Health Care Roundup: Cancer Care on the Front Lines of COVID-19; Study: Cancer Patients at Higher COVID-19 Risk; COVID-19 Cancer Disparities; More

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HEALTH CARE HIGHLIGHTS

Policy Updates

Fourth Relief Package Passed

It’s hard enough to keep up with the day of the week, much less which relief package Congress is currently considering. We’re here to help make sense of what’s happening on Capitol Hill during these unpredictable times. Last week, Congress approved a fourth package totaling $480 billion to help small businesses and hospitals and expand testing for the coronavirus.

Cancer Survivors Have Higher Risks from COVID-19

Early this week, a study that compared cancer and non-cancer patients in China with covid-19 was published and presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Virtual Annual Meeting. While the study was small, the findings showed that cancer patients — especially those with blood or lung malignancies, or tumors that have spread throughout the body — have a higher risk of death or other severe complications from COVID-19 compared with those without cancer.

Supreme Court Ruling on Risk Corridor Case

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of insurers in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) risk corridors case. The ACA included so-called risk corridor payments to compensate insurers for the risks that they might bear from participating in the marketplaces without knowing who would purchase coverage. If medical costs exceeded the premiums collected, an insurer would be eligible for payments from the federal government. After Congress refused to appropriate the funds for the risk corridor payments, several insurers sued. Justice Sotomayor, writing for the majority, said that the government was bound by a simple principle of honoring its commitment as spelled out in the ACA. The insurers will receive the payments now. Health experts have already raised questions about how the payments will be distributed among insurers.

WHAT WE’RE LISTENING TO

NCCS Podcast: “Cancer Convos.” NCCS CEO Shelley Fuld Nasso interviews Dr. Don Dizon, a medical oncologist who is chronicling his experience on the front lines of oncology during COVID-19 in a series for Medscape entitled COVID-19: Diary of an Oncologist. We talk with Dr. Dizon about the challenges of delivering cancer care and conducting clinical trials during a pandemic.He shares his advice for cancer patients currently in treatment, as well as for cancer survivors coping with the stress and anxiety of life after cancer. We also talk about how he engages on social media and uses TikTok to create fun, educational messages. He also shares how virtual communities can provide support during challenging times.

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CHART OF THE WEEK

A New Common Cause of Death

Business Insider

Business Insider compiled data from the COVID Tracking Project, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the US Census Bureau to show how COVID-19 deaths over time compare with other common causes of death in the US: heart disease, cancer, bad flu seasons, and car crashes.

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WHAT WE’RE READING