CommonSpirit Health, Morehouse Team Up To Train Minority Physicians
The organizations are partnering for a 10-year, $100 million initiative to develop a joint undergraduate and graduate medical education program to train a minimum of 300 additional clinicians from historically underrepresented communities, Modern Healthcare reports.
Modern Healthcare:
CommonSpirit Partners With Morehouse To Train Black Physicians
Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health is partnering with historically Black Morehouse School of Medicine to establish medical school campuses and graduate medical education programs across the country in an effort to increase the number of minority physicians. The organizations announced on Wednesday plans to commit $21 million over the next two years as part of a 10-year, $100 million initiative to develop a joint undergraduate and graduate medical education program to train a minimum of 300 additional clinicians from historically underrepresented communities. (Ross Johnson, 12/16)
Philadelphia Inquirer:
State-Run Psychiatric Hospital Can’t Recruit Enough Workers As Pa. Risks Violating Federal Requirements
A state-run psychiatric hospital with a long history of struggling to employ enough workers is now so short-staffed that it risks violating federal requirements for patient care, Spotlight PA has learned. In an emergency request, the Department of Human Services said Torrance State Hospital in Western Pennsylvania was operating short-staffed essentially every day because it can’t recruit enough aides, and doing so could put funding for the hospital in jeopardy. An outside expert who reviewed the department’s request to hire a staffing agency said its description of conditions at the hospital raised serious questions about risks for both patients and staff. (Mahon, 12/16)
Modern Healthcare:
Healthcare Spending Growth Holds Steady In 2019, Despite Jump In Hospital Spending
Even though Americans got more hospital care and prescription drugs in 2019, elimination of a tax on insurers kept the healthcare spending growth rate effectively flat year-over-year. U.S. healthcare spending grew 4.6% to $3.8 trillion in 2019, close to its 4.7% growth in 2018 and tracking with the industry's 4.5% average yearly rate since 2016, according to an analysis by CMS' Office of the Actuary released Wednesday in Health Affairs. (Bannow, 12/16)
Modern Healthcare:
The Pricier The Policy, The More Money Insurance Brokers Can Make, Study Shows
Insurance plans that pay higher commissions to brokers usually have higher premiums, which is contributing to rising healthcare costs, according to a new study. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University said Wednesday that brokerages operating under fee-based models, as well as those that have no middleman purchasers, offer the most value for businesses of all sizes. (Tepper, 12/16)
In other news —
Detroit Free Press:
Protesters Target Michigan Health Director's Home: 'Open Up Now'
Flashlights and American flags in hand, a group of protesters marched through the dark Tuesday night to the Lansing home of Robert Gordon, director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, to protest the statewide public health orders to slow the spread of coronavirus. Chanting, "Open up now!" and "We're not going to take it anymore," while ringing cowbells and using megaphones, the group of about 15-20 protesters shared a video of the protest on social media. (Jordan Shamus and Hendrickson, 12/16)
The Wall Street Journal:
Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes Wants Boies Schiller Documents Kept Secret
Theranos Inc. founder Elizabeth Holmes is fighting to keep jurors in her coming fraud trial from seeing emails and other documents tied to the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, arguing they are protected communications with her lawyers. Ms. Holmes and former top Theranos executive Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani are facing charges of defrauding investors in the defunct blood-testing startup out of hundreds of millions of dollars and deceiving patients about the reliability of Theranos tests. (Randazzo, 12/16)
KHN:
Readers And Tweeters Defend Front-Line Nurses And Blind Us With Science
I read your article “Need a COVID-19 Nurse? That’ll Be $8,000 a Week” (Nov. 24) in the Springfield Journal-Register. It was an interesting article as I have a daughter who is a nurse. Nurses have been underpaid and unappreciated for years. It made me angry that the article characterized the wages some hospitals are willing to pay for nurses as exorbitant. (12/17)
