Hospitals’ Trauma Care Prices Differed Wildly In 2023: Study

Modern Healthcare: Hospital Prices For Emergency Care Varied 16-Fold In 2023: JAMA
Prices for initiating care at hospital trauma centers vary wildly across hospitals, sometimes leading to patients with insurance paying more than those without coverage, according to a new study. Prices associated with readying doctors and other personnel for trauma cases varied 16-fold in 2023 across 761 hospitals studied, according to a peer-reviewed research letter published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (Kacik, 4/17)

Stat: These Tech Startups Are Betting On Hospital Price Transparency Rules
Federal rules forcing hospitals and insurers to post rates for medical procedures have taken effect, but the data’s so messy that a crop of new startups is rushing in to make a business out of parsing it for whoever is willing to pay. (Ravindranath, 4/17)

Hospital closings and openings —

The South Alabamian: Alabama Hospital Up For Auction 4 Years After Opening
The Thomasville Regional Medical Center faces foreclosure and could be sold at auction on May 9, unless a deal to transfer it to new owners goes through, according to court filings and Thomasville Mayor Sheldon Day. The facility has been clouded with financial issues since opening in 2020. Earlier this month, attorneys for the mortgagee North Avenue Capital LLC of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., filed a foreclosure notice with a Clarke County court for nearly $40 million owed on the property. (Gray, 4/18)

The Mercury News: Santa Clara County Asks State To Intervene Over Closure Of Regional Medical Center’s Trauma Center 
Santa Clara County officials, doctors and community members are imploring the state to intervene in HCA Healthcare’s decision to close Regional Medical Center’s trauma center and other life saving programs later this year — a move they say will lead to more deaths and worse outcomes for patients. ... The closure will leave residents in the eastern part of the county without a Comprehensive Stroke Center and San Jose will have fewer trauma centers than any other comparably sized city in the nation, according to county officials. (Hase, 4/17)

The Colorado Sun: A Colorado Psychiatric Hospital Is At Risk Of Closing Within 30 Days
A psychiatric hospital providing mental health and addiction services to people across 23,000 square miles in western Colorado could shut down within weeks if it can’t find the funding it needs to stay open. (Flowers, 4/18)

Bloomberg: PE-Owned Health Care Saw Bankruptcy Surge As Playbook Failed
Private equity-owned businesses accounted for a high number of bankruptcies in the health-care sector last year, and another wave of distress looms, according to a new report from an advocacy group that monitors the sector. PE-backed firms accounted for at least 17, or about a fifth, of the 80 bankruptcies of health-care companies last year, the Private Equity Stakeholder Project said in a report due to be released Wednesday. It called 2023 a “record year” for large health-care bankruptcies. (Coleman-Lochner, 4/17)

Becker's Hospital Review: $90M Indiana Hospital Opens To Patients
Indianapolis-based Eskenazi Health opened its nearly $90 million Eskenazi Health Thomas and Arlene Grande campus in Indianapolis to patients on April 17. Services like financial counseling, chiropractic care, podiatry, imaging, physical therapy and rehabilitation, lifestyle medicine, and pharmacy are offered at the 95,000-square-foot-facility, according to an April 17 news release. (Ashley, 4/17)

The Boston Globe: More Beds Approved At MGH
State regulators on Wednesday approved a request from Massachusetts General Hospital to add nearly 100 new beds to its massive downtown construction project, the hospital said. In a statement, Mass. General said the Massachusetts Public Health Council unanimously approved a “net increase of 94 licensed inpatient beds” at the hospital. The State House News Service previously reported on the approval. (Andersen and Serres, 4/17)

On staffing and workloads —

Becker's Hospital Review: PeaceHealth Nurses Authorize 2nd Strike
Members of the Oregon Nurses Association at Springfield, Ore.-based PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Home Care Services have voted to authorize an open-ended strike. The union represents more than 90 nurses at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Home Care Services, according to an ONA news release shared with Becker's. PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Home Care Services is part of PeaceHealth, a Vancouver, Wash.-based nonprofit Catholic health system serving communities in Washington, Oregon and Alaska. (Gooch, 4/17)

Modern Healthcare: Nursing Home Staff Mandate Draws Concerns At Senate Hearing
Nursing home workers and educators pushed back on the administration's staffing mandate at a Senate Aging Committee hearing Tuesday, as the industry waits for the final rule to drop. In September, CMS proposed staffing ratio requirements for long-term care facilities, which would require them to provide 0.55 hours of care from a registered nurse per resident per day and 2.45 hours of care from a nurse aide per resident per day. (DeSilva, 4/17)

The CT Mirror: CT Hospital, Nursing Home Complaint Backlog Stretches Back Years
The state Department of Public Health is wading through a backlog of 2,400 unaddressed complaints from nursing home residents, their families or others, and another 1,300 complaints related to incidents at hospitals, some which are now five years old, agency data shows. (Carlesso and Altimari, 4/17)

The Baltimore Sun: Report Lists Reasons For Maryland's Long ER Wait Times
Thomas Eagle’s heart rate was hovering around 39 beats per minute when his wife, Anna Palmisano, drove him to the emergency department at Johns Hopkins Suburban Hospital in October 2022. He had COVID-19 and, while he lifted weights and exercised regularly, he was also 75 years old. Palmisano was worried. But after five hours passed and Eagle still hadn’t seen a doctor, they left the Bethesda hospital. They couldn’t wait any longer, they decided. (Roberts, 4/18)