February 17, 2022 | Hospitals still not complying with price transparency

INDUSTRY NEWS

Providers come to defense of CMMI Direct Contracting

Don Crane, president and CEO of America’s Physician Groups, recently came to the defense of Medicare Advantage and CMMI’s Global and Professional Direct Contracting pilot program. “If MA and direct contracting are impaired or eliminated as Gilfillan and Berwick appear to advocate, the value movement may well collapse,” he wrote in Health Affairs Forefront. He’s not alone: According to Modern Healthcare, provider groups are coming out in support of the Direct Contracting program, asking CMS to tweak, not abandon, the value-based program. (Health Affairs Forefront; Modern Healthcare)

Hospitals still not complying with price transparency

Just over 14% of hospitals are complying with price transparency requirements, according to a report from analysis from PatientRightsAdvocate.org. The largest health systems are the worst: Only 0.5% of hospitals owned by CommonSpirit Health, Ascension and HCA Healthcare met the federal requirements. According to the report, nearly 86% of hospitals failed to post a complete machine-readable file of standard charges, and 4% posted no any standard charges file whatsoever. Moreover, 58.6% did not clearly publish payer-specific negotiated charges, and 26.2% did not publish any discounted cash prices. (Fierce Healthcare; report)

INNOVATION & TRANSFORMATION

Opinion: Leverage PCPs as trusted messengers

We must incentivize and invest in the most trusted COVID-19 vaccine messengers to reach those individuals, according to an opinion piece by the This is Our Shot Foundation. Those messengers? Community health care professionals including primary care doctors and nurse practitioners. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that approximately 85% of Americans said they trust their provider's opinions "at least a fair amount" for reliable COVID-19 vaccine information. That’s higher than President Trump and Biden, the CDC and even Anthony Fauci, MD. Moreover, this level of trust held across all political affiliations and races. (MedPage Today)

CONSUMERS & PROVIDERS

It’s just stress, sweetie. Maybe lose a little weight?

Hannah Catton told doctors something was wrong with her body. Doctors repeatedly dismissed her concerns, attributing it to stress and, in one case, weight. Over three years, she saw 10 doctors. Then, in October, she collapsed and took herself to the emergency room. Surgeons pulled a cancerous ovarian tumor the size of a volleyball. Catton wants other women and doctors to learn from her experience. The comments section is full of women with their own stories of not being heard. (The Washington Post)

Top 10% of antibiotic prescribers account for 41% of prescriptions

The highest 10% of antibiotic prescribers prescribed 41% of total antibiotic prescriptions for Medicare Part D beneficiaries in 2019 according a review of public data published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports. The antibiotic prescribing rate of these higher-volume prescribers was 60% higher than that of lower-volume prescribers. Nearly half of those high-volume antibiotic prescribers were located in southern states. "This substantial difference in prescribing practices presents opportunities for improved prescribing through antibiotic stewardship activities focusing on these higher-volume prescribers, independent of specialty," the study authors wrote the authors wrote. (MMWR; CIDRAP)

Staffing shortage top hospital CEO challenge

Hospital CEOs responding to a survey by the American College of Healthcare Executives ranked personnel shortages as their top 2021 challenge. Almost all (94%) identified a shortage of RNs as the most pressing issue in that category, followed by technicians (85%), therapists (67%) and primary care physicians (45%). Financial challenges, which held the top spot since 2004, came in second. Patient safety and quality came in third. (Becker's Hospital Review)

NEW & NOTED

One step closer: As part of the 21st Century Cures Act, the ONC has set a Dec. 31 deadline for the health care industry to support apps that store records electronically, such as Apple Health. It works both ways: Health IT developers will need standardized APIs and FHIR technology to support data exchange and interoperability, and providers will be expected to use APIs and FHIR technology. (NBC News; Forbes)

Computer-assisted therapy for depression: For primary care patients with depression, adding a computer-assisted cognitive behavioral therapy program to usual care can help, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open. The improvements were sustained even after treatment concluded. (MedPage Today; JAMA Network Open)

Is brain fog related to AD? Long COVID-19 brain fog may be a form of Alzheimer's disease, according to an autopsy-based study looking at brain patterns of 10 people who died with COVID-19. However, more research needs to be conducted. (Alzheimer's & Dementia; Columbia University News)

MULTI-MEDIA

The link between primary care and vaccine uptake

Investigator Andrew T. Chan, MD, MPH, discusses his team's recent findings showing a positive link between primary care providers per capita and community vaccination rates. The study was published in JAMA Network Open. (HCPLive)

MARKETVOICES…QUOTES WORTH READING

"One interpretation of these findings is that long COVID could be an atypical form of Alzheimer's and/or that patients who had severe COVID could be predisposed to developing Alzheimer's later in life, but much more research needs to be done before we can make more definitive conclusions.” —Andrew Marks, MD, chair of the Department of Physiology & Cellular Biophysics at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and lead author of a small study on the link between AD and long COVID, quoted by Columbia University News