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By Mike Stobbe – The Associated Press

April 12, 2022

NEW YORK (AP) — 2021 was the deadliest year in U.S. history, and new data and research are offering more insights into how it got that bad.

The main reason for the increase in deaths? COVID-19, said Robert Anderson, who oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s work on death statistics.

The agency this month quietly updated its provisional death tally. It showed there were 3.465 million deaths last year, or about 80,000 more than 2020′s record-setting total.

Early last year, some experts were optimistic that 2021 would not be as bad as the first year of the pandemic — partly because effective COVID-19 vaccines had finally become available.

“We were wrong, unfortunately,” said Noreen Goldman, a Princeton University researcher.

COVID-19 deaths rose in 2021 – to more than 415,000, up from 351,000 the year before – as new coronavirus variants emerged and an unexpectedly large numbers of Americans refused to get vaccinated or were hesitant to wear masks, experts said.

The coronavirus is not solely to blame. Preliminary CDC data also shows the crude death rate for cancer rose slightly, and rates continued to increase for diabetes, chronic liver disease and stroke.

Drug overdose deaths also continued to rise. The CDC does not yet have a tally for 2021 overdose deaths, because it can take weeks of lab work and investigation to identify them. But provisional data through October suggests the nation is on track to see at least 105,000 overdose deaths in 2021 – up from 93,000 the year before.

New research released Tuesday showed a particularly large jump in overdose deaths among 14- to 18-year-olds.

Adolescent overdose death counts were fairly constant for most of the last decade, at around 500 a year, according to the paper published by the Journal of the American Medical Association. They almost doubled in 2020, to 954, and the researchers estimated that the total hit nearly 1,150 last year.

Joseph Friedman, a UCLA researcher who was the paper’s lead author, called the spike “unprecedented.”

Those teen overdose deaths were only around 1% of the U.S. total. But adolescents experienced a greater relative increase than the overall population, even though surveys suggest drug use among teens is down.

Experts attributed the spike to fentanyl, a highly lethal drug that has been cut into heroin for several years. More recently it’s also been pressed into counterfeit pills resembling prescription drugs that teens sometimes abuse.

The total number of U.S. deaths often increases year to year as the U.S. population grows. But 2020 and 2021 saw extraordinary jumps in death numbers and rates, due largely to the pandemic.

Those national death trends affect life expectancy – an estimate of the average number of years a baby born in a given year might expect to live.

With rare exceptions, U.S. life expectancy has reliably inched up year after year. But the CDC’s life expectancy estimate for 2020 was about 77 years – more than a year and a half lower than what it was in 2019.

The CDC has not yet reported its calculation for 2021. But Goldman and some other researchers have been making their own estimates, presented in papers that have not yet been published in peer-reviewed journals.

Those researchers think U.S. life expectancy dropped another five or six months in 2021 – putting it back to where it was 20 years ago. A loss of more than two years of life expectancy over the last two years “is mammoth,” Goldman said. One study looked at death data in the U.S. and 19 other high-income countries. The U.S. fared the worst.

“What happened in the U.S. is less about the variants than the levels of resistance to vaccination and the public’s rejection of practices, such as masking and mandates, to reduce viral transmission,” one of the study’s authors, Dr. Steven Woolf of Virginia Commonwealth University, said in a statement.

Some experts are skeptical that life expectancy will quickly bounce back. They worry about long-term complications of COVID-19 that may hasten the deaths of people with chronic health problems.

Preliminary – and incomplete – CDC data suggest there were at least 805,000 U.S. deaths in about the first three months of this year. That’s well below the same period last year, but higher than the comparable period in 2020.

“We may end up with a ‘new normal’ that’s a little higher than it was before,” Anderson said.

Jan. 25, 2022 – VANTAGE Aging

Volunteers strengthen communities, but did you know that volunteer opportunities for seniors also have many benefits to a person who serves? This is especially true for older adults who spend their time giving back. Volunteerism can improve your health, relationships, and skillsets. Take a look at the benefits of volunteering for older adults. Some of them might surprise you!

Benefits of Volunteering for Older Adults

Are you an older adult thinking about helping out in your community? Here are nine things you could gain through volunteering.

1. It’s good for your mental health

Volunteering keeps the brain active, which contributes to mental health. Meaningful and productive activities can help you feel happier and have a positive outlook on life. According to the National Institute on Aging, volunteering may also lower your risk of dementia and other health issues.

