Amazon Primed To Move Further Into Health Care
Amazon is opening primary-care clinics for some employees; and in a grab bag of health industry news, lawsuits and delayed leadership changes.
Dallas Morning News:
Amazon’s New Prime Offer: Delivering Six Health Clinics For 20,000 Workers In D-FW
Amazon is getting into the health care delivery business, at least for its employees. Last month, the e-commerce giant opened a primary care clinic in Irving and soon plans to open similar health centers in Coppell, Garland, Duncanville, North Fort Worth and near Haslet. The local launch is the first stage of a pilot project that will include four other U.S. metros by early next year, Amazon said. (Schnurman, 7/17)
Modern Healthcare:
COVID-19 Casts New Light On Healthcare Leadership
Many hospitals are delaying their planned leadership transitions as their organizations manage COVID-19, which, along with the collateral social unrest, is casting a new light on potential successors. Rather than sticking to succession plans set to roll out in the spring or summer, health system leaders are opting to help their organizations weather the pandemic, healthcare executive search experts said. (KaciK, ,7/18)
Modern Healthcare:
Most High-Deductible Plan Members Don't Fund HSAs
Most adults enrolled in high-deductible health plans don't use a health savings account to save for healthcare expenses, even if they have one. According to a study published Friday in JAMA Network Open, about a third of adults enrolled in a high-deductible health plan, or HDHP, didn't have an HSA, while nearly 60% of adults in those plans did have one. Another 10% of people surveyed didn't know if they had an HSA or didn't answer the survey question. Among people who had an HSA, more than half of them didn't contribute to it during the past year. (Brady, 7/17)
Modern Healthcare:
Unsealed UHS Lawsuits Describe Improper Admissions, Extended Stays
Newly unsealed lawsuits in a sweeping government fraud case allege Universal Health Services' psychiatric hospitals had a range of techniques for arriving at a shared goal: Maximize payment by admitting as many patients as possible and keeping them as long as possible. For-profit UHS will pay $122 million to settle 19 False Claims Act cases under a pair of settlements it has been working with the Department of Justice to resolve for years. The company, which says it runs more than 300 inpatient behavioral health facilities, also has to abide by a five-year agreement with the government that requires it to pay for an outside monitor. (Bannow, 7/17)
Boston Globe:
Family Of Late Resident Files $176 Million Suit Against Former Holyoke Soldiers’ Home Leaders
The family of a late Korean War veteran on Friday sued the former head of the state-run Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, the state’s former veterans secretary, and three others, charging that scores of residents unnecessarily died at the facility because the officials showed a “deliberate indifference” to their care. The federal lawsuit, filed in US District Court in Springfield, appears to be the first legal action taken by family of those who died at the home, where the coronavirus outbreak killed at least 76 elderly residents and sickened dozens more, including staff members and more than 80 other veterans. (Stout, 7/18)
