Today’s NewsStand

Today’s NewsStand

By Iowa Hospital Association|
|August 26, 2022

Iowa news

COVID-19 cases in Iowa are down, but hospitalizations are up

New reported COVID-19 cases dropped slightly in Iowa this week, but hospitalizations for the disease increased, according to data released by the Iowa Department of Public Health and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Over the past seven days, 4,802 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Iowa, according to the state health department, or an average of about 686 per day. It’s a small decrease from the week prior, when the state averaged about 703 cases per day. This is the fourth consecutive week that new reported COVID-19 cases have fallen after peaking around 846 cases per day in the week ending July 27. (Des Moines Register)

Care Initiatives, Accura partner with American Health Plans for coordinated care

Two operators of long-term care facilities in Iowa — Care Initiatives and Accura Healthcare — have formed a partnership with American Health Plans. The partnership, which will be implemented in 65 Iowa facilities, will give residents of participating Care Initiatives and Accura Healthcare locations the opportunity to join American Health Plans’ provider-owned Institutional Special Needs Plan. These Medicare Advantage special needs plans specifically cater to Medicare recipients who live in skilled nursing facilities. (Business Record)

Burlington selected as location for five-bed intensive residential service home

Burlington has been chosen to host a five-bed intensive residential service home that will serve 19 counties in Iowa. The Medicaid-funded program, the site for which has been acquired and is expected to open Oct. 1, is the result of legislation aimed at improving Iowa’s mental health system that Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law in 2018. That legislation requires that mental health regions establish homes that provide continuous community-based services to those with persistent mental illness and functional impairments. (The Hawk Eye)

 

National news

Amazon’s presence in health care is growing

Amazon is increasing its presence in health care as it accelerates its pursuit of acquisitions, partnerships and investments. Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud storage service that stores health data for many hospitals and health systems, has a natural language processing system that’s been pretrained to understand and extract health data from medical text, such as prescriptions, procedures or diagnoses. Amazon also has set up initiatives to transform pharmacy, the medical supply chain, health insurance and care delivery. (Becker’s Health IT and CIO Report)

Got your monkeypox vaccine? Be prepared for these side effects.

If you’ve gotten vaccinated for monkeypox, you may be familiar with “the lump.” Since the viral outbreak reached the U.S. this summer, many people have taken to social media to report side effects of the Jynneos vaccine, which can be injected into the skin or, more traditionally, below the skin. One common complaint is a red bump at the injection site lasting for two to three weeks, if not longer. But experts reassure that it’s not a “weird” or “permanent” reaction. A temporary lump on your arm is normal for any vaccination, but it is particularly expected with the Jynneos vaccine. (Des Moines Register)

Moderna sues Pfizer, BioNTech alleging patent infringement over COVID-19 vaccine

Moderna is suing Pfizer and BioNTech, alleging the two companies copied Moderna’s technology to make its COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty. The patent infringement lawsuits were filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts and the Regional Court of Düsseldorf in Germany. Moderna said it filed patents between 2010 and 2016 for its mRNA technology, which was critical in the company’s creation of its COVID-19 vaccine. The company alleges Pfizer and BioNTech then copied that same technology for Comirnaty. (NBC News)

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