Editor's Note New Jersey Gov Phil Murphy, on May 8, signed legislation that criminalizes threats against healthcare workers (HCWs), the May 9 Becker’s Hospital Review reports. The “Health Care Heroes Violence Prevention Act,” makes it a disorderly person offense to threaten any HCW, “with the intent to intimidate, interfere with,…

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Editor's Note This Italian review and meta-analysis finds that the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against Omicron and Delta variants rapidly wans over time. Of 799 original articles, 149 reviews, and 35 preprints identified, 40 studies were included in the analysis. Among the findings: Vaccine effectiveness of a primary vaccination cycle…

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Editor's Note The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) on May 9, issued a new draft recommendation on screening for breast cancer, recommending that all women get screened for breast cancer every other year starting at age 40. In a statement, the American College of Radiology (ACR) and Society of…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that the Omicron subvariant XBB.1.16, also referred to as Arcturus, accounted for nearly 12% of COVID-19 cases in the US last week, and another relative, XBB.1.9.1 is responsible for 9% of cases, as of April 29, the April 28…

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Editor's Note The US State Department will not accept any more applications for green cards for foreign nurses this year, and only applications that were submitted by June 2022 will be processed until the backlog eases, the April 24 Becker’s Clinical Leadership & Infection Control reports. Current green card processing…

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Editor's Note In a letter, the American Hospitals Association, on April 19, announced its support for the reintroduction of the Safety from Violence for Healthcare Employees Act (H.R. 2584), which would give healthcare workers legal protections against assault and intimidation similar to that of flight crews and airport workers. The…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on April 13, updated prescribing information for all opioid pain medications, including requiring all packaging to have updated labeling and safety information. This includes stating that: for both immediate-release (IR) and extended release/long acting (ER/LA) opioid pain medications, the risk of overdose…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), on April 10, released its fiscal year (FY) 2024 Medicare inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) proposed rule, which would increase Medicare payments by 2.8% for hospitals that are meaningful users of electronic health records and submit quality data. The 2.8%…

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Editor's Note President Biden, on April 10, signed a congressional resolution ending the 3-year COVID-19 national emergency a month earlier than expected, but a separate public health emergency will remain in effect until May 11, the April 10 Associated Press reports. The resolution terminates COVID-19 related waivers for federal health…

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Editor's Note ECRI, on April 10, released a statement saying it is “deeply disturbed” by reports that nearly 99% of US hospitals have third-party tracking on their websites that transfers patient data to technology and social media companies, advertising firms, and data brokers. Besides the violation of privacy, ECRI says…

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