and what to make of this?

Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery. He cometh up, and is cut down like a flower; he fleeth as it were a shadow, and ne’er continueth in one stay
The Book of Common Prayer (1662)

Diuturnity is a dream and folly of expectation.
—Sir Thomas Browne, Urne Buriall

While of death, there is little to be said that is truly to the point, of dying there is too much.
—Raymond Tallis, The Black Mirror

This morning on NPR’s Saturday Edition Scott Simon announced—portentously, as he so often does—that: “Senior citizens, people over 65, account for 16% of the U.S. population but 75% of deaths from COVID-19, according to the CDC.”

It’s not clear what to make of this factoid. In 2019, according to the CDC, before anyone had heard of COVID, people 65 years of age or older were 16% of the U.S. population and 74% of deaths. And in 2010, old people (among whom I number myself) were 13% of the U.S. population and 73% of deaths.

But, as Scott might say, mercy! it’s even worse than this. In 2020, people 75 years of age or older were just 7% of the population but 54% of deaths. And—oh lordy—people 85 years of age or older were 2% of the population but 30% of deaths!!

This may mean that there is an epidemic of death among the elderly. Or that a leading cause of death is old age. Or that death follows, inevitably, from being born.

For a sobering comparison, compare the statistics for the Republic of South Africa, where people aged 65 or older, in 2017, were 5% of the population but 36% of deaths. People between the ages of 35 and 44 comprised 13% and 14% of the population in the U.S. and the R.S.A., respectively, but accounted for less than 3% of deaths in the U.S. and more than 12% of deaths in the R.S.A.

So perhaps the statistics which seemed to give Scott the vapors mean simply that, in the United States, “senior citizens”—however old they may be—are lucky to be not dead yet.

federal register • 11 february 2022

CMS has published in the federal register:

  • A Notice of Agency Information Collection Activities:
    1. Affordable Care Act Internal Claims and Appeals and External Review Procedures for Non-grandfathered Group Health Plans and Issuers and Individual Market Issuers
    2. LTCH CARE Data Set for the Collection of Data Pertaining to the Long-Term Care Hospital Quality Reporting Program

federal register • 10 february 2022

CMS has published in the federal register:

  • A Correction to Final Rules for the Medicare Program:
    1. CY 2022 Payment Policies Under the Physician Fee Schedule and Other Changes to Part B Payment Policies; Medicare Shared Savings Program Requirements;
    2. Provider Enrollment Regulation Updates;
    3. Provider and Supplier Prepayment and Post-Payment Medical Review Requirements

federal register • 09 february 2022

CMS has published in the federal register:

  • A Notice of Agency Information Collection Activities: 
  • A Notice for the Medicare and Medicaid Programs: Quarterly Listing of Program Issuances, October through December 2021
  • A Notice for the Medicare Program: Request for an Exception to the Prohibition on Expansion of Facility Capacity under the Hospital Ownership and Rural Provider Exceptions to the Physician Self-Referral Prohibition