2. It prevents loneliness and isolation

Social isolation is a major issue that many older adults face. The feeling of loneliness and few interactions with others can negatively impact a person’s health. Getting out into the community and volunteering promotes socialization. Plus, individuals who engage in volunteering activities experience a shorter course of depression than those who do not, according to the Corporation for National and Community Service.

3. It gives you a feeling of purpose

As we grow older, our sense of purpose might begin to fade. Children grow up and move out of the house, we retire from our jobs, and some physical activities may become more difficult. Regaining a feeling of purpose through volunteering can help older adults feel recharged with a new zest for life. It can also be a motivating factor for setting and accomplishing other goals.

4. It helps you meet new friends

Life changes, such as moving to a new neighborhood or retiring from a career, can make finding friends to spend time with difficult. Volunteering is a great way to meet new people with common interests. By working together towards the same mission, you can build friendships with like-minded peers who are finding creative solutions in your community.

5. It gives you and a loved one a way to reconnect

Do you struggle to find new activities to do with your spouse or grandchildren? Volunteering is a great way to reconnect and strengthen your relationships. Together, you can learn, help others, and make meaningful memories to share with family members and friends.

6. Volunteering for older adults increases physical activity

Physical activity is highly important when it comes to staying healthy and independent as we age. Volunteering keeps you moving, whether you are serving meals at a shelter, helping to clean up your local parks, or walking around the neighborhood with someone as a companion.

7. It bridges the generation gap

By interacting with younger generations, older adults are able to share important life lessons. On the other hand, younger generations can teach seniors new ways of looking at life. By building a connection with each other, both generations can offer respect and affirmation.

8. It helps you engage with old interests

Do you have an old hobby that has slipped to the wayside? It might be time to revisit it. Put your interests to good use by finding a volunteer activity that includes something that you used to enjoy. For example, if you retired from a teaching career, you might enjoy volunteering at a youth center.

Volunteer activities can align with almost any interest, including art, building, cooking, business, and exercise. Do some research to find the one that best fits your interests.

9. It helps you learn new skills

Sometimes, monotony can make life a little dull. If you find yourself bored or with too much time on your hands, volunteering might be just what you need to spice things up. Many volunteer activities allow you to try things you’ve never done before and learn new skills. Take a look at opportunities that are a little outside of your comfort zone. You may develop a passion you never knew you had!

Pandemic’s “rough stretch” made it tough to keep private practice doors open, advocate says

by Jennifer Henderson, Enterprise & Investigative Writer – MedPage Today

April 21, 2022

Nearly three-fourths of U.S. physicians opted for employment with hospitals, health systems, or other corporate entities, such as private equity firms and health insurers in the pandemic era, according to a new report.

In 2021, 73.9% of physicians were hospital- or corporate-employed, up from 69.3% at the start of 2021, 64.5% at the start of 2020, and 62.2% at the start of 2019, according to the nonprofit Physicians Advocacy Institute (PAI) and consulting firm Avalere. That equates to 484,100 employed physicians, up from 423,800, 391,000, and 375,400 at the start of 2021, 2020, and 2019, respectively.

Overall, 108,700 physicians shifted to employment since January 2019, and that growth was split about evenly between hospital employees (58,200) and those within other corporate entities (50,500). Notably, of those physicians, 76% (83,000) did so since the pandemic began.

“We were really taken aback by what happened during the pandemic,” Kelly Kenney, JD, CEO of PAI, told MedPage Today.

At the same time, financial pressures have mounted, and burnout and stress are at an “all-time high,” Kenney said. It has been a “rough stretch” for physicians, and “keeping private practice doors open has been an increasing challenge.”

For some independent physicians, pandemic-induced challenges may have provided the final push to seek employment, or to close or sell the practice, she said.

But Kenney also pointed out that factors that drive physicians away from private practice were in place pre-pandemic, such as the high costs of maintaining a private practice; downward pressure on insurance reimbursement; administrative burden; and business challenges for those who are trained to focus solely on delivering care.

Additionally, as private equity has moved into the marketplace, the ability to obtain capital injections into some practices has been “hard to resist,” she said. Keeping practices up-to-date with electronic health records and other technologies can prove expensive, Kenny stated, and new payment models designed to reward providers for integrated care can seem better suited for those within larger systems.

In 2021, MedPage Today reported other reasons for the decline of the independent practice, along with differing generational perspectives on physician autonomy.

The PAI report, which utilized information from the IQVIA OneKey database, stated that the acquisition of medical practices by hospitals or other corporate entities has also been on the upswing. Hospitals and corporate entities now own over half of physician practices, the report noted, with hospitals owning 26.4%, and corporate entities owning 27.2%. Also, the percentage of corporate-owned practices (private equity firms, health insurers) increased 86% over the past 3 years.

