Curated public health stories for this week from my reading shelf for Week 35 of 2021.
I.
“Compared with other highly vaccinated countries, large parts of the United States have many vulnerable seniors, helping spur hospitalization and death.”
II.
“While health care spending plummeted early in the pandemic, recent analysis show that health care spending is rebounding. Overall health spending was up 3.4% in the fourth quarter of 2020, as compared to 2019. Over the full year, 2020 health spending was down 1% overall compared to 2019, although the impact of COVID-19 varied by type of provider. Spending on physician office visits was down 3.8% for the year, hospital spending was relatively stable (0.1% higher than 2019), while laboratory spending increased 9.1%.”
Read more from here.
III.
“The landscape has since changed, as the pandemic persists into its second year. Federal law still requires insurers to cover testing at no cost to the patient when there is a medical reason for seeking care, such as exposure to the disease or a display of symptoms. But more of the tests sought now don’t meet the definition of “medical reason” and are instead for monitoring.”
Read more from here
Disclaimer: Posts and opinions are my own and do not reflect the views of my employer.
Jina Dcruz 