Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Four Historically Black Medical Schools To Share $600M Bloomberg Donation
Modern Healthcare: Bloomberg Donates $600M To 4 HBCU Medical Schools
Four historically Black medical schools will share a $600 million donation from Bloomberg Philanthropies to improve racial wealth equity and bolster the population of Black healthcare providers. The donations will be used for scholarships and to improve infrastructure, including technology, at the schools. (DeSilva, 8/6)
More health industry news —
Modern Healthcare: How Systems Are Changing Compensation To Attract Executive Talent
Hospitals and health systems have a tall order: find exceptional executive talent in a competitive market and employ their skills to successfully navigate a challenging operating environment. Given their limited budgets, organizations must ensure they are directing dollars toward the most critical leadership positions, said Bruce Greenblatt, executive workforce practice leader at consulting firm SullivanCotter. (Hudson, 8/6)
Health News Florida: After Ransomware Cyberattack, OneBlood’s Computer Systems Are Recovering
OneBlood, Florida’s primary distributor of blood, is able to again move supplies to hospitals but is still recovering from a ransomware attack that shifted the nonprofit into manual operations. (Pedersen, 8/6)
Bloomberg: Steward Gets $30 Million Lifeline Following Apollo Landlord Deal
Bankrupt healthcare network Steward Health won permission to use a $30 million state lifeline for six Massachusetts hospitals after landlord Medical Properties Trust Inc. and Macquarie Asset Management struck a deal with their lender, Apollo Global Management. Apollo will take over the real estate those hospitals lease as part of an agreement in principal with MPT and Macquarie, Steward lawyer David Cohen said during a bankruptcy court hearing Tuesday. (Randles, 8/6)
Houston Chronicle: Texas Children's Hospital Layoffs Include 5% Of Workforce
Texas Children’s Hospital said Tuesday it is laying off 5% of its workforce amid a series of financial challenges for the nation’s largest children’s hospital. The hospital declined to provide a specific number of employees being affected by layoffs, but Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources officer Linda Aldred said in an interview that Texas Children’s has approximately 20,000 employees across 120 locations in Houston, across Texas and around the world. A 5% reduction in that workforce would cut roughly 1,000 jobs. (MacDonald and Gill, 8/6)
The War Horse: ‘I Had a Body Part Repossessed’: Post-9/11 Amputee Vets Say VA Care Is Failing Them
Travis Vendela died three times in triage and medevac, by his own account, after the lead Humvee he was directing in Iraq in 2007 drove over an improvised explosive device and blew off both of his legs. Scott Restivo lost his right leg to infection and sepsis in 2018 after surgery to address injuries he suffered at Fort Drum, New York, and aggravated in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bone cancer claimed Army parachute rigger Matt Brown’s left leg after he served for years at Fort Liberty, North Carolina. ... From Utah to Tennessee to North Carolina, they say they are all experiencing similar frustrations with the dense bureaucracy and gaps in care for prosthetics and accessibility equipment provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs. (Seck, 8/6)
KFF Health News: Small-Town Patients Face Big Hurdles As Rural Hospitals Cut Cancer Care
The night before her chemotherapy, Herlinda Sanchez sets out her clothes and checks that she has everything she needs: a blanket, medications, an iPad and chargers, a small Bible and rosary, fuzzy socks, and snacks for the road. After the 36-year-old was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in December, she learned that there weren’t any cancer services in her community of Del Rio, a town of 35,000 near the Texas-Mexico border. (Huff, 8/7)
Stat: How UnitedHealth Turned A Questionable Artery-Screening Program Into A Gold Mine
The nation’s largest health care company pressed thousands of its clinicians to use a thinly tested medical device to screen people for artery disease, dramatically boosting payments from the federal government for years even though many of the patients were not sick, a STAT investigation found. (Ross, Lawrence, Herman and Bannow, 8/7)
Modern Healthcare: Centene's Medicare Advantage Business To Exit 6 States In 2025
Centene is stepping away from Medicare Advantage in at least six states for 2025, according to the investment bank Stephens and the insurance brokerage Pinnacle Financial Services. The health insurer will not sell Wellcare Medicare Advantage plans in Alabama, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Vermont next year, but will continue to offer Medicare Part D prescription drug plans, Stephens Managing Director Scott Fidel and colleagues wrote in a research note Monday. (Berryman, 8/6)
On the high cost of health care —
Axios: Co-Pays Block Inmates From Accessing Health Care: Study
Inmates in U.S. prisons appear to not be seeking the health care they need because they can't afford co-pays, per a study in JAMA Internal Medicine. Co-pays, found in up to 90% of state and federal prisons, could be a barrier to addressing the increasing prevalence of chronic health conditions among the incarcerated. (Reed, 8/6)
Los Angeles Times: Hospitals That Pursue Patients For Bills Will Have To Tell L.A. County
Hospitals must promptly report to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health every time they try to collect medical debt from patients, under an ordinance backed Tuesday by county supervisors. The ordinance, which requires a second vote to be adopted, requires hospitals to tell the county within a month or two of initiating debt collection, which can include making phone calls or mailing letters to seek payment more than 180 days after the initial billing, selling the debt to a collections agency, garnishing wages, seizing a bank account or informing a consumer reporting agency. (Alpert Reyes, 8/6)
KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute'
“Health Minute” brings original health care and health policy reporting from the KFF Health News newsroom to the airwaves each week. (8/6)
