Cash-Strapped Crozer Health Hospitals Begin 30-Day Wind-Down Of Services
Prospect Medical Holdings notified employees that it is financially unable to keep the Pennsylvania facilities open. A judge needs to approve the closure. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for today. More industry news is about Providence, Mass General Brigham, Compassus, and more.
CBS News:
Crozer Health Hospitals In Pennsylvania Are Closing, Prospect Medical Holdings Says
Crozer-Chester Medical Center and Taylor Hospital in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, will close after months of uncertainty, according to Prospect Medical Holdings, the parent company of Crozer Health. Thousands of employees who work for Crozer Health received emails Monday morning that the system will be shutting down despite efforts to find a buyer to assume ownership of Crozer Chester Medical Center, Taylor Hospital and other facilities. (Dougherty, Corrado, Wright and Holden, 4/21)
Modern Healthcare:
Providence Hiring Freeze To Affect Nonclinical Roles
Providence has implemented a hiring freeze for nonclinical roles as the health system struggles to reach profitability. President and CEO Erik Wexler expressed concerns for the company's financial challenges in a Thursday memo to employees. He emphasized the need for action as expenses continue to outpace revenue. Wexler noted issues with low reimbursement rates, high labor and supply costs, the Crowdstrike outage and Los Angeles wildfires. (Hudson, 4/21)
The Boston Globe:
Mass General Brigham Primary Care Doctors To Hold May Union Election
The National Labor Relations Board dealt an unequivocal victory to primary care doctors seeking to unionize at Mass General Brigham, ruling that the proposed bargaining unit of about 400 physicians can proceed with an election next month. The health system, the state’s largest, had tried to pare down the size of the bargaining unit vying to join the Doctors Council. In December, lawyers for MGB argued before the National Labor Relations Board that 18 of the 29 locations in the proposed bargaining unit were actually part of MGB’s acute-care hospitals, rendering those doctors ineligible to join the primary care physicians unit with the rest of their colleagues. (Gerber, 4/21)
Modern Healthcare:
Providence-Compassus Deal Faces Scrutiny After Preliminary Review
The state of Oregon has launched a comprehensive review of the proposed joint venture between home health company Compassus and Providence Health. Oregon Health Authority’s Health Care Market Oversight program began looking deeper into the deal after a preliminary review ended last month, according to a Friday news release. The preliminary review found the transaction could substantially change how many Oregon residents receive home health and hospice care. (Eastabrook, 4/21)
Modern Healthcare:
Providers To See More Dialysis Options From Fresenius Medical Care
Dialysis therapy in the U.S. has remained largely unchanged for decades. That may be changing. Fresenius Medical Care is trying to get a foothold in the U.S. for its more advanced form of dialysis called high-volume hemodiafiltration, which has been used in Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific for more than a decade. It is more expensive than traditional hemodialysis systems, but the company has equipped it with advanced features designed to justify the cost. (Dubinsky, 4/21)
On gun violence and the health industry —
Stat:
UnitedHealth Executive Security Spending Amid Brian Thompson Killing
UnitedHealth Group spent nearly $1.7 million on security for its top executives last year, and it appears the expenses all occurred in the final weeks of 2024, after top executive Brian Thompson was killed, new filings show. (Herman, 4/21)
CNN:
With Future Of Gun Research In Question, New Report Finds US Emergency Departments See A Firearm Injury Every 30 Minutes
When Dr. Christina Johns, a pediatric emergency medicine physician, thinks about her time working at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, one case always comes rushing back: Two-year-old. Gunshot wound. Chest. ETA five minutes. The child was rushed to the emergency department after being accidentally shot by an older sibling who was playing with a gun that was left unlocked in the house. (Mukherjee, 4/21)
On veterans' health care —
American Homefront Project:
How Much Of The VA's Budget Savings Will Go To Patient Care?
When Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins cut the ribbon this month for a new outpatient clinic in Chesapeake, Virginia, the event underscored the challenges facing the agency as it attempts to implement President Donald Trump's spending cuts. This part of Virginia has one of the fastest growing veteran populations in the country, and the clinic is opening with less than a third of the staff it needs to run at full capacity. Collins has said the VA will increase staffing in stages. (Walsh, 4/21)
The War Horse:
For-Profit Firm Spends Millions To Maintain Stake In VA Benefits Claims
It started in 2017 with a group of friends and colleagues—the first 40 clients whom U.S. Army veterans Scott Greenblatt and Bill Taylor signed up to help. They had come home from combat zones weary and weakened by illness and injury, with a promise of monthly disability payments from the country they served. But first, they had to navigate the lumbering bureaucracy of the Department of Veterans Affairs. (Rosenbaum, 4/18)
