On his first designed Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government. The Order recognized that although the ideal of equal opportunity is the bedrock of American democracy, entrenched disparities in our laws, public policies, and institutions too often deny equal opportunity to individuals and communities.  The President’s Order emphasized the enormous human costs of systemic racism, persistent poverty, and other disparities, and directed the Federal Government to advance an ambitious whole-of-government equity agenda that matches the scale of the challenges we face as a country and the opportunities we have to build a more perfect union.  Full article> 

###

Starting this week, the Administration will allow all pharmacies in the federal pharmacy program to order free oral antiviral treatments directly from the federal government, the White House announced today. The Administration hopes to double the number of participating pharmacies to 40,000 in the coming weeks, and to launch new Test-to-Treat locations that offer the Pfizer and Merck pills, which the Food and Drug Administration authorized in December to treat COVID-19 in patients at risk of progressing to severe disease. Pharmacies also can continue to receive the pills through their state or territorial health department. The Administration said it is working to improve the Test-to-Treat patient experience, including through telehealth options; and to provide more guidance on COVID-19 treatments to prescribers and clinicians. [AHA 4.26.2022]

###
 

An initiative to boost the health and economic prosperity of 18 south and west side Chicago neighborhoods made significant progress in hiring area residents, according to a recent report.

The report by the Chicago Hospital Engagement, Action, and Leadership Initiative, launched in 2018 by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and a coalition of 10 hospitals, found those organizations hired an annual average of 3,535 individuals from the underserved neighborhoods, a 21 percent increase from 2018.

Additionally, the report found that 3,571 hospital staff were trained to screen patients for social determinants of health needs, a 242 percent increase since 2018, and an annual average of 4,212 victims of violence received post-injury trauma recovery services, a 130 percent increase from 2018.

Work was also done to improve the workforce pipeline in those underserved communities, with 4,921 high school and college students from those neighborhoods participating in workforce development programs in 2021, a 28 percent increase from 2018.

“Despite normally being competitors in the healthcare sector, these hospitals banded together to engage their communities and address the root causes of violence,” Durbin said in a statement. “I’ve been proud to work with them and the Illinois Health and Hospital Association and I believe the activities and commitments of these hospitals provides a roadmap that will continue to make a difference across Chicago and beyond.”

Durbin also announced last week that nearly $5.8 million in federal funds will head to organizations in Chicago that are working to address community mental health, housing, job training and violence prevention.

Illinois Health and Hospital Association CEO A.J. Wilhelmi said they're committed to continuing the work of the initiative.

 “It's about changing lives," he said in a statement.

###

Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center.

About 30% of COVID-19 patients developed the condition known as long COVID, UCLA researchers said in a study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. [Medscape 4.21.2022]

The UCLA researchers studied 1,038 people enrolled in the UCLA COVID Ambulatory Program between April 2020 and February 2021. Researchers found that 309 of them developed long COVID.

A long COVID diagnosis came if a patient answering a questionnaire reported persistent symptoms 60-90 days after they were infected or hospitalized. The most persistent symptoms were fatigue (31%) and shortness of breath (15%) in hospitalized participants. Among outpatients, 16% reported losing sense of smell.

Full article here> 

###

World Health Organization (WHO) has defined a child is as “a person less than 19 years of age unless there is a separate definition as per the national law”. Adolescent period refers to the age group of 10 to 19 years.5 The prevalence of obesity is mounting at an alarming rate in this Century. It is a risk factor which is highly preventable and primordial prevention is the key to bring down the rates of adolescent obesity. In the year 2016, around 340 million children were noted to be overweight across the world. The preva-ence of obesity in childhood has risen four-fold since 1980s. WHO has set cut off values for identifying overweight and obesity for children aged 5-19 years taking into consideration the age and sex of children as body weight varies accordingly.6, [National Journal of Community Health 1.2022]

Download article here> 

###

CHICAGO—The Institute of Medicine of Chicago  2022 Healthcare Awards are open for nominations. The seven award categories are open to all through May 2-4, 2022. There is no fee to submit an entry. Awards will be presented at the 2022 Annual Meeting on June 30, 2022. The awards presentation will be held at VenueSix 10 in Chicago, Illinois. Consider honoring a colleague for their outstanding efforts by nominating them for an award. 

Questions? Contact us by sending an email to iomcstaff@iomc.org. Please state 2022 Healthcare Awards in the Subject line. 

Download News Release here>

Visit the webpage here> 

###

A bill recently passed by the House and under consideration in the Senate caps insulin payments at $35 a month for individuals with Medicare or private health insurance. The legislation speaks directly to the crisis in affordability for a life-saving medicine, but in the long term it is just shuffling the deck rather than changing the game of insulin costs. [MedPage Today 4.19.2022]

Like a lot of high stakes games, this one takes place in back rooms, and certainly out of view of patients and doctors. Many believe drug manufacturers run the game because it involves steadily rising list prices, which they set. 

The Crisis

We are in the midst of a diabetes epidemic. In Medicare alone, about one-third of beneficiaries had diabetes in 2017, up from 18% in 2000. Beneficiaries' mean out-of-pocket spending on insulin has nearly doubled over the last decade. In a recent study, we found that out-of-pocket spending increased considerably in the coverage gap for most users with Part D coverage, which was associated with a substantial reduction in adherence.

###