First lady Jill Biden is experiencing "no reemergence of symptoms" after testing positive for a rebound case of Covid-19, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from the District of Columbia and Georgia.
- District of Columbia: First lady Jill Biden is experiencing "no reemergence of symptoms" after testing positive of a rebound case of Covid-19 on Wednesday, according to a statement from her office. Initially, the first lady tested positive last week and experienced "cold-like symptoms" before she tested negative on Sunday. The first lady is currently following isolation measures. According to a White House pool report, President Joe Biden tested negative for the coronavirus on Wednesday. Notably, President Biden recently recovered from a similar "viral rebound" after taking Pfizer's antiviral drug Paxlovid. (Saric, Axios, 8/24)
- Georgia: A new CDC report found that many U.S. hospitals in 2020 did not have human donor milk for infants with very low birth weight (VLBW) who did not receive sufficient milk from their mother. According to Ellen Boundy of the CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 13% of hospitals with level III and IV neonatal care units said that they did not have human donor milk for infants with VLBW. Overall, just 54.7% of hospitals reported that at least 80% of infants with VLBW received donor milk, Boundy and her colleagues said in CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Hospitals' donor milk supply can be "affected by supply from milk banks, cost, and reimbursement, which can vary by state and payment source," the researchers said. "Milk bank supply is in turn affected by barriers persons might face when considering milk donation, such as lack of knowledge about milk banking and beliefs about acceptability of donation. Hospital leadership support and logistical challenges to implementing donor milk programs might also play a role in donor milk availability." (Lopilato, MedPage Today, 8/22)
- Georgia: U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood last week reinstated a work requirement in the "Georgia Pathways" initiative, which aims to extend Medicaid coverage to more low-income residents. Initially, the work requirement was approved by the Trump administration, but CMS last year revoked approval for that part of the initiative. Following CMS' decision, Georgia officials sued to reverse what they described as a "bait and switch of unprecedented magnitude." Ultimately, a federal judge ruled in favor of the state, allowing it to move forward with the work requirement. "CMS's rescission of the Georgia Pathways demonstration project was not reasoned—it was arbitrary and capricious on numerous, independent grounds," Wood wrote in her decision. (Thanawala, Associated Press, 8/19; Goldman, Modern Healthcare, 8/19)