May 4, 2021 | Volume X | Issue 18 |
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Four healthcare executives sentenced in $198M healthcare fraud scheme
Daniel Ferrante
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas recently announced that four healthcare executives have been sentenced for their involvement in a $189 million healthcare fraud scheme.
Defendants: Bobby Rouse, 81, received 120 months; David Edson, 72, received 48 months, Steven Houseworth, 47, and Jeffrey Parsons, 62, both received 30 months. They were among a total of 14 who were charged in the scheme...
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One change that could help nursing homes recover from COVID-19 fears and become safer places for aging parents
Bianca Frogner
Two weeks after the first U.S. case of COVID-19 was identified in Snohomish County, Washington, in early 2020, my dad had a stroke at his home just across Puget Sound. More COVID-19 cases were about to surface at a nearby skilled nursing facility, marking the beginning of a crisis for nursing homes across the country.
My dad was incredibly lucky. It was minor stroke, and he didn’t need nursing home care. But the type of stroke he had is a leading risk factor for cognitive impairment and vascular dementia. I know that nursing care may be in his future.
Throughout the pandemic, nursing homes have been in the headlines as places with uncontrolled COVID-19 cases and social isolation, which research shows can worsen people’s health. About a third of all reported U.S. COVID-19 deaths have been in nursing homes, also making them one of the most dangerous places to work.
As the only child of aging parents, the stories from the pandemic left me worried about the idea of handing over the responsibility of caregiving to a nursing home someday. As an expert in health care delivery systems who has called upon policymakers to prioritize nursing homes throughout the pandemic, I know it does not have to be this way.
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Social math is key to J&J vaccine hesitancy
Sandra Vamos, EdD, Francesca Decker, MD, MPH, Jennifer Van Syckle, and Lawrence Weru write in a KevinMD post:
United States health officials have lifted the 10-day pause of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) COVID vaccine. This pause dealt a devastating blow to the nationwide vaccination effort. The seven-day moving average of vaccinations in the U.S. peaked right before the pause, and has been trending downward. Fear of developing blood clots is adding to vaccine hesitancy. Moving forward, how can we build confidence in COVID vaccines? Perhaps it’s time to take a new approach in reaching Americans.
The J&J blood clots affected women in the age range of 18-49, although cases in men are still being investigated and are present in the AstraZeneca vaccine. Prior to the pause, the rural 18-49 age group was one of the most hesitant groups to get the COVID vaccine. Vaccination rates among rural seniors also lagged their urban counterparts.
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Herd Immunity Is Proving Elusive in U.S. |
Bloomberg Quicktake
Ever since the pandemic began, people have been wondering when it will be over. First, authorities pinned their hopes on brief shutdowns. When that failed, everyone from TV commentators to armchair epidemiologists on Twitter latched onto another alluring concept: herd immunity.
The idea, first described in herds of sick cattle, is simple on paper. But in the real world, it can get complicated fast. Unlike cows, people have political and cultural differences hampering vaccinations. Meanwhile, the constantly mutating coronavirus is proving to be an elusive target.
In light of that, epidemiologists say it may be time for the public to stop fixating on a single hard-to-pin-down herd immunity number that could signal a conclusion to the pandemic. A more realistic way to imagine the end of the pandemic is a slow, gradual improvement, with many bumps on the way. Even U.S. government officials like Anthony Fauci have shied away from citing specific herd immunity figures in recent weeks.
“It’s a little bit misleading to think we are just approaching this magic number, and that when we hit it the threat is going to go away,” says Lauren Ancel Meyers, director of the Covid-19 Modeling Consortium at University of Texas at Austin. “As long as the virus is spreading in pockets of the population, it will remain a threat to all of us.”
For one thing, she notes, vaccine coverage varies widely from place to place even within the U.S.
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Inside
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