Body Positivity Website Tries To Reduce Stress Of Medical Weigh-Ins
Free "Don't Weigh Me" cards are being distributed by More-Love.org. Among other health industry news, a group of surgeons is suing UnitedHealth and Aetna, Envision is facing a lawsuit over its role in California EDs, and an apparent cyberattack took down Maryland's Health Department, including its covid data.
CNN:
'Don't Weigh Me' Cards Aim To Reduce Stress At The Doctor's Office
A body positivity website has created free "Don't Weigh Me" cards for patients who find stepping on the scale at the doctor's office stressful. The cards, created by California-based More-Love.org, are available for free to individuals, excluding the cost of postage. There is also the option for businesses to purchase the cards, at $35 per 100 cards. The cards read: "Please don't weigh me unless it's (really) medically necessary," adding "If you really need my weight, please tell me why so that I can give you my informed consent," as shown in photographs on More-Love.org. (Goodwin, 12/22)
In other health industry news —
Modern Healthcare:
Lenox Hill Surgeons Sue UnitedHealth, Aetna Over Reimbursements
UnitedHealth Group and CVS Health's Aetna have been hit with a trio of lawsuits alleging the insurance companies failed to properly reimburse surgeons. Physicians at the Surgical of Greater New York and New York-based Seckin Medical filed three lawsuits charging insurers with underpaying for services performed at Northwell Health's Lenox Hill Hospital in the city. Aetna, UnitedHealth Group and the law firms representing the doctors didn't respond to requests for comment. (Devereaux, 12/22)
Modern Healthcare:
Envision Sued Over Role In California Emergency Departments
A physician group's lawsuit against Envision Healthcare will test the limits of California's ban on the corporate practice of medicine. The American Academy of Emergency Medicine Physician Group argues that Envision's emergency department contract with Placentia-Linda Hospital in Placentia violates state law because it takes too much decision-making power away from doctors—something the state law seeks to prevent—and places it with Envision, which is owned by the private equity firm Kravis, Kohlberg and Roberts. (Bannow, 12/22)
KHN:
An Anesthesiology Practice’s Busy Day In Court Collecting On Surprise Bills
Owen Loney’s surprise bill resulted from an emergency appendectomy in 2019 at a Richmond, Virginia, hospital. Insurance covered most of the cost of the hospital stay, he said. He didn’t pay much attention to a bill he received from Commonwealth Anesthesia Associates and expected his insurance to cover it. A few months ago, he got a notice that Commonwealth was suing him in Richmond General District Court for $1,870 for putting him under during the surgery, court records show. (Hancock, 12/23)
The Baltimore Sun:
An Apparent Cyberattack Downed Maryland’s Health Department And COVID Data. Here’s What We Know And Don’t Know
Earlier this month, the Maryland Department of Health fell victim to an apparent cyberattack that prompted the agency to take some of its servers offline. One result was the department couldn’t update most of the metrics on its COVID-19 data dashboard for weeks. The state has disclosed few details about what it describes as a “network security incident” first detected Dec. 4, even after it restored on Monday some of the coronavirus data reporting earlier this week. Some 28,500 Marylanders contracted the virus during the two weeks the servers were offline, according to the state data, backing up public health officials’ warnings of another COVID-19 surge driven by the rapidly spreading and even more contagious omicron variant. (Mann, 12/23)
Also —
KHN:
Nursing Homes Bleed Staff As Amazon Lures Low-Wage Workers With Prime Packages
The sleek corporate offices of one of Amazon’s air freight contractors looms over Villaspring of Erlanger, a stately nursing home perched on a hillside in this Cincinnati suburb. Amazon Prime Air cargo planes departing from a recently opened Amazon Air Hub roar overhead. Its Prime semi-trucks speed along the highway, rumbling the nursing home’s windows. This is daily life in the shadow of Amazon. “We haven’t even seen the worst of it yet,” said John Muller, chief operating officer of Carespring, Villaspring’s operator. “They are still finishing the Air Hub.” (Varney, 12/23)
KHN:
Rural Communities Left Hurting Without A Hospital, Ambulance Or Doctors Nearby
Georgia’s Echols County, which borders Florida, could be called a health care desert. It has no hospital, no local ambulances. A medical provider comes to treat patients at a migrant farmworker clinic but, other than a small public health department with two full-time employees, that’s about the extent of the medical care in the rural county of 4,000 people. (Miller, 12/23)
KHN:
Deep Roots Help This Chicago Pharmacist Avoid Creating Another Drugstore Desert
Del-Kar Pharmacy in the North Lawndale neighborhood has had a front-row seat to history. Martin Luther King Jr. bought his daily newspaper there when he lived in Chicago in the late 1960s. The Black Panthers’ local headquarters was a block away, and the pharmacy shared a building with the Conservative Vice Lords, a notorious street gang whose members still check in on owner-pharmacist Edwin Muldrow today. (Hawryluk, 12/23)
