Delta Variant Surges

COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to rise in Ohio, fueled by the spread of the Delta variant. In a press conference yesterday, Ohio Department of Health Director Bruce Vanderhoff, MD, said Ohio was seeing daily case rates of 200 and 300 in July. Today, we are at 20 times that. The rate is 582.4 cases per 100,000 people.
 
Statewide, one in seven patients has COVID. One in four patients in the ICU is COVID positive. In rural Ohio, one in three hospitalizations and half of all ICU patients has COVID. Ohio’s children’s hospitals are also reporting an increase in COVID-19 admissions. ODH data shows nearly 27% of new cases so far in September are among children. The Ohio Hospital Association reports 67 children were admitted to hospitals last week, an 81% jump from the previous week — the largest percentage increase among any age group.
 
Vanderhoff continued to stress the need for vaccinations, masking, social distancing and hand washing. A mask mandate goes into effect today in Columbus.
 
As of this afternoon, 61.58% of eligible Ohioans (age 12 and up) have started the vaccine process.

Biden Outlines Plan to Combat COVID

President Joe Biden is implementing a six-pronged, comprehensive national strategy that employs the same science-based approach that was used to successfully combat previous variants of COVID-19 earlier this year.

Vaccinating the unvaccinated

• Require employers with 100+ employees to ensure their workers are vaccinated or tested weekly.
• Require vaccinations for all federal workers, contractors that do business with government.
• Require vaccinations for over 17 million health care workers at Medicare and Medicaid participating hospitals.
• Call on large entertainment venues to require proof of vaccination or testing for entry.
• Require employers to provide paid time off to get vaccinated.

Further protecting the vaccinated

• Provide easy access to booster shots for all eligible Americans.
• Ensure Americans know where to get a booster.

Keeping schools safely open

• Require vaccinations for teachers and staff in Head Start programs, DOD schools, and at Bureau of Indian Education-operated schools.
• Call on all states to adopt vaccine requirements for all school employees.
• Provide additional funding to school districts for safe school reopening.
• Use full legal authority to protect students’ access to in-person instruction.
• Get students and staff tested regularly.
• Provide FDA resources to support review of vaccines for those under 12

Increasing testing and requiring masking

• Mobilize industry to expand easy-to-use testing production.
• Make at-home tests more affordable.
• Send free rapid, at-home tests to food banks and health centers.
• Expand free pharmacy testing.
• Continue to require masking for interstate travel and double fines.
• Continue requiring masking on federal property.

Protecting our economic recovery

• New support for small businesses impacted by COVID-19.
• Streamline PPP loan forgiveness for small loans.
• Launch Community Navigator Program to connect small businesses with help.

Improving care for those with COVID-19

• Increase support for COVID-burdened hospitals.
• Get life-saving monoclonal antibody treatment to those who need it.
  • The administration will increase the average weekly pace of shipments of free monoclonal antibody treatment to states by a further 50% in September. Monoclonal antibody treatments have been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization by up to 70% for unvaccinated people at risk of developing severe disease.
• Expand the pool of health care professionals providing treatment.
  • Launch monoclonal antibody strike teams to deploy clinical personnel through HHS, FEMA, and DOD to help hospitals and health systems.

New Ohio Law Takes Effect this Month

Effective September 30, 2021, retailers (including pharmacies) are prohibited from selling, supplying, delivering, or giving a drug that contains dextromethorphan to a person under 18 years of age, unless the person has prescription for the product.
 
Under the new law, ORC 2925.62, retailers (or employee of retailers) are required to request proof of age and identity for all purchases of dextromethorphan products who appear to be under the age of 25.
The law provides that a retailer or an employee of a retailer is not liable for civil damages arising from failing to prevent the sale of dextromethorphan to a person under 18, unless the failure constitutes willful or wanton misconduct. Violation of this law is considered a minor misdemeanor (ORC 2925.62 (E)) under the Ohio criminal code.
 
More information on the brand name products that contain dextromethorphan (including combination products) can be accessed here.

BWC Seeks Comment

The Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation is seeking feedback on proposed revisions to its outpatient medication formulary.
 
BWC has already completed a review of the appendix to Ohio Administrative Code 4123-6-21.3. A copy of the rule is here and the appendix is here. Formulary changes highlighted in yellow were sent for feedback in August, and formulary changes highlighted in turquoise are new changes since then.
 
To submit feedback, send your comments, contact information, and specialty to ProviderFeedBack@bwc.state.oh.us. Deadline is September 20.

Medicaid Announces Go-Live Date for Next Generation Managed Care

The Ohio Department of Medicaid (ODM) has projected a go-live date of July 1, 2022, for the Next Generation managed care program. 
 
The July 2022 launch provides Ohio Medicaid, the managed care entities, and providers the time needed to test and validate systems and processes to ensure readiness prior to going live. Several components of the new program are designed to reduce the administrative burden on providers and streamline access to care.
 
Design for Ohio Medicaid’s next generation program began in early 2019, with outreach and listening sessions around the state. Officials say the initial timeline targeted implementation for January 2022, but did not account for the persistence of COVID-19 and its impact on individuals served by the program and their providers. 
 
Medicaid’s Next Generation program introduces five new components to Ohio’s program: managed care, single pharmacy benefit manager (SPBM), centralized credentialing, fiscal intermediary, and OhioRISE. Implementation involves integrating multiple systems to support a network of more than 170,000 health care providers and pharmacies, and millions of Ohioans. The transition places new responsibilities on managed care organizations to oversee the coordination of care, ensure access to services, and confirm community resources are understood and available to members.

Seeking Wellness Speakers

In ‘precedented’ times, physicians experience high levels of work stress. In these unprecedented times, it’s even more important for doctors to take care of themselves. As the saying goes, you have to take care to give care. In light of this, the OOA is hosting a half-day CME webinar early next year focused on physician wellness.

As preparation begins, we are seeking speakers on topics like:

• Effective coping skills
• Practical tools and best practices for physician self-care
• Compassion fatigue
• Emotional well-being
• How to remain hopeful during a global pandemic
• Cultivating wellness in yourself and those around you

If you have experience in these or any related topic and are willing to share your knowledge with your peers, let us know by completing the online form.

In general, CME speakers complete a simple disclosure form, provide objectives, a CV, headshot photo, and present their expertise with the help of slides. Since this wellness program is virtual, presentations could be pre-recorded with a live Q&A.