Friday Stats and More

David Ermer–COVID-19, No Surprises Act–

Based on the Centers for Disease Control’s (“CDC”) Covid Data Tracker and using Thursday as the first day of the week, here is the FEHBlog’s latest weekly chart of new Covid cases for 2022.

Omicron reigned from before Week 1 through Week 15. Its siblings began to take over in week 15 and still reign.

The CDC’s weekly review of its Covid statistics adds

As of August 17, 2022, the current 7-day moving average of daily new cases (95,652) decreased 9.9% compared with the previous 7-day moving average (106,116).

CDC Nowcast projections* for the week ending August 20, 2022, estimate that the combined national proportion of lineages designated as Omicron will continue to be 100% with the predominant Omicron lineage being BA.5, projected at 88.9% (95% PI 87.6-90.1%).

Here’s the CDC’s latest daily trends chart of new Covid admissions

The CDC’s weekly review adds, “The current 7-day daily average for August 10–16, 2022, was 5,690. This is a 6.1% decrease from the prior 7-day average (6,059) from August 3–9, 2022.”

Here is the FEHBlog’s weekly chart of new Covid deaths, which like new Covid cases, has plateaued for months but is trending down somewhat.

The CDC’s weekly review adds, “The current 7-day moving average of new deaths (394) has decreased 10.7% compared with the previous 7-day moving average (442).”

Here is the FEHBlog’s weekly chart of Covid vaccinations distributed and administered over the Covid vaccination era, which began in the 51st week of 2022.

The CDC’s weekly review adds,

As of August 17, 2022, 607.6 million vaccine doses have been administered in the United States. Overall, about 262.3 million people, or 79.0% of the total U.S. population, have received at least one dose of vaccine. About 223.7 million people, or 67.4% of the total U.S. population, have been fully vaccinated.

The CDC’s weekly chart includes this charts on the administration of the first and second boosters:

Medpage Today offers Physicians Address Parents’ Concerns on COVID Vaccines in Young Kids, and the New York Times provides expert medical opinions on whether to delay the fourth dose of vaccine for the bivalent vaccine in the fall.

To sum up, the CDC’s weekly review leads off with a discussion of how to stay safe from Covid in school and reminds us the check the Communities tracker, which honestly has not turned out to be that informative in the aggregate:

To check your COVID-19 Community Level, visit COVID Data Tracker. To learn which prevention measures are recommended based on your COVID-19 Community Level, visit COVID-19 Community Level and COVID-19 Prevention.

Friday’s big, late-breaking news is the Affordable Care Act’s regulators’ release of the final No Surprises Act Independent Dispute Resolution rule following provider and court objections to the interim final rule with comments.

The departments continue to work to implement and put into effect the Jan. 1, 2022, consumer protection law to help curb surprise billing for medical care. Today’s final rules will make certain medical claims payment processes more transparent for providers and clarify the process for providers and health insurance companies to resolve their disputes. * * *

In addition to issuing the final rules, the departments are issuing [28 pages of Frequently Asked Questions Part 55 with guidance on implementing the requirements of the No Surprises Act, including those related to surprise billing protections, open negotiation and the federal IDR process.

Also available: