Rep. Elijah Cummings, the City of Baltimore’s Congressman and Chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee passed away this week. That Committee has oversight over OPM and the FEHBP. The FEHBlog admired Congressman Cummings for his strong endorsement of public health centers to care for lower income people. Here’s a link to a Federal News Network article and a link to OPM Director Cabaniss’s statement on Rep. Cummings’ passing. This article adds that Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a veteran Democrat from New York, will for now take over leadership of the House oversight committee, according to a senior Democratic leadership aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the decision publicly. Here’s a link to Congresswoman Maloney’s bio.
Speaking of Congress, Fierce Healthcare reports on the status of Speaker Pelosi’s bill to lower prescription drug costs. The House plans to vote on the bill which will be renamed in honor of Congressman Cummings, soon. Likelihood of its Senate passage is uncertain at best.
On the public health front:
- Here’s a CNBC article on the latest Centers for Disease Control report on the vaping crisis.
The number of fatalities continues to rise as a deadly vaping illness sweeps across the country, taking 33 lives and making 1,479 people sick so far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.
The new cases — up from 26 deaths and 1,299 illnesses a week ago — show that U.S. officials are no where closer to getting the outbreak under control since it emerged as a public health threat in July.
“This is extremely complicated and difficult. It’s fatal or potentially fatal with half of the cases requiring intensive care,” CDC Principal Deputy
- The Wall Street Journal reports also regrettably
The suicide rate among people ages 10 to 24 years old climbed 56% between 2007 and 2017, according to the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate of homicide deaths decreased by 23% from 2007 to 2014 but then increased by 18% through 2017.
Violent death, including homicide and suicide, is a major cause of premature death for the age group. Around 2010, the death rate of suicides among adolescents and young adults surpassed the rate of homicide deaths, according to the report.
“The chances of a person in this age range dying by suicide is greater than homicide, when it used to be the reverse,” said Sally Curtin, a statistician at the CDC and an author of the report. “When a leading cause of death among our youth is increasing, it behooves all of us to pay attention and figure out what’s going on.”
On the survey front
- The TransAmerica Center for Health Studies presents its annual consumer survey on health insurance.
- Health Data Management explains in the FEHBlog’s view slow but steady improvements in electronic health record interoperability. “With the advent of HL7’s FHIR specification and the proliferation of EHR vendor APIs, organizations are finding a greater ability to target specific types of data exchange for specific use-cases. The shift from exchanging heavy documents for every use case to exchanging the minimum necessary using an API-based approach opens the doors to supporting new use cases.” Fingers crossed.