health

first seen on wsj

CMS is increasing the penalty for hospitals that don't post their prices online to be as much as $2 million a year for larger facilities

In a fact sheet for the 2022 Outpatient Prospective Payment System, the agency said its "initial analysis strongly suggests there is sub-optimal compliance" with the price transparency requirements. The original fee was $300 a day for all hospitals, regardless of size.

Starting next year, noncompliant hospitals with 30 beds or fewer will be fined $300 a day and larger hospitals will be fined $10 per bed, per day, up to $5,500 a day. CMS is also requiring that the machine-readable files with pricing information be accessible to automated searches and direct downloads. Some hospitals had reportedly been using hard-to-access files as a tactic for obscuring information.

The American Hospital Association said it was "very concerned" about the change, "particularly in light of the many demands placed on hospitals over the past 18 months, including both responding to COVID-19, as well as preparing to implement additional, overlapping price transparency policies."

Research has shown that compliance with the price transparency requirements is dismal, and experts said it was unlikely to improve without more of a financial hit for noncompliance. A JAMA study published in June found that of 100 randomly sampled hospitals and 100 of the highest-earning, 83% were noncompliant.

That backed up an earlier study from JAMA Network Open that noted a bit more than half of the nearly 5,300 hospitals researchers studied did not have a chargemaster in a machine-readable format as the law requires. Another Health Affairs study reported similar findings.

..“crisis of affordability” for prescription drugs, he proposed a novel solution: allow the government to negotiate better deals for critical medications.

Repealing that so-called noninterference provision has been a centerpiece of Democratic campaigns ever since. Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, a former head of House Democrats’ campaign arm, recalled that “Medicare shall negotiate drug prices” was one of the six planks in the “Six for ’06” platform that helped the Democrats win control of the House in 2006.

“It would mean that the pharmaceutical industry, which has 1,500 paid lobbyists, the pharmaceutical industry, which made $50 billion in profits last year, the pharmaceutical industry, which pays its executives huge compensation packages, and which is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to defeat this legislation, will have won,”

A research team is testing a prescription video game to see if it can help people who have lingering memory and attention problems after recovering from COVID-19. Many people who survived the disease say that they’re often confused and have difficulty focusing, and research studies show that the symptoms can stick around for months after they recover.

Faith Gunning, a neuropsychologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, thinks the EndeavorRX video game might be able to treat some of those symptoms. The game, made by Akili Interactive, made history last summer when it became the first video game to get the Food and Drug Administration’s sign-off to be prescribed as a medical treatment. It’s cleared as a treatment for kids between the ages of eight and 12 with ADHD.

More info at https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/19/22391587/long-covid-brain-cognitive-treatment-video-game-akili

#technology #health #ADHD #covid #brainfog

We are drinking far less of the bad stuff, says Prof Karen Hofman of the Wits Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science.

South Africa introduced a sugar tax of 11% per litre three years ago, significantly below 20% recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Nevertheless, it seems to be doing the job.

Hofman and her team researched the impact of the sugar tax and found large reductions in demand for taxed beverages but no significant changes in demand for untaxed drinks. A similar study a couple of years ago found that households bought 50% fewer sugary beverages.

"Liquid sugar is particularly bad… particularly toxic… Fruit juices were not included [in the tax]. They’re less healthy! … Eat your fruit, don’t drink it!"

Listen to the full audio interview at https://www.capetalk.co.za/articles/413646/like-it-or-not-the-sugar-tax-is-working

#health #sugar #obesity #sugartax #southafrica

Interesting that this is a dedicated health tracker so no Android Wear OS (hence the longer battery life) or other apps. It seems more targeted at those that actually don't want a smart watch but just want plain health tracking, along with the temperature monitoring (obviously with Covid in mind). It also has 24-hour heart-rate and respiration monitoring, blood oxygen saturation detection (Sp02), and sleep quality monitoring.

It does also have basic notification alerting as well as some customisable watch faces.

Now that Google (an advertising company) has bought Fitbit this device may be perfectly timed for those wanting to move away from Fitbit. Mobvoi already has an excellent pedigree built up around the quality of their TicWatch Pro range.

See https://www.androidpolice.com/2021/04/13/ticwatch-gth-is-a-budget-health-tracker-that-can-monitor-your-skin-temperature/

#technology #fitbit #health #fitness #covid

Sometimes I have voluntary control over a warm flush that radiates from the back of my neck toward my cheeks, down my back and around my chest, occasionally as far as my biceps and thighs, with a slight bias to the right side of my body. What is this?

Does anyone know good resources around framing this whole thing positively emotionally? All the news coverage and even health guidance I see makes me want to emit a low, ceaseless gurgling sound. Even the "aren't our health workers brave" aspect makes me despair at how poorly we're handling the safety net of it all.

I moved in with someone who lives in a new condo building. Naturally everyone here picked shiny new appliances which means a gas stove. It's a highrise, so the weak hood vent just disperses the air around the condo. New construction means some LEED standard or other means there are only two small windows that open somewhat to the outside. In order for the HVAC's fan to run, it has to be attempting to change the temperature; there is no steady temperature fan-on option.

I also bought an air sensor because of CO2 concerns... but it also measures VOCs and particulates.

And oh my.

How does this not freak other people out?? Is it just that no one is measuring levels of indoor air pollution? If it's this bad in a bougie environment, couldn't it be so much worse for other homes?

Is anyone working on legislation to require vents to the outside?

So basically COVID-19 is bad air. I'm comfortable with this, but wish we all knew a lot more about the HVAC systems of the buildings we live in.