Weekend update

Photo by Tomasz Filipek on Unsplash

Both Houses of Congress are working on floor and committee business this week. Here are links to the House floor schedule, the Senate floor schedule and the Committee business schedule. Nothing particularly interesting from an FEHBP standpoint.

In contrast, this week from Tuesday through Thursday, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and America’s Health Insurance Plans will hold the annual FEHB carrier conference. This will be the longest conference in the FEHBlog’s memory.

In that regard, “The Alliance for Fertility Preservation (AFP) commends the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for including coverage for fertility preservation in its annual call for benefit and rate proposals from Federal Employee Health Benefit (FEHB) Program carriers. This coverage would allow for fertility preservation services related to infertility caused by medical treatment (iatrogenic infertility).”

The AFP estimates that in the United States, approximately 160,000 people between ages 0-44 are diagnosed with cancer each year. Most of these patients will face treatments including chemotherapy, radiation, and/or surgery that can damage reproductive cells (eggs and sperm), reproductive organs, or impact the ability to carry a pregnancy. Because this damage treatment-based, it can affect patients with any type of cancer. Patients with other conditions requiring similar therapies are also at risk.

Fertility preservation is now considered part of the standard of care for age-eligible patients. Guidelines supporting fertility preservation have been issued by the relevant medical associations, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), and the American Medical Association (AMA).

This new benefit for 2022 is a carrier conference topic on Tuesday.

From the COVID-19 front, the FEHBlog and his wife attended the socially distanced and fan-masked Washington Nationals game this afternoon. Walking from the parking lot to Nationals Park, we walked by a CVS pharmacy which had a sign reading COVID-19 vaccinations available here. We went into the pharmacy, and the FEHBlog noticed a staff member at a table waiting to sign up people for the vaccine. The FEHBlog was so happy.

Health Payer Intelligence discusses how the Blue Cross Blue Shield plans are “aiming to be a community resource to ensure shots are administered. Reed Melton, vice president of clinical operations at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), told Fierce Healthcare that the group’s member plans are partnering with regional and community organizations to tackle vaccine hesitancy and support administration efforts. “We have a full-court press from Honolulu to San Juan,” Melton said.  At the national level, BCBSA has partnered with Feeding America to offer educational materials on COVID-19 vaccines to people at 200 food banks, which can reach 40 million Americans.”

Last week the Centers for Disease Control reported to providers of care about so-called vaccine breakthrough cases of COVID-19.

Vaccine breakthrough cases occur in only a small percentage of vaccinated persons. To date, no unexpected patterns have been identified in the case demographics or vaccine characteristics among people with reported vaccine breakthrough infections.COVID-19 vaccines are effective. CDC recommends that all eligible people get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as one is available to them.

The Wall Street Journal reports today that

President Biden’s chief medical adviser said he expects Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine to return to use in the U.S. by Friday, after a pause because of concerns about blood clots in several patients. “I would be very surprised…if we don’t have a resumption in some form by Friday,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told CBS’s “Face the Nation,” echoing remarks he made on other networks Sunday.

The American Medical Association has shared information about what physicians should know about this blood clot issue.