Infrastructure Bill Offers Hospitals Big Subsidies

ProPublica: St. Jude Hoards Billions While Many Of Its Families Drain Their Savings
St. Jude makes a unique promise as part of its fundraising: “Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food — because all a family should worry about is helping their child live.” But for many families, treatment at St. Jude does not relieve all the financial burdens they incur in getting care for their children, including housing, travel and food costs that fall outside the hospital’s strict limits, a ProPublica investigation has found. While families may not receive a bill from St. Jude, the hospital doesn’t cover what’s usually the biggest source of financial stress associated with childhood cancer: the loss of income as parents quit or take leave from jobs to be with their child during treatment. For many families, the consequence is missed payments for cars, utilities and cellphones. Others face eviction or foreclosure because they can’t keep up with rent and mortgage payments. (Armstrong and Gabrielson, 11/12)

Modern Healthcare: Domestic Policy Bill Gains Could Offset Losses for Hospitals in Medicaid Gap States
States without Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act may benefit from proposed funding to close coverage gaps, in spite of other planned cuts to the public insurance program, according to researchers. The current draft of President Joe Biden's Build Back Better Act includes provisions to increase healthcare subsidies and extend coverage, particularly for the 12 states in the Medicaid expansion gap and residents with incomes below the federal poverty level. (Devereaux, 11/11)

KHN: How Low Can They Go? Rural Hospitals Weigh Keeping Obstetric Units When Births Decline
As rural hospitals struggle to stay financially stable, their leaders watch other small facilities close obstetrics units to cut costs. They face a no-win dilemma: Can we continue operating delivery units safely if there are few births? But if we close, do we risk the health and lives of babies and mothers? The other question this debate hangs on: How few is too few births? Consider the 11-bed Providence Valdez Medical Center, which brings 40 to 60 newborns into the world each year, according to Dr. John Cullen, one of several family physicians who deliver babies at the Valdez, Alaska, hospital. The next nearest obstetrics unit is a six- to seven-hour drive away, if ice and snow don’t make the roads treacherous, he said. (Huff, 11/12)

Also —

AP: Health Care Coverage Axed For Striking WVa Hospital Workers
Health care coverage has been stopped for striking maintenance and service workers at a West Virginia hospital, a union said. About 1,000 members of the the Service Employees International Union District 1999 went on strike last week at Cabell Huntington Hospital after their contract expired. Union organizing director Sherri McKinney said in a statement that the coverage was cut off without notification to striking employees and union retirees, The Herald-Dispatch reported. (11/11)

Modern Healthcare: Tenet's Outpatient Push Comes As CMS Moves The Other Way
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services may be slowing payment reforms designed to transition some procedures from inpatient to outpatient settings, but that isn't dimming confidence about Tenet Healthcare's investments in ambulatory surgical centers. Tenet's latest move, announced Monday, is its $1.2 billion acquisition of SurgCenter Development and that company's ownership stakes in 92 ambulatory surgical centers. (Bannow, 11/11)

Roll Call: McGovern Nudges Medical Schools To Invest In Nutrition Education 
Medical schools should beef up curriculums to include robust nutrition education to give physicians the tools to combat diet-related conditions that cost the federal government billions of dollars each year to treat, according to House Rules Chairman Jim McGovern. The Massachusetts Democrat predicted during an online news conference Wednesday that the House will overwhelmingly adopt a sense of the Congress resolution that calls on medical schools, graduate medical programs and health professional training programs to expand nutrition education. (Ferguson, 11/11)

The Wall Street Journal: Plaintiffs Want Teligent Price-Fixing Lawsuit To Continue Despite Bankruptcy
Drug buyers are seeking court permission to continue a price-fixing lawsuit against Teligent Inc. despite the halt on litigation that kicked in when the drugmaker filed for bankruptcy. A group of drug-buying cooperatives, employee welfare benefit funds, retail pharmacies and national health insurers asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday to allow a federal lawsuit to continue against Teligent, a generic drugmaker that sought chapter 11 protection last month. (Yerak, 11/11)

On insurance and the price of healthcare —

CBS News: One Way Americans Feel Inflation's Pain: Health Insurance Premiums
As experts debate whether inflation gripping everything from winter heat to holiday gifts to American Thanksgiving tables is temporary or likely to endure, Americans are facing another relentlessly rising cost: health insurance premiums. Getting health insurance through work now costs more than $22,000 a year for families, who pick up roughly $6,000 of that tab, the Kaiser Family Foundation found in its annual benefits survey, with employers picking up the rest. (Layne, 11/11)

Reuters: Aegon, Other Insurers Hit By U.S. COVID-19 Deaths In Third Quarter
Dutch insurer Aegon NV (AEGN.AS)reported a 16% fall in third- quarter operating profit on Thursday due to higher COVID-19 related mortality claims in the Americas, the latest European insurer to suffer from new waves of the pandemic. Aegon, which does two-thirds of its business in the United States, said "unfavourable mortality claims" in the Americas in the third quarter were $111 million, up from $31 million a year earlier. (Sterling, 11/11)

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Why Health Care Is So Expensive, Chapter $22K
Congress appears to be making progress on its huge social spending bill, but even if it passes the House as planned the week of Nov. 15, it’s unlikely it can get through the Senate before the Thanksgiving deadline that Democrats set for themselves. Meanwhile, the cost of employer-provided health insurance continues to rise, even with so many people forgoing care during the pandemic. The annual KFF survey of employers reported that the average cost of a job-based family plan has risen to more than $22,000. To provide what their workers most need, however, this year many employers added additional coverage of mental health care and telehealth. (11/11)