Analysis: 30% Of Patients Get Care Without Seeing Primary Provider
A FAIR Health analysis, reported by Axios, shows that of all patients who received medical services between 2016 and 2022 nearly 30% did not see a primary care physician. The Texas Tribune, meanwhile, reports on how rural Texans must travel long distances for basic health needs.
Axios:
Nearly 1 In 3 Patients Don't See Primary Care Doc
Nearly 30% of all patients who received medical services between 2016 and 2022 did not see a primary care physician, a FAIR Health analysis provided first to Axios shows. Primary care providers are supposed to manage patients' day-to-day health needs and provide preventative care, and evidence shows it can drive down costs and improve outcomes. But many people are clearly getting their care elsewhere — if they're getting it at all. (Reed, 3/15)
The Texas Tribune:
Rural Texans Must Travel Long Distances For Basic Health Care Needs
On a map, this small town in the South Plains seems well positioned for residents to find health care. With nearly 1,700 residents, Ralls is nestled between Crosbyton, about 10 miles away, and Lubbock, about 30 miles away, both of which have hospitals and emergency rooms. But being neighbors with a larger city has made getting health care harder. With Lubbock quickly growing and in reach, the city has inadvertently sapped patients, physicians and businesses from nearby towns. (Lozano, 3/16)
On the affordability of health care —
Bloomberg:
Without Affordable Health Insurance, Some Americans Are Drinking Bleach
In the summer of 2011, Anna was visiting her parents in rural Texas when they told her about a new health fad that they’d heard about at church: Miracle Mineral Solution. The family didn’t have insurance, so took MMS much like a vitamin supplement. They believed it would help them stay healthy. (Brown, 3/15)
KHN:
Listen To ‘Tradeoffs’: Medical Debt Delivers ‘A Shocking Amount Of Misery’
The numbers that tell the story of medical debt in the U.S. are staggering: Around 100 million Americans have health care debt, and together they owe at least $140 billion. And research suggests this debt can have striking consequences on people’s financial, physical, and mental health. In this episode of the “Tradeoffs” podcast, Dan Gorenstein talks about the pain and possible solutions to medical debt with KHN senior correspondent Noam N. Levey and UCLA researcher Wes Yin. (Levey, 3/16)
AP:
In Nursing Homes, Impoverished Live Final Days On Pennies
New pants to replace Alex Morisey’s tattered khakis will have to wait. There’s no cash left for sugar-free cookies either. Even at the month’s start, the budget is so bare that Fixodent is a luxury. Now, halfway through it, things are so tight that even a Diet Pepsi is a stretch. “How many years do I have left?” asks 82-year-old Morisey, who lives in a Philadelphia nursing home. “I want to live those as well as I can. But to some degree, you lose your dignity.” Across the U.S., hundreds of thousands of nursing home residents are locked in a wretched bind: Driven into poverty, forced to hand over all income and left to live on a stipend as low as $30 a month. In a long-term care system that subjects some of society’s frailest to daily indignities, Medicaid’s personal needs allowance, as the stipend is called, is among the most ubiquitous, yet least known. (Sedensky, 3/15)
In other industry updates —
Stat:
HHS Chooses A Location For ARPA-H — Sort Of
Officials at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health are moving ahead with plans to set up an office in the Washington, D.C. area — though they aren’t saying whether that means the city proper or somewhere in Maryland or Virginia. The choice, however vague, all but guarantees the location will be a quick drive from the headquarters of the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, Md., despite explicit instructions from Congress not to house the new, multi-billion-dollar health agency on the actual campus. (Owermohle and Cohrs, 3/15)
The Washington Post:
One Of Largest Fertility Clinic Mishaps In U.S. Settled Out Of Court
An appeal of a landmark jury verdict that awarded nearly $15 million to five people who lost embryos and eggs in a fertility clinic mishap has settled out of court. The amount of the agreement is confidential, according to a court filing. ... More than 2,500 embryos and 1,500 eggs belonging to more than 400 people were in the cryo-preservation tank at Pacific Fertility Center in San Francisco when it malfunctioned in March 2018, according to a court filing. It is unclear how many of those people will share in what may be a substantial monetary settlement. (Bernstein, 3/15)
The New York Times:
7 Virginia Deputies Charged With Murder In Death Of Man At Hospital
Seven sheriff’s deputies in Virginia have been charged with second-degree murder in the death of a Black man with a history of mental illness who died after the officers smothered him as he lay on the ground in handcuffs and leg shackles at a hospital, his family’s lawyer and a county prosecutor said on Wednesday. The man, Irvo Otieno, 28, of Henrico County, Va., whose family emigrated from Kenya when he was 4 years old, appeared to have died from asphyxiation, or oxygen deficiency, on March 6 at Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie County, his family’s lawyer, Mark Krudys, said in an interview. His family says Mr. Otieno was deprived of medication while in jail that he needed for his mental illness. (Medina, 3/15)
In corporate news —
Modern Healthcare:
Nonprofit Hospital Tax Exemptions Top $28B: KFF
Nonprofit hospitals received $28 billion in taxpayer subsidies in 2020 but only provided $16 billion in free or discounted care, a new analysis found. (Kacik, 3/15)
Modern Healthcare:
Bright Health Under Florida Regulatory Supervision
Bright Health Group's financial headaches are worse than previously known, as Florida regulators revealed the company has been under supervision for six months and unable to spend money without clearance from the Sunshine State. (Tepper, 3/15)
Crain's Detroit Business:
Sparrow Health's 2022 Revenue Loss Reached $171.5M
Sparrow Health reported Wednesday a $171.5 million loss for 2022, adding to a growing list of poor financial performers across the healthcare industry. The eighth-largest health system in the state reported a loss on revenue of $1.47 billion, compared to a loss of $67.8 million on revenue of $1.5 billion in 2021, according to the Lansing-based system's annual reporting. (Walsh, 3/15)
