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While providers expected insurers to relax prior authorization policies during the pandemic, 70% of surveyed physicians reported the changes were brief, if made at all, and did not relieve some of their burdens. Slow prior authorization protocols contributed to care delivery delays and poor treatment outcomes for some patients during the surge in COVID-19 cases last winter, according to American Medical Association survey. (Gellman, 4/7)

Most US patients saw an increase in days of supply (DOS) for medication for chronic conditions during the pandemic, but prescription data still showed an increased likelihood of drug discontinuation, according to a study published last week in PLOS One. The researchers chose an example drug with available generics from six therapeutics classes less likely to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic: hormonal contraception, immunosuppression, serotonin regulation, and drugs to address attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and psychoses. They determined that patients had discontinued a drug if the DOS were not sufficient to cover a given month. (McLernon, 4/7)

An international study that identified a dramatic increase in out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs) preceding and paralleling the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that OHCA is yet another example of the virus's myriad multisystemic effects and a signal of upcoming community surges. In the observational study, published today in the Lancet's EClinicalMedicine, emergency services medical directors in 50 large cities in the United States, Italy, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, and New Zealand reported tallies of monthly OCHAs among adults in their respective jurisdictions from January to June 2020 and compared them with numbers from the same periods in 2018 and 2019. (Van Beusekom, 4/7)

Hospitals nationwide are making progress in meeting national standards in caring for women who are giving birth, though there's been less progress in lowering C-Section rates, according to quality and safety not-for-profit Leapfrog Group. A little over half of 2,200 surveyed hospitals voluntarily reported that less than 23.9% of their first-time pregnant women gave birth via C-section, a change that's been slowly decreasing over the past five years. (Gillespie, 4/8)

ProMedica has launched an initiative addressing the health impact of unsafe housing conditions, one of the first health systems to do so. The Toledo, Ohio-based health system announced Wednesday it was entering into a multi-year, multi-city partnership to reduce the health hazard caused by substandard housing conditions with the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative, a Baltimore-based, not-for-profit organization that provides support services and technical assistance to create healthy housing environments. (Ross Johnson, 4/7)

The president of Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Peter L. Slavin, plans to step down after 18 years leading the powerful and prestigious institution, amid a broad restructuring at its parent company. Slavin announced the move in an e-mail to staff Wednesday morning. He plans to stay at MGH — which has consistently ranked among the top hospitals in the country — until his successor arrives, after a search process that could take months. (Priyanka Dayal McCluskey, 4/7)

KHN and The Guardian: 12 Months Of Trauma: More Than 3,600 US Health Workers Died In Covid’s First Year

More than 3,600 U.S. health care workers perished in the first year of the pandemic, according to “Lost on the Frontline,” a 12-month investigation by The Guardian and KHN to track such deaths. Lost on the Frontline is the most complete accounting of U.S. health care worker deaths. The federal government has not comprehensively tracked this data. But calls are mounting for the Biden administration to undertake a count as the KHN/Guardian project comes to a close today. (Spencer and Jewett, 4/8)

KHN and The Guardian: Calls Mount For Biden To Track US Health Care Worker Deaths From Covid 

Calls are mounting for the Biden administration to set up a national tracking system of covid-19 deaths among front-line health care workers to honor the thousands of nurses, doctors and support staffers who have died and ensure that future generations are not forced to make the same ultimate — and, in many cases, needless — sacrifice. Health policy experts and union leaders are pressing the White House to move quickly to fill the gaping hole left by the Trump administration through its failure to create an accurate count of covid deaths among front-line workers. The absence of reliable federal data exacerbated critical problems such as shortages of personal protective equipment that left many workers exposed, with fatal results. (Pilkington, 4/8)