Tuesday, February 15, 2022

REGISTER: IHA Virtual Legislative Advocacy Meetings

Free Monthly TB Webinar 2/23

CMS Delays Hospital Star Ratings Update

Illinois COVID-19 Update

Briefly Noted

REGISTER: IHA Virtual Legislative Advocacy Meetings

Over the next several weeks, the Illinois General Assembly will focus on the Illinois budget and other high-priority policy issues—including reauthorization of the Hospital Assessment Program, additional funding support for hospitals, the non-profit hospital sales tax exemption and investor-owned tax credit, and Nurse Compact legislation.

We strongly encourage you to meet virtually with your legislators. Please RSVP by Feb. 25 by clicking here so IHA can make the appropriate arrangements. For scheduling purposes, please indicate on the RSVP form which state legislators you would like to meet with and the order of your preference.

Free Monthly TB Webinar 2/23

The Illinois Dept. of Public Health (IDPH) announced a free TB 101 – Epidemiology webinar for Wednesday, Feb. 23 at 1 p.m. CT, as part of IDPH’s TB program’s monthly training series. Click here to register.

After completing this training participants will be able to:

• Define epidemiology as it relates to communicable disease.
• Describe the history of tuberculosis and IDPH’s role in tuberculosis elimination.
• Know the statistics and key factors of tuberculosis globally and nationally.
• Identify groups of people in Illinois who have higher rates of tuberculosis incidence.

Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions in the chat box, and a Q & A document will be provided to all registered participants.

The Feb. 23 training will be recorded and available on the SharePoint site after production is complete. A recording of IDPH’s January webinar, “Introduction to TB,” can be viewed by clicking here.

CMS Delays Hospital Star Ratings Update

An update of the Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings on the Care Compare website will be delayed until July, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

Illinois COVID-19 Update

The Illinois Dept. of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 2,893 new confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases, including 72 additional deaths.

Most recent IDPH hospitalization data show 1,815 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 352 patients were in the ICU and 172 patients were on ventilators.

The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total tests is 2.9%. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity is 3.8%.

The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily in Illinois is 23,110 doses. IDPH reported that 76.1% of adults (18 years and older) have been fully vaccinated, while 85.7% have received at least one vaccination dose. For the Illinois population 12 years and older, 74.9% have been fully vaccinated, while 84.3% have received at least one vaccination dose. For the Illinois population five years and older, 71.1% have been fully vaccinated and 80.4% have received at least one dose.

Briefly Noted

Today, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Dr. Robert Califf as the next commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, by a vote of 50-46.

Yesterday, the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded nearly $55 million to increase healthcare access and quality for underserved populations through virtual care such as telehealth, remote patient monitoring, digital patient tools and health information technology platforms. The one-time grants were directed to 29 Health Resources and Services Administration-funded health centers, building on more than $7.3 billion in American Rescue Plan funding invested in community health centers over the past year as part of ongoing COVID-19 mitigation efforts.

A recently released study published in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network found evidence that there is likely “a large volume of undetected cancer cases related to the COVID-19 pandemic rates,” based on results that between March 15 and Sept. 26, 2020, 12,601 fewer individuals were diagnosed with cancer, with an estimated weekly backlog of 450. The findings show “the largest immediate declines were seen for melanoma and cervical, endocrinologic, and prostate cancers,” while there continued to be a weekly decline in incidence during the COVID-19 period for hepatobiliary and lung cancers.