Agency Reports Payments from Drug Companies to Doctors, By Jondi

Agency Reports Payments from Drug Companies to Doctors

By Jondi Gumz

The year Covid-19 pandemic struck the U.S., the federal Medicare agency reported $9.03 billion in payments from drug companies and device-makers to 486,975 physicians and 1,212 teaching hospitals.

These financial relationships can involve payments to providers for research, meals, travel, gifts, or speaking fees.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services provides data via a search tool called Open Payments, which allows the public to search for recipients receiving payments, as well as entities that made payments.

Medicare says the purpose is to provide the public with a more transparent health care system.

All information available on the Open Payments database is open to personal interpretation, the agency said on its website, and if there are questions about what the data means, patients and their advocates should speak directly to the health care provider for a better understanding.

The 2021 data is under review.

Two years after the pandemic arrived, Covid cases have waned nationwide. See the federal Center for Disease Control map showing most counties green: Low transmission.

On Wednesday, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extended the mask mandate on airlines — due to expire April 18 — through May 3 because of an uptick in cases. The Transportation Security Administration noted the Omicron “BA.2 subvariant that now makes up more than 85% of U.S. cases.”

The latest Omicron variant called XE is the most easily spread, according to researchers, but its predecessors, BA1 and BA2, are less deadly.

Hospitalizations which peaked in January from Omicron have plummeted, in California and locally.

The state Department of Public Health reports hospitalizations down from 20,000 at the peak of the Omicron surge in January to 1,100, and test positivity, 23% in January, now 1.7%.

In Santa Cruz County, only seven people are hospitalized with Covid, — none in intensive care. In the past two weeks, no county resident has died of Covid.

The Omicron variant called BA.2 “appears to be about 50% more transmissible than the original omicron strain BA.1, according to UC Davis Health. “Preliminary data suggests omicron BA.1 causes the same severity of disease and symptoms, but it’s affecting younger people more.”

Proposed Laws

On April 11, thousands of people rallied in Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles to protest vaccination mandates for city workers and a slew of COVID bills in the state Legislature.

On March 29, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) said she would hold Assembly Bill 1993, which would have required all employees and independent contractors, public and private, to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to keep their job. She cited opposition from public safety unions (highway patrol, firefighters and correctional offices) and improved pandemic conditions.

Protection of the Educational Rights of Kids, headed by Amy Bohn in Newbury Park, which has filed six lawsuits against vaccine mandates, is watching to see if this measure comes back in a budget trailer bill in May — a strategy that avoids public hearings.

The group is tracking 10 Covid-19 bills proposed by California lawmakers. Besides AB 1993, they include:

SB 871: To remove the personal belief exemption in the state’s student vaccine mandate for age zero and above. That bill has not been scheduled for committee hearing, which could indicate a lack of support.

SB 1464: To require law enforcement officers to enforce public health orders, and cut funding if they do not and shift those funds to public health. The California State Sheriffs’ Association is opposed along with the Peace Officers Research Association of California and 20 more law enforcement organizations.

SB 866: To allow children 12 and older to get COVID vaccines without parental consent.

SB 920: To authorize a medical board to inspect a doctor’s office and records without patient consent.

SB 1479: To mandate Covid testing plans at schools.

SB 1390: To prohibit a social media platform from amplifying misinformation or disinformation.

SB 1184: To authorize a health care provider or plan to disclose your child’s medical information to a school-linked services coordinator without

parent consent.

AB 1793: To allow school officials to easily via access to a state immunization database.

AB 2098: To classify a physician or surgeon disseminating or promoting misinformation or disinformation related to COVID-19 as unprofessional conduct and grounds for disciplinary action. This is supported by Sen. Richard Pan, a physician, and opposed by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.

To track these bills, see https:// leginfo.legislature.ca.gov

On March 30, Dr. Pamela Popper posted updates on lawsuits challenging the state of Ohio’s emergency declaration, which was lifted last June, and a similar case in Hawaii which is pending and against the state of Washington for three children injured by the mask mandate, and a case against the federal Health and Human Services agency, challenging use of the PCR test.

The group is defending doctors in Washington State, Ohio, and Maine attacked by state medical boards for prescribing early treatment drugs for Covid and speaking out about Covid vaccines. Updates are at https://makeamericansfreeagain.com/

Two Years

Santa Cruz County, which updates its dashboard on Monday and Thursday, has 495 active cases, down from 10,000 at the peak, and 259 deaths.

The county reports 103 active cases among younger people age 25 to 34, and 110 deaths of those 85 and older.

“COVID Update” page 9

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