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What We’re Reading: Tracking Health Care Worker COVID-19 Deaths; B.1.1.7 Variant Dominant in US; STD Screening, Testing Drops
Officials urge the Biden administration to track COVID-19 deaths among health care workers; the B.1.1.7 variant is now the dominant strain in the United States; pandemic results in steep declines in STD testing.
Counting COVID-19-Related Health Care Worker Deaths
According to a year-long investigation by The Guardian and Kaiser Health News (KHN), more than 3600 health care workers died of COVID-19 in the first year of the pandemic. However, the federal government has not comprehensively tracked this data and as the Guardian-KHN project comes to an end, several are calling for the Biden administration to undertake an official count. Health policy experts and union leaders are urging the current administration to fill the data gap left by former President Trump through its failure to create an accurate count of deaths among this group of individuals.
B.1.1.7 Variant Now Dominant in United States
The B.1.1.7 COVID-19 variant, first identified in the United Kingdom, is now the dominant strain in the United States, NBC News reports. Announced by the CDC, the variant is thought to be more contagious and fuels fears that the country is on the cusp of another COVID-19 surge as case numbers and hospitalizations increase. The country’s cases have plateaued at a high level as over 61,000 new cases were reported on April 7, and no continued significant decreases have been reported. The uptick in infections seems to be driven by young people, despite the country vaccinating an average of 3 million people each day.
STD Testing Drops
With a continued focus on testing for COVID-19, public health workers are concerned about a collapse in screening for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) that have been on the rise for years, The Associated Press reports. As COVID-19 testing diverted resources and staff away from this preventive practice, testing for diseases like chlamydia and gonorrhea saw sharp declines in many parts of the United States during 2020. The gap made it difficult for health officials to track or control outbreaks which were already at record levels prior to the pandemic. Reduced hours at clinics, staff shortages and labs’ focus on processing COVID-19 testing samples all contributed to the data gap.
Untangling Medical Debt From Credit Scores: Effects So Far and Next Steps
November 29th 2023After recent policy changes removing most medical debts from credit reports, Americans are seeing their credit scores increase, but experts warn of the need to monitor billing and collection practices for unintended consequences.
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Oncology Onward: A Conversation With Thyme Care CEO and Cofounder Robin Shah
October 2nd 2023Robin Shah, CEO of Thyme Care, which he founded in 2020 with Bobby Green, MD, president and chief medical officer, joins hosts Emeline Aviki, MD, MBA, and Stephen Schleicher, MD, MBA, to discuss his evolution as an entrepreneur in oncology care innovation and his goal of positively changing how patients experience the cancer system.
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Insufficient Data, Disparities Plague Lung Cancer Risk Factor Documentation
September 24th 2023On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we speak with the senior author of a study published in the September 2023 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care® on the importance of adequate and effective lung cancer risk factor documentation to determine a patient's eligibility for screening.
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Lawsuits target initiatives aimed at reducing racial disparities; less than 10% of trials for COVID-19 treatments included children in the first 3 years of the pandemic; the World Health Organization requests more information on increased respiratory illnesses in China.
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Study Shows Higher Infection Risk in Patients With T1D in Primary, Secondary Care
November 22nd 2023Researchers concluded there is a clinically important increase in infection risk among patients with T1D in both primary care and hospital settings, and that guidelines must be developed to reflect this risk and encourage earlier treatment.
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