Florida Hospitals Obliged To Demand Data On Your Immigration Status

Miami Herald: Florida Hospitals Will Now Ask About Your Immigration Status. What To Know, How To Answer 
Hospitals ask patients a lot of personal questions. Medical history? Medications? Preexisting conditions? Smoke, drink or do drugs? As of Saturday, you’ll have one more question to answer: What’s your immigration status? Florida hospitals that accept Medicaid will be required to query patients about that, although a person can decline to answer. The measure is just one of many in a new bill, SB 1718, approved by the Florida Legislature and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May to crack down on the flow of illegal immigration into the state. (Marchante, 7/1)

In other health care industry news —

Philadelphia Inquirer: Penn Medicine Closed Its Only Urgent Care Center In Philadelphia
The University of Pennsylvania Health System last week closed its urgent care center in South Philadelphia, citing increased use of telemedicine by patients who might otherwise go to an urgent-care center for their ailment. Penn said it will open a cardiology practice in the urgent care’s space at Constitution Health Plaza, at the intersection of South Broad Street and Passyunk Avenue. The building is the site of the former St. Agnes Hospital, which closed in 2004. (Brubaker, 7/6)

Modern Healthcare: Baylor Scott & White, NextCare Partner On 41 Texas Centers
Baylor Scott & White Health is adding 41 urgent care locations to its network in Texas through a partnership with NextCare Urgent Care. Dallas-based Baylor Scott & White, which serves 3 million Texans as the state's largest nonprofit health system, said Thursday it will jointly own the urgent care sites and expand into Houston and San Antonio. Other NextCare sites span the Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin metro areas, where Baylor Scott & White already has a physical presence. (Hudson, 7/6)

Axios: Denver Hospital Opens Youth Detox Center 
Denver Health is providing treatment for young people with drug addictions through its new adolescent detoxification facility — the first licensed center in the state. The facility was created in response to a spike in opioid use among teenagers, with Dr. Kristina Foreman of Denver Health telling us more people under 21 are seeking treatment. (Hernandez, 7/6)

The Colorado Sun: Hundreds Left In Jails As Colorado’s State Mental Hospitals Can’t Find Enough Nurses
First, state officials offered $7,000 signing bonuses for nurses willing to work in Colorado’s two state mental hospitals. No one seemed to care. It wasn’t much of a bonus, at least in terms of the competition across the state, which is facing a shortage of an estimated 10,000 nurses. Then the Colorado Department of Human Services bumped its signing bonuses to $14,000, on top of 5% raises this year and temporary 8% raises for next year for nurses at the mental hospitals in Pueblo and at Fort Logan in Denver. Now, the state is making some progress on the severe staffing shortage that has plagued the hospitals since the coronavirus pandemic hit Colorado and huge numbers of nurses quit their jobs. (Brown, 7/6)

Military.com: 5 New Genetic Diagnostic Tests To Be Covered By Tricare
The Defense Health Agency has extended a pilot program that covers many now-common laboratory genetic tests and added five more to improve diagnostics and care for patients with breast, blood and prostate cancer and suspicious-looking moles or skin lesions. The Pentagon's health arm announced Thursday that it has extended its pilot program that covers more than 45 laboratory-developed tests, or LDTs, through July 18, 2028. (Kime, 7/6)

Also —

Boise State Public Radio News: In Wake Of SCOTUS Affirmative Action Ruling, Medical Schools Will Have To ‘Find Different Ways’ 
Universities and professional schools across the West have been reacting to the Supreme Court’s recent decision rejecting affirmative action. For the head of one of the handful of medical schools in the region, the ruling didn’t come as a surprise, but he is preoccupied by some potential implications. “I worry that populations that we very much need in medical school may be scared by the Supreme Court ruling and may not apply,” said Marc Kahn, dean of the relatively new Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “I worry about that.” (Woodhouse, 7/6)

Modern Healthcare: AI In Patient Care: How Cleveland Clinic, Providence, Others Use It
Healthcare organizations are investing millions of dollars into artificial intelligence to achieve a faster and more accurate care delivery model. Many systems nationwide are already employing AI for back-office functions such as revenue cycle management, and interest is growing in determining how AI can directly impact patient care and lead to more efficient operations. (Hudson, 7/6)

Stat: EMT Emergency Lights And Sirens May Do More Harm Than Good
Jonathan Studnek knows some people imagine that driving an ambulance at high speed with lights flashing and sirens wailing — racing through messily parted traffic to the scene of a crisis — is the best part of being an emergency medic. For him, that couldn’t be further from the truth. “If you’ve been in the industry for any length, you know innately: When you’re in the front of an ambulance and the lights are on, that’s the most dangerous situation for you,” said Studnek, deputy director of Mecklenburg EMS Agency, which serves the Charlotte, N.C., region. “It’s not fun. It’s risky.” (Renault, 7/7)

KFF Health News: ‘It Was A Bloodbath’: Rare Dialysis Complication Can Kill, And More Could Be Done To Stop It 
Nieltje Gedney was half-asleep in her West Virginia home, watching murder mysteries over the hum of a bedside hemodialysis machine, when she felt something warm and wet in her armpit. A needle inserted into her arm had fallen loose, breaking a circuit that the machine used to clean her blood. It was still pumping, drawing and filtering blood as designed, but the blood was now spilling into her bed instead of returning to her body. (Kelman, 7/7)