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By Alia Paavola for Becker’s Hospital Review CMS on July 29 released its annual final payment rules for hospices, inpatient psychiatric facilities, inpatient rehabilitation facilities and skilled nursing facilities. Sixteen things to know about the rules: Hospices Under the final rule, hospices will see a 2 percent increase in payments for fiscal year 2022, compared…
By Clarissa Barnes, MD for Becker’s Hospital Review Most states are adjusting mask mandates and policies after the CDC updated its guidelines May 13. Americans who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 no longer need to wear masks or follow social distancing guidelines in most indoor settings, according to the CDC. Some states — including Alabama, Alaska, Arizona,…
By Elizabeth S. Goar for For the Record As vaccination efforts roll ahead, larger questions about the country’s public health infrastructure have emerged. As of the beginning of May, about 31% of the US population had received two COVID-19 vaccine doses since the first pair of vaccines received FDA approval in late December. That figure,…
By Erica Carbajal for Becker’s Hospital Review Early in the COVID-19 crisis, herd immunity, occurring when most of a population has immunity based on prior infection or vaccination, was considered a way out of the pandemic. Now, experts are saying such a threshold is unattainable, The New York Times reported May 3. That’s in part due to the…
By Maia Anderson for Becker’s Hospital Review Both CVS and Walgreens are now offering COVID-19 tests over-the-counter. CVS said April 19 it is offering three types of tests in stores and online — the Ellume COVID-19 home test, Abbott’s BinaxNOW COVID-19 antigen self-test, and Labcorp’s Pixel PCR test home collection kit. All three tests are available without…
By Elizabeth Weise for USA Today If you get the choice, which COVID-19 vaccine should you choose? For now, experts are clear: The best vaccine is the one about to go into your arm. But as the vaccine supply grows, Americans eventually might find someone asking, “Which vaccine do you want?” The answer for most…
By Susan Chapman, MA, MFA, PGYT for For the Record As the health care industry continues to evolve, an important question has come to the forefront: How is higher education addressing the demands and changes while also producing prospective employees who will become reliable contributors upon graduation? Addressing Industry Demands Peter Winkelstein, MD, Kaleida Health’s…
By Katie Adams for Becker’s Hospital Review Zocdoc founder and former CEO Cyrus Massoumi recently launched Dr. B, a platform that matches Americans seeking COVID-19 vaccines with leftover doses so they don’t go to waste, The New York Times reported March 9. Pfizer and Moderna vaccines must be administered within hours once they’re taken out…
By Erica Carbajal for Becker’s Hospital Review About 71 percent of young nurses said they felt overwhelmed over the past year, according to survey results published March 10 — just ahead of the March 11 anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic’s start. The American Nurses Foundation, the charitable branch of the American Nurses Association, collected responses from…
By Katie Adams for Becker’s Hospital Review CMS published specific codes for billing Medicare for Eli Lilly’s COVID-19 antibody cocktail. The FDA granted emergency use authorization Feb. 9 to the antibody cocktail, a combination of antibodies bamlanivimab and etesevimab. The agency granted emergency use authorization to bamlanivimab Nov. 9. The new approval is based on phase…