Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Alarmed By Rash Of Rural Hospital Closures, Georgia Lawmakers Wonder If Financial Management Classes Are The Answer
The Associated Press: To Save Rural Hospitals, Georgia Requires Classes For CEOs
Like many other rural hospitals across the country, Taylor Regional in the small town of Hawkinsville, Georgia, had gone through years of financial troubles. When it approached retired Dr. Skip McDannald for help in 2015, he said he quickly spotted problems. (10/13)
The Wall Street Journal: Major Blue Health Insurers Drop Deal To Combine
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina and Cambia Health Solutions said they were dropping plans to combine, after the resignation of the North Carolina insurer’s chief executive. Former Blue Cross of North Carolina CEO Patrick Conway had stepped down amid fallout over an allegedly alcohol-related traffic accident. The two insurers had said they were pausing their deal on Sept. 24, as details of the June incident emerged. (Wilde Mathews, Scism and Bauerlein, 10/11)
Houston Chronicle: Healthcare Providers Band Together To Create Comprehensive Care Centers
Blue Cross Blue Shield and Sanitas Medical Center have formed a united effort to make healthcare affordable. The full-service clinic will offer primary care, urgent care, lab and diagnostic imaging services, care coordination and wellness and disease management programs in one location. The philosophy behind the care center is simple: affordable access to preventative care reduces the cost of healthcare by preventing the need for future treatment. (Goodman, 10/11)
Bloomberg: Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) Legal Losses Could Get Worse
Johnson & Johnson has taken some costly beatings in court this year. And it could get worse.Just last week, a jury ordered J&J to pay $8 billion for wrongfully pushing doctors to prescribe the anti-psychotic drug Risperdal. While the amount the company pays for the verdict will probably be significantly less, it came on the heels of billions more in 2019 court losses or settlements from damage claims involving baby powder, opioid painkillers and artificial hips. (Feeley, 10/14)
Bloomberg: Ancestry To Offer Health Tests, Stepping Up DNA-Test Battle
Ancestry.com LLC, known for its DNA tests that allow customers to explore their family trees, told customers it plans to offer genetic screening for health problems as well. “We’ve seen adding this capability as a natural evolution, but only if we could do it in a way that was authentic to our core mission,” Chief Executive Officer Margo Georgiadis wrote in an email that landed in customers’ inboxes beginning on Thursday. “That would mean creating a solution that could enable our customers to gain meaningful insights to help them live longer, healthier lives.” (Brown, 10/11)
Boston Globe: A Woman Gets Some Bad Advice From Her Health Insurer And Faces A Bill For Nearly $3,000
On the morning of the surgery, Davis paid $200 as a copayment, which the Harvard Pilgrim representative had told her would be her total out-of-pocket expense. A month later, she got a bill for $2,879. Why? Because, she would later learn, she had gone to the wrong type of facility. (Murphy, 10/13)
Detroit Free Press: GM Deal With UAW On Health Care Costs May Help End Strike, Hurt Ford
General Motors, in its negotiations with the UAW, has cost Ford a lot of money. Why? Ford employs the most hourly workers in the United States and as a result pays more for health care. So any costs that GM negotiates in what is seen as a master contract with the Detroit Three directly impacts Ford disproportionately, labor analysts say. One upside of being the target chosen by the labor union to go first during collective bargaining means GM sets the pattern for key issues such as wages, health care and temporary workers in the four-year contract. (Howard, 10/14)
Kaiser Health News: Patients Eligible For Charity Care Instead Get Big Bills
When Ashley Pintos went to the emergency room of St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash., in 2016, with a sharp pain in her abdomen and no insurance, a representative demanded a $500 deposit before treating her. “She said, ‘Do you have $200?’ I said no,” recalled Pintos, who then earned less than $30,000 at a company that made holsters for police. “She said, ‘Do you have $100?’ They were not quiet about me not having money.” But Pintos, a single mom with two kids who is now 29, told state officials St. Joseph never gave her a financial aid application form, even after she asked. (Rau, 10/14)
