What major coverage transitions can we expect after the Public Health Emergency expires and state Medicaid agencies resume normal eligibility determinations and a predicted 18 million in the U.S. lose coverage?
The emergency declaration is expected to expire in April 2023 - people in Medicaid are expected to make the following...
The winter surge of COVID-19 has hit Arizona. Cases are on the rise with seniors hit especially hard. In Arizona, the influx of cases in tandem with the high volume of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases has some Arizona officials urging masking in public places and the resumption of mitigating practices.
There were 12,987 new...
New information on Long COVID is emerging as researchers investigate the causes and symptoms of the elusive condition. Meanwhile, stakeholder groups and providers are appealing to the federal government for guidance on returning to normal operating procedures as perception of the pandemic subsides.
The U.S. Department of Health and...
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has signaled that it will delay the end of the public health emergency (PHE) related to the COVID-19 pandemic until April, quelling fears from stakeholders that not enough time was given to review Medicaid eligibility for everyone enrolled since the pandemic began.
In Arizona,...
Following reported success of both the COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty and the antiviral pill Paxlovid, Pfizer has announced that it will move forward on new vaccines to combat the coronavirus pandemic and influenza at the same time. Meanwhile, stakeholders are requesting an extension of the public health emergency declaration beyond its...
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) lessened penalties for the Hospital Readmissions Reductions Program (HRRP), a Medicare program that evaluates how often patients return to a hospital within 30 days and reduces payments for hospitals with higher readmission rates. But while many hospitals...
There will likely be a winter surge of COVID-19 in the next few months, but Americans aren't receiving the bivalent booster shot that targets Omicron variants.
The daily global COVID-19 infection rate is expected to rise by two million daily cases by February, according to an analysis from the University of Washington. Reuters notes...
American's aren't rushing to the pharmacy or their doctors' office to get the bivalent booster released last month, worrying experts as a potential winter surge of COVID-19 looms on the horizon.
According to the Wall Street Journal, fewer than 5% of Americans have received the updated COVID-19 shot in the month since it was released....
Nearly 200,000 Arizonans have now received the bivalent COVID-19 booster shots that are designed to specifically counter the Omicron subvariants of the virus, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized that the shots be extended to children as young as five years old.
In Arizona, cases are down for the first week...
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease Director Dr. Anthony Fauci announced on Tuesday that there is a possibility of a new COVID-19 variant emerging this winter.
Over the past two winters, the U.S. has experienced drastic surges in cases, most recently due to the outbreak of the Omicron variant BA.1. Fauci said in his...
This week, Arizona COVID-19 levels remain the same, HHS pledges to offer monoclonal antibody treatments to the uninsured and the CDC no longer recommends universal masking in healthcare settings.
There were 3,402 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Arizona over the past week and 44 deaths related to the coronavirus. This amounts to...
Not-for-profit hospitals are struggling to stay afloat, but not for want of trying. While cash on hand is trending downward and major nonprofit hospitals are reporting massive losses, other hospitals have chosen to rigorously pursue compensation from poor patients by misleading them about financial support.
Following the federal...
In a 60 Minutes interview on Sunday, President Joe Biden announced that the COVID-19 pandemic is over, but many disagree. The Moderna Omicron-specific booster has resumed production and distribution.
The president puzzled epidemiologists, the public and members of his own administration with his remarks in an interview Sunday in which...
As experts predict a future wave of infections in the coming months, the Arizona Department of Health Services reported 6,1119 new COVID-19 cases and 82 deaths for the week ending September 10.
Most new infections and reinfections can be traced to the two subvariants of the virus BA.4 and the dominant BA.5, which can evade antibodies...
The Omicron-specific bivalent booster shots have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As the nation pivots to encourage annual vaccinations, Arizona gears up to rollout the new booster shots to seniors before the expected winter surge of COVID-19 sets...
The Copper Queen Community Hospital in Bisbee has started planning an expansion of its surgical department, bucking the trend of rural hospital closures, like Santa Cruz Regional Valley Hospital in Green Valley, which closed abruptly in June.
Copper Queen CEO Robert Seamon said that the hospital's current size limits service...
On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration authorize the first subvariant-specific "redesign" of the COVID-19 vaccine, with the rollout projected to begin as early as next week.
Each day, the U.S. records an average of 90,000 new infections of COVID-19 and 475 new deaths, largely driven by the COVID-19 Omicron subvariants BA.4 and...
The healthcare worker shortage and inflation concerns will compress margins for non-profit hospitals and health systems for the rest of the year, according to the Fitch Ratings Sector Outlook for mid-2022.
The Fitch Ratings report described the non-profit health sector as "deteriorating," which is a downgrade from the "neutral"...
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have adjusted guidance for individuals exposed to or infected with COVID-19, relaxing rules and focusing on individual risk management. The CDC has also admitted error in its COVID-19 response and announced a restructuring for federal responses to future contagion outbreaks.
In...
The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), a nonprofit non-governmental organization that provides national advice on health policy and biomedical science has issued a peer-reviewed special publication, "Emerging Stronger from COVID-19: Priorities on Health System Transformation," on reforming the American health system following the...
