Companies Illegally Making Millions Off Veterans Filing For PACT Benefits

The Washington Post: Companies Made Millions Charging Veterans For Help Applying For Benefits 
Senators savored the moment on a summer day outside the Capitol — the passage of a sweeping, bipartisan agreement to add $280 billion in new benefits and health care for millions of veterans exposed to toxic burn pits. But glitches, slowdowns and other mishaps have dogged the program’s rollout by the Department of Veterans Affairs, enabling the growth of an unregulated shadow industry that promises to drastically boost tax-free disability checks, according to lawmakers, advocates and leaders in the claims industry — in exchange for veterans signing away thousands of dollars in future benefits. (Rein, 5/23)

Bloomberg: Health Care Hack Fixes Were Overstated By UnitedHealth
UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s claims that it had made progress fixing some systems in the weeks after a crippling cyberattack frustrated state health officials who said they were still having problems. Utah officials were waiting for UnitedHealth to fix pharmacy systems that served thousands of low-income residents when the company said in a March 7 news release that all major pharmacy claims and payment systems had been restored, according to documents obtained through a public-records request. (Tozzi, 5/22)

Modern Healthcare: CommonSpirit, Providence, Others See Gains In Net Patient Revenue
Hospitals and health systems are making more money taking care of patients, with some reporting double-digit increases in patient revenue in the latest quarter. Net patient revenue, or revenue from providing healthcare services after contractual discounts, was up substantially for health systems in the first quarter, primarily driven by higher utilization and improved payer rates. Touting the improvement was a popular topic in recent earnings reports. (Hudson, 5/22)

The CT Mirror: Lamont Meets With Prospect Medical, YNHH Leaders To Try For Deal
Gov. Ned Lamont met with the two chief executive officers involved in the plan for Yale New Haven Health to purchase Prospect Medical Holdings on Wednesday in an effort to move the stalled negotiations out of the courtroom. (Altimari and Carlesso, 5/22)

The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer: How Much Will My Surgery Cost? Despite Price Transparency Laws, It’s Still Hard To Know For Sure 
Despite federal rules that have required hospitals to make their prices public since 2021, Cleveland area hospitals are failing to fully comply with the regulations, according to a report released Wednesday by the PIRG Education Fund. (Kroen, 5/22)

KFF Health News: Los Angeles County Launches Ambitious Plan To Tackle Medical Debt. Hospitals Groan
Los Angeles County has launched one of the most ambitious efforts in the nation to tackle medical debt, targeting hospitals for their role in feeding a $2.9 billion problem. For over a year, the nation’s most populous county has worked on a comprehensive plan to track patient debt and hospital collection practices; boost bill forgiveness for low-income patients; and buy up and forgive billions in medical debt — an effort helmed by its Department of Public Health. (Castle Work, 5/23)

Modern Healthcare: Epic Posts Open-Source AI Validation Tool For Hospitals To Github
Electronic health record company Epic launched an open-source tool on Wednesday that will allow healthcare providers to test and validate artificial intelligence models. The tool is free and available through the public coding website Github where health systems can add it to their electronic health record systems, said Corey Miller, vice president of research and development at Epic. The tool will allow health systems to evaluate the performance of any AI model that integrates with any EHR, whether it's from Epic or not, Miller said. (Turner, 5/22)