Several states should expect fewer doses next week of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus disease 2019 vaccine; a new analysis finds that prescription opioid use has dropped by 60% since 2011; availability of intensive care unit (ICU) beds in Southern California reaches 0%.
The Hill reports that the Trump administration has been informing governors of several states to expect fewer doses next week of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) than had been originally planned. In Washington, Governor Jay Inslee tweeted that his state’s allocation of the vaccine was cut by 40%, with Maryland Governor Larry Hogan also stating its allocations would be less than expected. As Hogan noted, officials provide states with projections on what will be shipped at the beginning of the week; these projections are then updated and finalized on Friday to ship on Sunday.
According to STAT, a new analysis indicates that prescription opioid use has dropped by 60% since the height of prescriptions filled for opioids in 2011. On a per capita basis, 29 opioid pills were used per person in the United States last year, a 29% drop from 2011, with a further 17% forecasted drop this year from 2019 in the number of morphine milligram equivalents, which is the measure used to describe potency of pain relief. By year’s end, usage is expected to drop down to levels not observed in nearly 2 decades.
Yesterday, the availability of intensive care unit (ICU) beds across Southern California reached 0%, with officials warning that conditions in hospitals are expected to grow worse if the pandemic continues to spread without intervention. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, the lack of ICU beds will cause hospitals to prioritize the sickest patients to receive the highest levels of care possible, with patients in less severe condition being placed in other areas of the hospital, such as a recovery area or in the emergency department for extended periods.
Urticaria Diagnosis Challenged by Overlapping Pruritic Skin Conditions
April 23rd 2025Urticaria is complicated to diagnose by its symptomatic overlap with other skin conditions and the frequent misclassification in literature of distinct pathologies like vasculitic urticaria and bullous pemphigus.
Read More
New Research Challenges Assumptions About Hospital-Physician Integration, Medicare Patient Mix
April 22nd 2025On this episode of Managed Care Cast, Brady Post, PhD, lead author of a study published in the April 2025 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care®, challenges the claim that hospital-employed physicians serve a more complex patient mix.
Listen
Personalized Care Key as Tirzepatide Use Expands Rapidly
April 15th 2025Using commercial insurance claims data and the US launch of tirzepatide as their dividing point, John Ostrominski, MD, Harvard Medical School, and his team studied trends in the use of both glucose-lowering and weight-lowering medications, comparing outcomes between adults with and without type 2 diabetes.
Listen
ACOs’ Focus on Rooting Out Fraud Aligns With CMS Vision Under Oz
April 23rd 2025Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are increasingly playing the role of data sleuths as they identify and report trends of anomalous billing in hopes of salvaging their shared savings. This mission dovetails with that of CMS, which under the new administration plans to prioritize rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse.
Read More