted for Utah state officials gave some clues as to why millions of Americans lost Medicaid coverage last year, according to KFF Health News. KFF noted that more than 13.3 million people were disenrolled from Medicaid in 2023 with just over 70% being for procedural reasons. It has been unclear as to what led to the procedural terminations in Utah and other states, but the survey of more than 1000 disenrolled Medicaid beneficiaries from Utah found that 57% of those who left the program in 2023 never attempted to renew their coverage. When asked why not, 14% said they did not get around to the paperwork, 13% said it was too difficult, 9% said they never received renewal documents, and 7% said they did not have the necessary documents to prove their eligibility. As a result, 39% found insurance through an employer, 15% found insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, and 30% remained uninsured.