Free COVID-19 Home Tests for Blind and Low-Vision Users Now Available

Comagine Health | Aug 31st, 2022

Online ordering has resumed for free COVID-19 home tests for blind and low-vision users.

Officials ask those who order the Ellume COVID home tests only make the request if they do not have a way to use the other types of tests, such as assistive technology or a trusted family member or friend who can assist.

The tests will be available until supplies run out and can be ordered through a dedicated webpage or by calling 1-800-232-0233.

If you are able to use the other COVID-19 at-home tests and have not placed a third order, you can order online through the main ordering page or by calling 1-800-232-0233. This program will be suspended on Sept. 2.

CMS: ACOs Saved Medicare $1.6B Overall in 2021 as Big Changes on the Horizon

Fierce Healthcare | By Robert King
 
Accountable care organizations saved Medicare $1.66 billion last year as value-based care providers brace for potential major changes to the program like new health equity measures.
 
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced [last] Tuesday that 2021 was the fifth year in a row that ACOs generated overall savings for Medicare and met quality targets. The announcement comes roughly a month after the agency proposed several changes to entice smaller ACOs to enter the program and prevent an erosion of participation. 
 
“Accountable Care Organizations are a true Affordable Care Act (ACA) success story, and it is inspiring to see the results year after year,” said CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure in a statement.
 
CMS reported that 99% of all ACOs in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) met quality standards, and approximately 58% earned shared savings for abiding by spending targets. An ACO agrees to take on a certain degree of financial risk and to meet spending and quality benchmarks.
 
The ACO gets a share of any savings if Medicare spending is below the benchmark and must repay the federal government if it spends too much. 
 
“The type of ACOs that saw more net savings tended to be low-revenue, meaning they were mainly made up of physicians, included a small hospital, or served rural areas,” according to a CMS release on the findings. 
 
A low-revenue ACO generated $237 in savings per capita while higher-revenue programs got $124 in net savings per capita. 
 
CMS also found that physician-led ACOs generated particularly high savings. ACOs that are comprised of 75% primary care physicians or more saw $281 in net savings compared with $149 in net savings for ACOs that had fewer physicians.
 
“These results underscore how important primary care is to the success of the Shared Savings Program and demonstrate how the program supports primary care providers,” CMS said.
 
CMS told Fierce Healthcare that ACOs overall generated $3.6 billion in gross savings for Medicare when not accounting for shared savings payments.
 
In 2020, ACOs generated $4.5 billion in gross savings for Medicare and nearly $2 billion after factoring in the shared savings payments. 
 
The additional savings were notable since ACOs were still facing the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, advocates say. 

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Omicron-Specific Covid Booster Shots Are Just Weeks Away. Here’s Who Will—and Won’t—Be Eligible

CNBC | By Annika Kim Constantino

Newly updated Covid booster shots designed to target omicron’s BA.5 subvariant should be available within in the next three weeks. That begs an important question: Who’s going to be eligible to get them?

The short answer: anyone ages 12 and up who has completed a primary vaccination series, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesperson tells CNBC Make It. It’s unlikely to matter whether you’ve received any other booster doses or not before, the spokesperson says — but if you’re unvaccinated, you won’t be eligible for the updated formula until you complete a primary series with the existing Covid vaccines.

The longer answer is somewhat more complex, because it depends on which booster shots get approved and when.

Pfizer’s “bivalent” shot, which targets both the original Covid strain and omicron’s BA.5 subvariant, is expected to be authorized first. The CDC says it’ll likely come with a wide eligibility swath: the full group of vaccinated Americans ages 12 and up.

Moderna’s bivalent shot is expected to follow suit later, most likely in October. It’ll come with a somewhat narrower range of eligibility, at least at first: vaccinated people ages 18 and older. For both shots, younger pediatric age groups could become eligible later, the CDC says.

Those projections are tentative, at least for now. A person familiar with the matter told NBC News on Wednesday that it’ll hinge on how much supply Pfizer and Moderna are able to manufacture and roll out by next month. If that supply is limited, the shots could first be available to those most at risk, such as the elderly and immunocompromised.

Federal health officials believe the shots will provide the best level of protection against the highly transmissible BA.5 subvariant to date, especially in the fall and winter when a large wave of Covid infections is projected to hit the U.S.

“It’s going to be really important that people this fall and winter get the new shot. It’s designed for the virus that’s out there,” Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House’s Covid response coordinator, said at a virtual event hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation on Tuesday.

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Whole Person Health: What You Need to Know

What is whole person health?

Whole person health involves looking at the whole person—not just separate organs or body systems—and considering multiple factors that promote either health or disease. It means helping and empowering individuals, families, communities, and populations to improve their health in multiple interconnected biological, behavioral, social, and environmental areas. Instead of treating a specific disease, whole person health focuses on restoring health, promoting resilience, and preventing diseases across a lifespan.

Why is whole person health important?

Health and disease are not separate, disconnected states but instead occur on a path that can move in two different directions, either toward health or toward disease.

On this path, many factors, including one’s biological makeup; some unhealthy behaviors, such as poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, chronic stress, and poor sleep; as well as social aspects of life—the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age—can lead to chronic diseases of more than one organ system. On the other hand, self-care, lifestyle, and behavioral interventions may help with the return to health.

Chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and degenerative joint disease, can also occur with chronic pain, depression, and opioid misuse—all conditions exacerbated by chronic stress. Some chronic diseases increase the immediate and long-term risks with COVID-19 infection. Understanding the condition in which a person has lived, addressing behaviors at an early stage, and managing stress can not only prevent multiple diseases but also help restore health and stop the progression to disease across a person’s lifespan.

Is whole person health being used now in health care? . . .

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