As Baby Boomers Reach Old Age, Cost Of Elder Care Is Skyrocketing
The cost of nursing home care has risen by an average of 2.4% per year between 2012 and 2019, The Hill reported. Also in the news: Tufts Medicine cuts hundreds of jobs; hospitals dial back on venture capital investing; and more.
The Hill:
Price Of Elder Care Soars As Demand Increases, Baby Boomers Age
Many Americans who serve as caregivers are consumed by the immense cost of tending to ailing or aging family members. And as the baby boomer generation ages, more Americans are in for a rude awakening as to just how expensive caring for older adults has become. The price of nursing home care increased by an average of 2.4 percent each year between 2012 and 2019, for a cumulative increase of 20.7 percent, according to data from the health research group Altarum Institute. (O'Connell-Domenech, 8/13)
The Boston Globe:
Tufts Medicine Eliminating Hundreds Of Jobs As It Outsources Lab Services
Hundreds of employees at Tufts Medicine will be let go as part of the sale of its laboratory business, according to state disclosures released on Friday, however the health system said many of those affected will be offered other jobs. The health system, which has faced prolonged financial difficulties, on Aug. 3 announced the sale of its Tufts Medicine Outreach Laboratory business and some operating assets to Labcorp of North Carolina. (Bartlett, 8/11)
Modern Healthcare:
Mass General Brigham Looks To Reduce Capacity Issues
Easing capacity constraints is a key focus for Mass General Brigham as it works to trim operating costs through better use of its resources. The Boston-based nonprofit system said Friday it has implemented real-time bed management, including efforts to more efficiently find inpatient beds for behavioral health patients to avoid long stays in the emergency department, and continues to integrate its clinical service lines. (Hudson, 8/11)
Stat:
Hospitals Are Dialing Back On Venture Capital Investing
Hospitals once dove headfirst into venture capital with splashy headlines and attention-grabbing numbers. Now, in an era of flattened margins and exceedingly uncertain returns, many health systems are quietly pulling back. (Bannow, 8/14)
Stat:
After Optum Profits Sink, UnitedHealth Makes Changes
Just weeks after the division of UnitedHealth Group that provides care to patients posted its lowest profit margin in a decade, the company has shuffled around several top executives. (Herman, 8/14)
KFF Health News:
Proposed Rule Would Make Hospital Prices Even More Transparent
“How much is the ice cream?” A simple enough question, featured on a new TV and online advertisement, posed by a man who just wants something cold. A woman behind the counter responds with a smile: “Prices? No, we don’t have those anymore. We have estimates.” The satirical ad pretends to be a news report highlighting a “trend” in which more retail outlets take up “the hospital pricing method”: substituting estimates for actual prices for the cost of meals, merchandise on store shelves, and clothing. The scene ends with a partially deleted expletive from the ice cream-seeking man. (Appleby, 8/14)
KFF Health News:
Patients In California County May See Refunds, Debt Relief From Charity Care Settlement
California’s largest public hospital plans to start notifying 43,000 former patients Monday that they may be eligible for refunds or billing corrections, part of what advocates called a major legal settlement that will help force the hospital to fulfill its charity care obligations. Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, along with other units of county-owned Santa Clara Valley Healthcare, will also adopt procedures to ensure patients are informed of their eligibility for charity care, which nonprofit and public hospitals must provide. (Castle Work, 8/14)
Also —
The Washington Post:
Dentist Charged In Girlfriend's Death With Drugs From Office Heads To Trial
The allegations against oral surgeon James Ryan were stunning: He supplied his girlfriend with so much addictive anesthesia solutions — along with an IV stand so she could have the fluids dripped into her veins — that when she died of an overdose at their Maryland home Ryan was charged with “depraved heart” murder. Now, with Ryan’s trial set to start Wednesday in Montgomery County Circuit Court, his defense is taking an aggressive posture. Ryan didn’t kill Sarah Harris, his attorneys are expected to assert, but rather she took her own life. (Morse, 8/13)
The Washington Post:
Alice Kahn Ladas, Pioneer In Women’s Sexuality, Dies At 102
Alice Kahn Ladas, a psychologist and psychotherapist who helped loosen constraints on women’s sexual experience as a co-author of the best-selling book “The G Spot: And Other Recent Discoveries About Human Sexuality,” died July 29 at her home in Santa Fe, N.M. She was 102. Her daughter Robin Janis confirmed her death and said she did not know the cause. (Langer, 8/10)
