Home Care Providers Push Back On CMS Rule Requiring Spends On Wages

Modern Healthcare: CMS Rule On Caregiver Wages Gets Blowback From Providers
Home care providers are pushing back on part of a proposed rule by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services requiring states to spend 80% of Medicaid home- and community-based services funds on caregiver wages. The proposal is aimed at attracting and retaining more direct care workers as the industry continues to face severe staffing challenges due to high demand for in-home care from the COVID-19 pandemic. Some providers say they could be forced to pause hiring, cut workers or go out of business if they are unable to use home- and community-based services funds for staff training and administrative costs. (Eastabrook, 5/8)

More on staffing and contracts —

The New York Times: Corporate Giants Buy Up Primary Care Practices At Rapid Pace 
It’s no surprise that the shortage of primary care doctors — who are critically important to the health of Americans — is getting worse. They practice in one of medicine’s lowest paid, least glamorous fields. Most are overworked, seeing as many as 30 people a day; figuring out when a sore throat is a strep infection, or managing a patient’s chronic diabetes. (Abelson, 5/8)

Modern Healthcare: How The FTC's Noncompete Ban Could Apply To Nonprofit Hospitals
While the legislation that created the Federal Trade Commission may shield nonprofit entities from the agency’s oversight, some former FTC staffers say the commission could invoke other laws to prevent individual nonprofit hospitals from using noncompete provisions in employment contracts. (Kacik, 5/8)

NBC News: Stressed Out And Burned Out: Younger Nurses Feel Strain Of Nursing Shortage
It's unusual for Emma Cooper, a nurse who cares for women after they've given birth, to be proud of the work she does every day. "To have a patient sitting in front of me crying because they feel that they haven't been taught how to feed their baby is so upsetting," Cooper, of Portland, Maine, said. (Edwards, 5/8)

Houston Chronicle: Andy And Barbara Gessner Donated $20M To The University Of Houston
Philanthropists Andy and Barbara Gessner have donated $20 million to the University of Houston College of Nursing, a gift that has renamed the school and energized its efforts to stem a statewide shortage in the field. UH unveiled the new Andy and Barbara Gessner College of Nursing during a celebration Monday at the university’s Sugar Land campus. The gift will fund three endowed professorships, plus scholarships and fellowships as the college attempts to double its pre-nursing student population within the next year. (Ketterer, 5/8)

In other health care industry news —

Charlotte Ledger: Her Health Insurer Delayed An MRI - As Her Cancer Spread
Kathleen Valentini was 47 when she first noticed a nagging pain in her hip. The Waxhaw mom tried physical therapy, but her pain just got worse. Her doctor ordered an MRI to find out what was going on, according to court documents and Kathleen’s husband, Val Valentini. But Kathleen’s health insurer wouldn’t authorize the MRI, a scan that can cost as much as $8,000. After considering the request for two weeks, the insurer said the procedure wasn’t “medically necessary,” her husband said. It ordered her to try six weeks of physical therapy first. (Crouch, 5/8)

The Boston Globe: Psychiatric Patient Who Died At Shattuck Hospital Was Victim Of ‘Neglect,’ Report Says
During the three years Haywood Earl was a psychiatric patient at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital, a mole on the left side of his nose unnecessarily grew, bled, and developed into a cancerous lesion that spread, “causing disfigurement, escalating pain, and death,” according to a report released Monday that found the state hospital did not properly diagnose or treat the 60-year-old Black man. (Alanez, 5/8)

USA Today: Was Treatment 'Justified' For Kentucky Coroner Guilty Of Overprescribing?
Dr. David Suetholz was a pioneer of addiction treatment in Northern Kentucky, among the first to become qualified to treat the condition with medication. He had a family practice where he saw patients with everyday health concerns but also welcomed those with chronic pain or addiction disorder. “People with addiction have felt as outcasts,” he said. Not in his office. (DeMio and Bentley, 5/9)