Inside the talk over vaccine patent waivers • Illinois spending $225M to broaden U of I’s COVID check to colleges • Well being care legal guidelines advance in Springfield

WHAT THE DEBATE ON Vaccine Patent Waiver Means for Drug Users: To improve access to vaccines in poor countries, the Biden administration recently announced that the US would participate in the World Trade Organization negotiations to renounce the intellectual property rights of pharmaceutical companies. The US was previously one of the wealthy nations that opposed loosening patent protection.

However, critics argue that waiving patents does little to increase supply and instead could encourage an influx of unsafe or less effective shots, hampering the world’s ability to end the pandemic while blocking supply chains.

“As soon as you say that a certain type of intellectual property is no longer respected, people start to worry: what is the limiting principle here? What is preventing you from applying this to other attitudes?” says Craig Garthwaite, a health economist at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. CONTINUE READING.

STATE TRIED TO BRING U OF ITS COVID TEST TO MEDIUM UNIVERSITIES: Illinois is spending $ 225 million to make the University of Illinois’ saliva-based COVID test available to the state’s middle and high schools for free or at low cost.

The university’s SHIELD test, currently only available to those over the age of 12, is already being offered in the state’s public universities and community colleges. Middle and high schools with mostly low incomes and high COVID-19 rates can get the test for free. Other schools can take the test at a discounted price of $ 10.

The saliva-based rapid test detects the virus that causes COVID-19, even in people who have no symptoms. It was approved by the FDA in March.

HEALTH CARE LAWS AHEAD IN THE SPRING FIELD: Two bills worth seeing go to the entire Senate. House Bill 12, designed by the Illinois Education Association, would expand coverage under the Family and Medical Leave Act to thousands of education support professionals across the state.

Currently, an employee must have worked 1,250 hours in the previous year to be eligible for FMLA. Many educational staff (such as secretaries, teaching assistants, and bus drivers) are currently unqualified due to the limited number of days they can work during a school year. HB 12 reduces the minimum threshold to 1,000 hours so that more professionals can qualify for educational support

Meanwhile, House Bill 119, also sent to the Senate, would set up a drug retention program that would allow people to return certain unused prescription drugs that would be reused for eligible populations.

Illinois House members sent bills to the Senate that would expand the state’s family and sick leave bill, and the Senate Health Committee passed bill that would create a prescription drug retention program.

“There’s no reason why unused prescription drugs should be thrown away or on a shelf after their expiration date when many families in Illinois are struggling to get critical prescription drugs,” said state Senator Karina Villa (D- West Chicago). “This legislation would help eligible families access redistributed prescriptions at no additional cost.”

DO AIRLINES REQUIRE VACCINES FOR EMPLOYEES? Delta Air Lines announced on Friday that COVID-19 vaccination is a requirement for new hires, although it is not mandatory for current workers.

United Airlines said back in January it would like to make vaccinations mandatory for employees, but it couldn’t do so without other big companies doing the same. CONTINUE READING.

US HOSPITALS SENDING PPE TO INDIA: Health systems like Chicago-based Edward-Elmhurst Health and CommonSpirit are stepping up to provide much-needed protective equipment to India’s frontline medical staff during the current COVID-19 outbreak.

EEHealth has partnered with local social assistance organization India Hub to donate five pallets of personal protective equipment, including 3,500 isolation gowns, 6,000 N95 masks and 72,000 examination gloves, to emergency groups in India like the Red Cross.

Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health announced Wednesday that it will donate more than 630,000 surplus PPE to the relief effort, including masks, robes, goggles, coveralls and face shields. The health system will work with the airline Air India and the aid organization Rotary International to deliver and distribute the equipment. Modern healthcare has history.

ASCENSION DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION RESULTS IN AMITA LAYOFFS: Amita Health laid off approximately 91 employees in Cook and DuPage counties. This is part of parent company Ascension’s plan to outsource more of its technical support services.

The number of workers affected by the layoffs in the Chicago area was disclosed in a recent WARN report. According to Modern Healthcare, a total of 651 employees will be displaced in Ascension.

Most of the affected employees are working remotely, according to a notice dated April 27, which also advises that employees may apply for other positions in Ascension Technologies’ information technology services as well as with the third party provider.

HEART ASSOCIATION SEND US $ 1 MILLION TO SIX LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS: The American Heart Association is distributing over $ 1 million to six local businesses and nonprofits addressing food insecurity in Chicago.

The grant was made possible thanks to a $ 5 million donation from the Walmart Foundation’s Center for Racial Equity, according to a statement. The first round focused on tackling food insecurity and the money went to companies run by minorities and / or women.

Receiver include:

• Fresher Together, an early-stage food center run by Schwarz and an urban farm
• Multiple Harvest, an early-stage urban agricultural company run by Kenyan immigrants
• OjaExpress is an early-stage technology startup expanding access to ethnic, cultural, and religious food in immigrant communities
• Forty Acres Fresh Market, a black woman-run start-up grocer and product delivery company
• Urban Growers Collective, a black women-run nonprofit that seeks to eradicate the inequalities on Chicago’s south and west sides
• A partnership of three organizations in North Lawndale – Stone Temple Church, Del Kar’s Pharmacy and the Greening Committee – received funding to create a reproducible local food ecosystem, the statement said.

STATE CANCER REGISTRATION NOW PARTICIPATING IN THE SEER PROGRAM: Illinois, along with 13 other states, participates in the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program to track cancer.

The program will enable the Illinois State Cancer Registry, located in the Epidemiological Studies Division of the Illinois Department of Public Health, to expand its cancer monitoring activities to patient follow-up, improved data collection, strict quality control of cancer data, and improved capabilities expand participation in research projects and collaborations, said a statement from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

DATA BREACH COMPROMISES INFO FROM OVER 100,000 PATIENTS IN THE CANCER CENTER: Approximately 104,000 patients at Midwestern Regional Medical Center had access to their personal health information in the event of a data breach, according to the owner Cancer Treatment Centers of America.

The breach involved access to patient names, health insurance information, medical record numbers, CTCA account numbers, and limited medical information. No financial information or social security number has been compromised, according to the HIPAA Journal

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

• • Brian C. Bock has been named chief financial officer of the Chicago biotech company Exicure, Inc. Bock was previously executive director of healthcare investment banking at Lincoln International, Exicure said in a statement.

• • Lars Heemskerk has returned to Cigna as vice president of select sales for markets in the Midwest.

• • Steve Hamman, President of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, has been appointed to the Board of Directors of Special Olympics Illinois.