Every region of the country saw steady trends toward increased employment and hospital and corporate ownership. However, PAI highlighted some standouts, such as practices in the southern U.S. seeing a 94% increase in acquisitions by corporate entities. At 63.5%, the Midwest continued to have the highest percentage of physicians employed by hospitals and health systems.

What will be interesting going forward is whether consolidation reaches a point of flattening out, Kenney stated. “We’re getting down to a quarter of physicians,” she said.

Greg Says notes that the trend toward fewer doctors in private practice makes it easier for insurance carriers offering Medicare Advantage plans to improve their provider networks.  In turn, this means more in-network providers to choose from for patients enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans.

The annual cost of the lost wages alone is about $170 billion a year, according to the report from the Brookings Institution.

By Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder – US News and World Report

Aug. 25, 2022

Long COVID-19 is keeping between 2 million and 4 million Americans out of work, resulting in about $170 billion in lost wages annually, according to a new report.

The report from the Brookings Institution estimates that 16 million “working-age” Americans between the ages of 18-65 currently have long COVID.

“If long COVID patients don’t begin recovering at greater rates, the economic burden will continue to rise,” the report said.

The estimate for lost wages “does not represent the full economic burden of long COVID, because it does not include impacts such as the lower productivity of people working while ill, the significant health care costs patients incur or the lost productivity of caretakers,” according to the report.

With 10.7 million unfilled jobs in the U.S. as of June, the report’s high-end estimate would mean that long COVID is potentially responsible for over a third of the labor shortage.

COVID-19 cases in the U.S. are hovering at an average of about 90,000 new infections per day – a number that is certainly an underestimate due to the use of at-home tests. With so many infections and reinfections, the number of people who suffer from long COVID shows no signs of slowing, and experts say the resources to handle the tens of millions of Americans with long COVID are insufficient.

“These impacts stand to worsen over time if the U.S. does not take the necessary policy actions,” the report said.

The report identifies five government interventions to “mitigate both the economic costs and household financial impact of long COVID”: better prevention and treatment options, expanded paid sick leave, improved workplace accommodations, wider access to disability insurance and enhanced data collection on long COVID’s economic effects.

Long COVID is a “wide range of new, returning or ongoing health problems people can experience four or more weeks after first being infected with the virus that causes COVID-19,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Estimates of the prevalence of long COVID vary, but the high numbers signal that the condition will continue to be a challenge for public health policy and the economy.

Federal government estimates found that nearly 1 in 5 adults who have had COVID-19 in the past were still experiencing at least one symptom of long COVID – fatigue, shortness of breath, brain fog, chest pain and headaches among others – as of mid-June. The number jumps to more than 1 in 3 when considering adults who have experienced the condition at any point in the pandemic after COVID-19 infection.

A separate study recently found that about 1 in 8 adults who get infected with the coronavirus will develop symptoms of long COVID-19, though it didn’t include some symptoms – like brain fog – that have since been associated with long COVID.

By: Kevin Lilley

JUNE 01, 2022

Medicare beneficiaries who saw a double-digit-percentage increase in their Part B premiums for 2022 are in line for relief next year, according to a recent statement from the head of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

High expected costs connected to Aduhelm, a new Alzhemer’s drug, played a part in a 14.5% jump in premiums from 2021 to 2022 for most Part B users; an HHS statement issued May 27 calls those expectations “an overestimate” and says “the reduction in premium costs attributable to Aduhelm will be incorporated into Medicare premiums for 2023 to lower Part B premiums paid by Medicare beneficiaries.” 

Discussions of a potential rate cut took place as early as January. At the time, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said changes could come later in the year; in the recent statement, he made clear the 2022 rates would remain in place.

“We had hoped to achieve this sooner, but CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) explains that the options to accomplish this would not be feasible,” Becerra said in the statement, referencing a CMS report on the issue. 

Medicare officially announced in April its decision to cover Aduhlem only in cases where the patient participates in an official clinical trial. This will significantly reduce the number of Medicare beneficiaries eligible for the drug, which reportedly had been priced as high as $56,000 for a year’s worth of treatments – a figure that’s since been cut in half.

Neither HHS nor CMS provided any indications of an expected Part B premium for 2023, nor did they clarify whether any planned rate reduction would equate to a lower premium or simply a lower-than-expected increase, given recent inflation trends.

Greg Says is encouraged by the prospect of a lower Part B premium in 2023 considering how inflation continues to take a big bite out of our household budgets.