More than 3,200 patients at Hoya Optical Labs in Lewisville, Texas, have had their protected health information, including names, addresses, financial data and Social Security numbers, stolen and posted online in a ransomware attack discovered in April. Hoya is improving its security system, governance practices and doing ongoing monitoring in response to the attack.
Veterans' use of telehealth significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, with online video appointments increasing eighteenfold compared with use before spring 2020. "Nearly 2 million vets have had one or more episodes of video care. That tells us that there's massive demand," VA Secretary Denis McDonough said during an appearance before the Senate Appropriations Committee, adding that the VA wants virtual care access to be permanent because it provides "ease of access for vets who don't need to be seen in person."
An S&P Global Ratings report upgraded the outlook for the US nonprofit health care sector, which has suffered financially during the COVID-19 pandemic, from negative to stable. Reasons for the change include a trend toward financial recovery, decreasing risk, CARES Act funding and stable or positive outlooks for about 85% of health care organizations rated by the S&P.
FDA officials this week explained why the agency approved aducanumab, or Aduhelm, under the accelerated approval pathway process even though trial data did not meet the FDA's criteria for standard approval. That approval may be just the beginning -- or could even be the spark -- in efforts to get Alzheimer's disease treatments to market, given developments this week involving Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly and Biogen/Eisai.
A new Occupational Safety and Health Administration standard says full COVID-19 protection requirements apply to "all settings where any employee provides healthcare services or healthcare support services," but it allows for some exemptions in ambulatory care settings where everyone is "screened prior to entry and people with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 are not permitted to enter." The ADA says most dental offices should qualify for an exemption since they screen people before allowing them into the office, according to Bloomberg Law. However, the Association advises that practices perform a hazard assessment and keep a written COVID-19 plan in place even if it is determined that the office does not need to follow the standard. OSHA has developed a flow chart to help businesses determine what is required of them.
The repeal of the McCarran-Ferguson antitrust exemption for health insurance companies is the subject of the latest ADA Tooth Talk podcast. During the one-hour podcast, Tooth Talk hosts Sarah Milligan and Peter Aiello sat down with George Slover, senior policy counsel at Consumer Reports, to discuss the role dentists played in the passing the Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act, which became law on Jan. 13. Mr. Slover, who has worked on antitrust laws to enhance consumer choices in the marketplace for three decades, credited ADA advocacy with being instrumental in bringing the issue to the forefront in Congress. "I think without ADA involvement, frankly, it would still be an issue rather than an accomplishment. So, that was just tremendous," he said. "And it's something that I've been following since I was in working in Congress, working in the Justice Department, working back in Congress, working at Consumer Reports. We were just thrilled to see this happen after more than 35 years of engagement." To hear more of Mr. Slover's conversation with the ADA on the repeal of the McCarran-Ferguson antitrust exemption for health insurance companies, visit the Tooth Talk website and listen to the episode in its entirety.
The Georgia Dental Association said preventive dental care through regular dental visits helps prevent oral health issues from worsening, and it urged people to resume visits to their regular dentist, according to WTVM-TV of Columbus. "I know that a lot of patients are fearful because the pandemic was something that we never had before," said GDA President Louvenia Rainge, D.M.D. Dr. Rainge said measures to protect patients from COVID-19 have been implemented in dental offices.
US life expectancy dropped by almost two years from 78.7 years in 2018 to 76.9 years by the end of 2020 primarily due to the pandemic, marking the largest drop since World War II, according to a study in the British Medical Journal. The decline was more pronounced among Black and Hispanic people, who saw their life expectancy fall by 3.25 years and 3.88 years, respectively, compared with 1.36 years among whites, National Public Radio and HealthDay News report.
A study published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology found disparities in access to breast cancer screening among subgroups within the Asian American female population, particularly when ethnicity and recent immigration status are taken into account. Although the breast cancer incidence rate among Asian women in the US is usually lower than among non-Hispanic white women, some Asian subgroups were shown to have higher incidence rates, such as Japanese women, with an incidence rate 126.5 per 100,000, and Laotian women, at 36.9 per 100,000.
Radiologists lack a unified set of standards for recommending approaches to address incidentally detected pancreatic cysts, "which may impact quality and patient experience of care as well as downstream imaging costs," researchers reported in the Journal of the American College of Radiology. The analysis of 2,872 abdominal CT and MRI reports performed from July 2016 to June 2018 found significant interradiologist variation among abdominal specialists as well as follow-up rates that vary from 25% to 85%.