- Center on Health Equity & Access
- Clinical
- Health Care Cost
- Health Care Delivery
- Insurance
- Policy
- Technology
- Value-Based Care
What We're Reading: Trump Taking Hydroxychloroquine; COVID-19 Vaccine Shows Promise; CDC Finds Alarming Vaccination Rates
President Trump announced yesterday he was taking hydroxychloroquine as a preventive measure for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) despite reported adverse effects and lack of beneficial evidence; Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine shows early promise; CDC finds less than half of infants 5 months or younger are on track for vital vaccinations.
Health Experts Alarmed By Trump’s Hydroxychloroquine Use
Weeks after the FDA cautioned against the use of hydroxychloroquine for treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) due to the risk of serious heart problems and other complications, President Trump announced yesterday that he was taking the drug despite testing negative for the virus. Reported by POLITICO, the admission prompted major concern from health experts, as the treatment has been shown in observational studies to have little to no proven benefits for patients with COVID-19. Moreover, few studies have shown a benefit from taking the drug as a prophylactic measure.
Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine Shows Early Promise
According to early data on the first COVID-19 vaccine to be tested in the United States, manufacturer Moderna Inc said its vaccine was safe and produced protective antibodies in a small group of healthy volunteers. Reported by Reuters, findings from the 8 study participants showed that those who received a 100-μg dose and people who received a 25-μg dose had levels of protective antibodies that exceeded those found in the blood of patients who recovered from the virus. Currently, the Moderna vaccine is 1 of more than 100 under development for protection against COVID-19.
CDC Study Finds Alarming Drop in Vaccination Rates
Based on a study conducted by the CDC, vaccination rates in May for children younger than 2 years in Michigan dropped to alarmingly low levels, with fewer than half (49.7%) of infants 5 months or younger shown to be on track for vaccinations of diseases such as measles and pertussis. Reported by The New York Times, the risk of infection for these diseases may have been mitigated in the past 2 months from residents following stay-at-home orders, but as states begin to ease restrictions, health experts have become fearful of potential outbreaks.
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
