Ten-Month Nurse Strike Ends At Massachusetts’ St. Vincent Hospital

The Boston Globe: St. Vincent Nurses Approve Contract, Ending Strike After Nearly 10 Months
Nurses at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester approved a new contract with parent company Tenet Healthcare on Monday night, ending the longest nursing strike in state history, the nurses union said. Nurses voted overwhelmingly in favor of the deal between Dallas-based Tenet and the Massachusetts Nurses Association, more than 300 days after they began picketing outside the hospital. “For nearly 10 months our nurses have walked the line for safer patient care, for the honor of our profession and for the right of all workers who make the difficult decision to engage in a lawful strike to return to their original positions,” said Marlena Pellegrino, a longtime St. Vincent’s nurse who co-chaired the bargaining unit, in a statement. “As we stand here tonight, we can proudly say we have achieved our goals.” (Stoico, 1/3)

In other news about the health care industry —

Modern Healthcare: U.S. Saw Significant Drop In Telehealth Use During 2021
Telehealth utilization declined by an average of 40.3% a month last year compared to 2020, an analysis published last month shows. Telemedicine skyrocketed in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic's peaks starting in 2020, but patient declined as people returned to physician offices last year, according a review of commercial, Medicare Advantage and Medicaid managed care claims by the analytics firm Trilliant Health. The company compared telehealth utilization during the March through December 2020 period to 2021 to determine the trends. (Devereux, 1/3)

Stat: Emergency Medics Remain Locked Out Of Electronic Health Records 
A few years back, Travis Ogden’s ambulance crew raced to revive a 4-year-old who’d drowned, the color starting to return to her lips as they rushed to the hospital. Normally, their arrival would mark the end of the run: What happens beyond the emergency room doors by and large remains a mystery. But that day, Ogden’s crew couldn’t accept that reality. They cleaned the rig and restocked its medical supplies in slow motion, trying to stick around and find out whether she survived. When a doctor walked over to her family and knelt, they quietly realized she hadn’t. (Renault, 1/4)

Modern Healthcare: 5 Things To Know About CMS' Proposed Rule For Exchange Plans
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently released its annual proposed rule on Affordable Care Act marketplace reforms. Here are five elements of the sweeping proposal, known as the notice of benefit and payment parameters, to keep on your radar: 1. The Biden administration wants to explicitly reverse a Trump-era policy that removed sexual orientation and gender identity from CMS' non-discrimination regulations. The provision would stop exchanges, insurance issuers, agents and brokers from discriminating against consumers for their sexual orientation or gender identity. The proposed rule also suggests requiring essential health benefits, guaranteed by exchange plans, to be designed based on clinical evidence. That could lead plans to offer similar coverage for medically necessary care, according to Katie Keith, a health law professor at Georgetown University. (Goldman, 1/3)

Stat: What Racism In Medicine Takes From Us 
During my freshman year of college, Cornel West, the renowned philosopher, had been invited to speak at a campus event. My Black friends buzzed with excitement and rushed to secure tickets to his lecture. When a friend offered to get me a ticket, I hesitated and noted that I didn’t know who West was. “You don’t know who Cornel West is?” she asked, incredulous that I was unaware of him and his contributions to American culture. My friend went on to explain that West was one of the most brilliant intellectuals and political activists of our time. As Black students at Harvard, we were standing on his shoulders. (Jennifer Adaeze Okwerekwu, 1/3)

KHN: Why An HBCU Med School Decided To Put CARES Act Money Into Students’ Pockets 
Just before students at Meharry Medical College went home for Thanksgiving, Dr. James Hildreth, the school’s president, emailed them a video message that he acknowledged seemed hard to believe. Or at least they had to give it a second listen. “We’ll gift each of you $10,000 in cash,” he said, looking at the camera. “You heard me right.” They were told to expect a direct deposit the next day or pick up a check in person. Hildreth, an expert in infectious diseases who helped lead Nashville’s pandemic response, explained that this gift with no strings attached was money from the CARES Act, a major covid-19 relief law passed by Congress in 2020. He asked only that they be “good stewards” of the windfall. (Farmer, 1/4)