Unspent Billions in Provider Relief Fund Likely to Raise Eyebrows

October 28, 2021 - The revelation that nearly $27 billion remains in the Provider Relief Fund begs the question: Did the federal government do enough to help providers weather the coronavirus pandemic?

Analysis Reveals Billions of Dollars Sitting in Provider Relief Fund

There are still tens of billions of dollars sitting the Provider Relief Fund, a pool of grants specifically for healthcare providers who have reported or are still experiencing pandemic-related losses and extra costs.

An analysis from the Urban Institute, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, determined that the Provider Relief Fund has $26.8 billion of the total $178 billion waiting to be distributed to providers as of October 2021.

Of that unspent money, $7.1 billion is unallocated, meaning HHS has yet to announce how it plans to disburse the funds to healthcare providers. And that pool is likely to grow in the coming months, researchers pointed out, as providers return unspent grants because they cannot meet terms and conditions, including the requirement they spend the funds within a year of receipt. Already, providers have returned $8 billion in grants. READ MORE

Language Barriers Negatively Impacting Home Health Outcomes

Home health patients who prefer to speak a language other than English saw hospital readmission rates two percentage points higher than those who speak English, underscoring the presence of language barriers as a social determinant of health.

The data, presented by researchers from the New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing, indicated that language barriers are particularly pressing in the home health setting because of limited access to interpretive services.

Among patients who reported in their EHRs that they preferred a language other than English, 20.4 percent saw a 30-day hospital readmission. This compares to the 18.6 percent hospital readmission rate among English speakers. But there were outcomes disparities even across those who preferred a language other than English. Home health patients who preferred to speak Spanish or Russian were more likely to have a 30-day hospital readmission than those who preferred to speak Chinese or Korean, the researchers found. READ MORE

23andMe Acquisition Expands the Company into Primary Care

Consumer genetics and research company 23andMe has announced plans to acquire the telehealth platform Lemonaid Health to increase access to personalized primary care.

Following the merger, 23andMe consumers will have access to Lemonaid Health’s telehealth services and prescription medication delivery service.

The telehealth platform offers timely online visits with a licensed doctor or nurse practitioner, according to the press release. Individuals can receive consultation and treatment for mental and physical health conditions, including depression, anxiety, high blood pressure, and migraines. Consumers can also use the telehealth platform to order tests for COVID-19, STIs, A1C blood sugar, cholesterol levels, and blood type. Individuals can receive prompt prescription drug deliveries at no cost with same-day medicine shipping, as well. READ MORE

Genetic Biomarkers Predict Severity of COVID-19 Infection

Using predictive analytics, the University of Colorado School of Medicine and UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital scientists have found specific genetic biomarkers that show who is infected with COVID-19 and determine who could develop a severe infection.

Researchers suggest that specific signals from a process called DNA methylation differ in those infected and those not infected with COVID-19. Additionally, they can predict the severity of the disease in the early stages.

To predict clinical outcomes, researchers analyzed the epigenome in blood samples from people with and without COVID-19. The team then customized a tool from Illumina called the Infinium Methylation EPIC array to improve immune response detection. The researchers then examined data and peripheral blood samples from 164 COVID-19 patients and 296 control patients. READ MORE

Payers Must Address Heavy Toll of COVID-19 on Senior Mental Health

From the beginning, it was clear that seniors’ lives would be turned upside down as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, but Humana’s survey of over 1,000 seniors reveal the severe toll the pandemic has taken on senior mental health and social health.

One of the most striking results of the survey was that, despite the rise in mental and behavioral healthcare needs and the expanded access to telemental and telebehavioral services that the pandemic brought, only three percent of seniors had accessed mental healthcare.

Isolation spiked among the senior population, with half of all seniors saying they spent more time by themselves. Not only were they not connecting with as many people, but seniors were also spending less time doing the things that they enjoy.

Women ages 64 and older had a greater likelihood of reporting sadness and a decline in independence. Slightly over a quarter report that they felt sad more often and one in five said that their autonomy had become more restricted. READ MORE

Artificial Intelligence, APIs to Be Used to Enhance Diagnostic Accuracy

VisualDx and Janssen Biotech recently partnered to pilot a new application programming interface (API) and equitable artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance diagnostic accuracy. 

The interface will allow providers and other healthcare technology companies to bring VisualDx’s CDS into third-party applications to improve overall health conditions, especially for marginalized patient populations.

Notably, VisualDx technology can bring expertise on people of color to providers of all specialties. For over 20 years, VisualDx has focused on building solutions that reduce racial and other forms of bias in the clinical decision-making process. The company has continued to maintain thousands of professional diagnostic medical images in its collection. Currently, there are over one-third of those images in pigmented skin. READ MORE