CMS: Authorities Can Levy More Fines For Nursing Home Safety Violations

Modern Healthcare: Nursing Homes May Face More Fines For Health, Safety Violations
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has added another weapon to its arsenal as it ramps up efforts to enforce nursing home safety and quality rules. The agency decided that federal and state authorities may levy more fines against skilled nursing facilities when inspectors uncover health and safety deficiencies. Under a final rule published July 31, regulators are now empowered to concurrently fine providers on both per-day and per-instance bases. (Early, 8/8)

KFF Health News: Violent Dementia Patients Leave Nursing Home Staffers And Residents ‘Scared To Death’
Dan Shively had been a bank president who built floats for July Fourth parades in Cody, Wyoming, and adored fly-fishing with his sons. Jeffrey Dowd had been an auto mechanic who ran a dog rescue and hosted a Sunday blues radio show in Santa Fe. By the time their lives intersected at Canyon Creek Memory Care Community in Billings, Montana, both were deep in the grips of dementia and exhibiting some of the disease’s terrible traits. (Rau, 8/9)

In other health care worker updates —

CBS News: Brigham And Women's Hospital Nurses Reach Contract Deal, Avoid One-Day Strike
Nurses at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston will not go on strike after a reaching a new contract deal on Thursday. Two weeks ago, the union authorized a one-day strike because their negotiations with hospital administrators were deadlocked. The Massachusetts Nurses Association said the tentative contract includes pay raises, health insurance choice, better staffing, and workplace violence prevention. (8/8)

The Colorado Sun: Larimer County’s Mental Health Center Lays Off 75 People
Larimer County’s community mental health center has abruptly laid off 75 employees, causing a gap in care for some of the most vulnerable patients and increasing concerns about how far the fallout will spread after a seismic shift in Medicaid funding. (Brown, 8/8)

Modern Healthcare: How Community Health Centers Adapt To Staffing, Pay Limitations
Community Healthcare Network has struggled to find clinicians as health centers face a staffing crisis because they just can't afford to pay what other employers offer. “We have a very compelling mission and many healthcare workers want to commit to that mission, but the formula at health centers is, ‘Work very hard under the toughest of circumstances for less money than you can get almost anywhere else,’” CEO Robert Hayes said. “So it’s a tough sell.” (Devereaux, 8/8)

More health industry news —

Modern Healthcare: Society To Improve Diagnosis In Medicine Closes Amid Bankruptcy
The Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine, a nonprofit patient advocacy organization created to raise awareness of and reduce diagnostic errors, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Wednesday and closed after a year of financial challenges. SIDM’s decision to shut down came after it was unable to find new grants or other sources of income to offset its losses, the organization said in an email to stakeholders. (Devereaux, 8/8)

KFF Health News: Medi-Cal’s Dental Care Gap: Getting A Tooth Pulled Is Easy — Much Harder To Get An Implant
When Bobby Moske went to a community clinic a few years ago with a toothache, he couldn’t find a dentist in Marin County willing to take Medicaid to do a root canal. Marin Community Clinics referred the 75-year-old to a dentist about 20 miles away in San Francisco, but his tooth decayed while he waited months for authorization to cover the procedure. In the end, his tooth was pulled. It was the sixth time in a decade Moske had lost a tooth for lack of dental care, he said. (Castle Work, 8/9)

Axios: Eli Lilly's Weight-Loss Drug Sales Skyrocket, Crushing Expectations
Eli Lilly proved Thursday that the market for weight-loss drugs isn't softening. The company is riding the GLP-1 rocket ship to higher sales and profits, cementing its status as a global pharmaceutical powerhouse. (Bomey, 8/8)