Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
American Red Cross Blames Worst Blood Shortage Since 2015 On Covid
Fox News: Worst Emergency Blood Shortage Since 2015 Caused By Pandemic: American Red Cross
The American Red Cross recently issued a public call to action due to a plummeting national inventory of blood donations amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. "The Red Cross is now facing an emergency blood and platelet shortage. Blood donor turnout has reached the lowest levels of the year as many have delayed giving amid a return to the workplace and in-person learning, as well as a recent surge in COVID-19 cases across the country due to the delta variant," Jodi Sheedy, senior director of Biomedical Communications at the Red Cross, told Fox News. (Musto and Sudhakar, 10/14)
New Orleans Times-Picayune: New Orleans Ambulances To Carry Blood For Pre-Hospital Transfusions
Starting Monday, New Orleans Emergency Medical Services will carry blood in its ambulances for transfusions before arriving at a hospital. The agency has partnered up with The Blood Center to launch the initiative, which it says is the first of its kind in the region. Uncontrolled bleeding is the leading cause of preventable death, and death by bleed-out mostly happens before a patient arrives at a hospital, the agency said. Studies have shown that pre-hospital transfusions can significantly improve a patient's chance of surviving traumatic injuries. (Pierce, 10/14)
In other health care industry news —
The Boston Globe: Mass. Medicaid Fraud Case Settled For Record $25 Million, AG’s Office Says
A private equity firm and two former top executives at a Massachusetts chain of mental health centers have agreed to pay $25 million in a whistleblower lawsuit brought by the attorney general’s office, marking the largest MassHealth fraud settlement in state history, officials said Thursday. South Bay Community Services (formerly known as South Bay Mental Health) has operated facilities in more than a dozen Massachusetts communities, including Boston, Brockton, Fall River, Lowell, Pittsfield, and Worcester, the office of Attorney General Maura Healey said in a statement. (Fox, 10/14)
Modern Healthcare: Spending More On Medicare Advantage Doesn't Seem To Buy Better Health
Medicare Advantage and traditional Medicare enrollees visit hospitals and emergency departments at the same frequency, despite members enrolled in the privatized program receiving more care management services, a new report finds. Thirty-four percent of traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage members aged 65 and older visited an emergency department during the two-year period between 2016 and 2018, for example, according to an analysis published by the Commonwealth Fund Thursday. Hospitalization rates were also similar, with 28% of Medicare Advantage members and 27% of traditional Medicare enrollees visiting a hospital over those two years. (Tepper, 10/14)
NPR: The Pandemic Has Driven Many Americans To Delay Health Care
Last month, Chelsea Titus, a 40-year-old mother of one in Boise, Idaho, needed surgery to relieve severe pain from endometriosis. But hospitals there are so full of unvaccinated COVID-19 patients that doctors told her she'd have to wait. Nearly 1 in 5 American households has had to delay care for serious illnesses in the past few months, according to a new poll from NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Titus, who works for a tech company from the home she shares with her husband, her daughter and a labradoodle named Winston, previously had surgery for endometriosis in which doctors removed her uterus and one ovary. When the condition flared again in September, the pain was severe. (Dawson, 10/14)
Rockdale Newton Citizen: Patient Found On Sidewalk In Front Of Piedmont Rockdale
A man who apparently left Piedmont Rockdale Hospital Thursday collapsed on the sidewalk in front of the hospital and was returned to the hospital’s ER by ambulance, according to the Conyers Police Department. Conyers Deputy Chief of Police Scott Freeman said the man, who appeared to be in his mid-60s, was reportedly escorted out of the hospital by hospital security around 10 a.m. Thursday. Freeman said the man still had medical tubing connected to his body and was lying on the sidewalk unresponsive when police arrived shortly after 11 a.m. (Queen, 10/14)
New Orleans Times-Picayune: Larry Hollier, Chancellor Of LSU Health Sciences Center Who Came Under Fire, Resigns Post
Larry Hollier is out as chancellor of the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, bringing an abrupt end to a 15-year tenure amid a raft of allegations that he pushed for improper pay bumps for his inner circle, underpaid women and violated the university’s policies while hiring and firing people. An LSU announcement Thursday said Hollier would vacate his post immediately. His contract was set to expire at the end of the year. An interim chancellor, who has not yet been named, will take over while LSU searches for Hollier’s replacement. (Cranney, 10/14)
KHN: Schedule Online Visits First? It’s The Next Big Thing In Health Insurance
At the height of the covid-19 pandemic, people often relied on telemedicine for doctor visits. Now, insurers are betting that some patients liked it enough to embrace new types of health coverage that encourages video visits — or outright insists on them. Priority Health in Michigan, for example, offers coverage requiring online visits first for nonemergency primary care. Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, selling to employers in Connecticut, Maine and New Hampshire, has a similar plan. “I would describe them as virtual first, a true telehealth primary care physician replacement product,” said Carrie Kincaid, vice president of individual markets at Priority Health, which launched its plans in January as an addition to more traditional Affordable Care Act offerings. (Appleby, 10/15)
KHN: How To Crush Medical Debt: 5 Tips For Using Hospital Charity Care
What if a law passed but no one enforced it? That’s essentially what has happened with one small but helpful rule about hospitals and financial assistance for medical bills. The Affordable Care Act, the health law also known as Obamacare, requires nonprofit hospitals to make financial assistance available to low-income patients and post those policies online. Across the U.S., more than half of hospitals are nonprofit — and in some states all or nearly all hospitals are nonprofit. But many people who qualify for financial assistance — or “charity care,” as it is sometimes known — never apply. (Pisacreta, 10/15)
