Monday Musings

The Wall Street Journal reports today that

There have been at least 19 million U.S. cases of the flu this season, 180,000 hospitalizations, and 10,000 deaths, according to preliminary estimates from the CDC. There were 61,000 flu-related deaths in 2017-18 and 34,200 deaths in 2018-19. Public health experts say the levels of hospitalization are similar to recent seasons, but deaths are lower than usual and outpatient reports of influenza-like illness remain elevated.

The article adds that

More than half of the positive influenza test results from public health laboratories this flu season have been in children and adults under the age of 25, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent weekly influenza report. That’s a higher portion than in the past few years, when less than half the cases were in kids and young adults. 

The reason: The predominant strain circulating early this season was influenza B, which causes more significant illness in children than in adults. 

It makes one wonder why the Wuhan or novel coronavirus was named as a public health emergency but evidently not the flu. The FEHBlog realizes that the public health emergency declaration was intended to free up funding for an unexpected illness but even more government and press focus should be placed on the flu in the FEHBlog’s opinion.

Recently the FEHBlog mentioned a U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia decision holding that the government mandated “patient rates” applicable to individual requests for their own medical records cannot be applied to requests that direct the records to third parties. HHS’s Office for Civil Rights issued an important notice last week advising compliance with the court’s order. The FEHBlog would not be surprised to see an appellate challenge to the decision.

Last week, the Trump Administration made available to State governments a new Medicaid Healthy Adult Opportunity block grant program. The program reminds the FEHBlog of the block grant approach in the Republican’s 2017 bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Healthcare Dive reports

Analysts with Cantor Fitzgerald said they maintain a positive view on the manged care sector following the block grant news last week. “It remains to be seen if/when/how many states will opt into the initiative,” the analysts said in a recent note. “We continue to view Medicaid as a compelling growth area.”

The nation’s health insurance lobby didn’t take a position on the measure, but stressed the importance of having flexibility in the program and the need to cover everyone​.

“We support offering state policymakers flexibility to design their Medicaid programs to best meet the needs of their citizens. At the same time, funding mechanisms for Medicaid should not undermine Americans’ access to the care they need and deserve,” America’s Health Insurance Plans said in a statement Friday.

Even if states were interested in implementing the policy, legal experts told Healthcare Dive the demonstration is unlikely to get off the ground — as a fight in the courts is all but certain.

That’s unfortunate, in the FEHBlog’s opinion.