Healthy Muse Healthcare News.
Trump wants Obamacare gone.
On Friday, the Trump admin asked the Supreme Court to strike down the ACA in its entirety as a part of the ongoing Texas. Vs. U.S. case.
The basics: The Supreme Court has been asked to figure out whether ACA is still constitutional even after Congress got rid of the healthcare bill’s ‘Individual Mandate‘ clause, which was basically a $$$ penalty for people who didn’t buy insurance.
- If the Supreme Court agrees that Texas has a case with this argument, then the judges will then decide whether Congress made the individual mandate unconstitutional by eliminating it.
- If the individual mandate is deemed unconstitutional, then the judges will determine whether that ruling makes the ACA as a whole unconstitutional/illegal.
Although the ACA’s legality has gone to the Supreme Court two other times already, many consider this challenge the most serious to-date.
What would losing the ACA mean? All of the healthcare things you’ve heard about over the past 8 years (here’s a brief summary) – AKA, pre-existing conditions, Medicaid expansion, and more – would vanish.
- The NY Times estimates that 23 million Americans are covered by the ACA, and 130 million Americans have some type of pre-existing condition.
- This…kinda seems like bad timing. A lot more people than normal are seeking out ACA coverage right now due to lost jobs during the pandemic.
Read up:
- Read this Kaiser research article that breaks down the ACA case very well: Texas. Vs. the U.S. – A guide to the case challenging the ACA.
- From AP: Despite pandemic, Trump administration urges end to ACA
- From NPR: Obamacare must fall, Trump Administration tells the Supreme Court.
- From Healthcare Dive: Trump admin asks Supreme Court to kill ACA as COVID-19 surges in West, South
How about the Democrats?
Meanwhile, Democrats in the House prepared a largely symbolic healthcare bill to prepare a healthcare platform for the upcoming election. The bill’s contents include popular Democratic healthcare proposals like expanding Obamacare markets, removing short-term insurance plans, giving Medicare the ability to negotiate with drug makers directly, and lowering the Medicare age to 50 (from 65).
- While the bill is DOA in the Senate, the proposals give you a fantastic preview of what’s to come if Biden wins in November. Read more about Biden’s ideas in our healthcare election HUB.
Price transparency update.
Behind this week’s major ACA news, a federal court ruled against hospitals in the ongoing price transparency battle going on between insurers/providers and the Feds. Read more about what’s been happening with price transparency here.
- This battle isn’t going anywhere anytime soon as providers figure out where to go from here.
Coronavirus.
- The latest numbers: Over 10 million infected, 500k deaths globally. Over 2.5 million infected, 130k deaths in the U.S. The CDC believes that up to 10 times that number have had the virus.
What you need to know:
Global coalitions are working on getting vaccines as soon as possible. The death rate is dropping (for now, but hopefully permanently too), but cases are surging. Younger people aged 20-44 make up about HALF of new COVID cases. States like Arizona, Texas, and Florida are pausing their reopening plans due to a surge in cases. Read more about the new surge here.
- Healthcare providers are requesting that the public health national emergency be extended. Right now it ends July 31. States want you to WEAR MASKS, but of course it varies.
Now for some good news.
As the world reaches 10 million cases, doctors are seeing hope in new treatments. According to this Reuters article, physicians feel much more prepared for a second wave.
- Why’s that? Because they know a lot more about the disease, including side effects, the right drugs to use, and the best way to treat different kinds of patients. As a result, the death rate is expected to continue to drop.
More things to know.
- The Commonwealth Fund released a great blog article visualizing the bounce-back of outpatient patient volumes as well as the month-over-month telehealth impact.
- We will be living with the coronavirus pandemic well into 2021.
- A striking share of infected people never show classic symptoms
- Black Medicare patients are 4 times more likely to be hospitalized with coronavirus
- Don’t forget about the flu: The U.S. is trying to be proactive in stopping the flu before any second COVID wave hits. That would be quite the bad double whammy…
Quick Hits
Biz Hits
- CommonSpirit Health is doubling down on primary care by partnering with a Paladina Health, a new direct-to-employer primary care provider.
- Shortages, galore: Nurses at HCA are striking over staffing cuts and PPE shortages. Meanwhile, hospitals are starting to face staffing shortages from non-traditional players like Amazon and Apple as they snatch up providers for their own healthcare plans.
- An appeals court cut Johnson & Johnson’s baby-powder-cancer-causing punitive payment in half to $2.1 billion, but that’s still way more than they were probably expecting.
- Read about the telehealth startup called Calibrate. The company is trying to disrupt the $70 billion weight loss industry by using a multi-pronged approach.
- CMS wants to make home health telemedicine permanent.
- The Mayo Clinic and a health tech startup called Medically Home are launching a new hospital at home venture.
State Hits
- Idaho just made its telehealth expansions permanent.
- In Florida, LHC Group and Orlando Health announced a joint venture on Wednesday. Each side will contribute three home health clinics for a total of six clinics in the greater Orlando area.
- Texas suspended elective surgeries and paused its reopening plans this week. “To state the obvious, COVID-19 is now spreading at an unacceptable rate in Texas,” Governor Greg Abbott said this week.
- States like Washington and North Carolina are now making mask wearing mandatory. You probably should just wear one anyway.
- New York, New Jersey and Connecticut imposed a 14-day quarantine on travelers from coronavirus hot-spot states
Other Hits
- Medicare has spent $1.9 billion on COVID-19 related hospitalizations so far.
- Users of Oura’s smart health tracker ring first discovered its coronavirus detection benefits, CEO says
- 20 year old medical debt comes back from the grave.
- The AMA is fed up with insurer inaction on prior authorization and wants a legislative fix.
Thought-Provoking Editorials
- Covid-19 and the Need for Health Care Reform (NEJM)
- The coronavirus prison crisis won’t just stay behind bars. (NY Times)
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