Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Government, For-Profit Hospitals More Charitable Than Non-Profits
Modern Healthcare: Not-For-Profit Hospitals Spend Less On Charity Care Than For-Profit, Public Providers
Not-for-profit hospitals provided fewer services free of charge to financially disadvantaged patients than their government and for-profit counterparts, despite their tax-exempt status requiring community benefits and charity care, according to a study published in Health Affairs on Monday. Charity care equaled 2.3% of total expenses in 2018, compared with 3.8% and 4.1% of for-profit and government-run hospitals' expenses, respectively, according to researchers at John Hopkins University's Carey Business School and Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study analyzed 2018 Medicare hospital cost reports to review 4,663 providers' charity-care spending. (Gellman, 4/5)
Modern Healthcare: Changes To Medicaid Supplemental Payments Could Follow New State Reporting Requirements
New rules that would impact Medicaid payments could be on the way, as state reporting changes could lead to bigger base payments and reduced supplemental payments, according to experts. Providers have long complained that Medicaid base payment rates lag far behind traditional Medicare or commercial insurance, making supplemental payments necessary for safety-net providers to keep their doors open. (Brady, 4/5)
Stat: Troubling Podcast Puts JAMA Under Fire For Its Mishandling Of Race
Weeks after it was scrubbed from the Journal of the American Medical Association’s website, a disastrous podcast — whose host, a white editor and physician, questioned whether racism even exists in medicine — is surfacing complaints that JAMA and other elite medical journals have routinely excluded, minimized, and mishandled issues of race. Recent examples include research blaming higher death rates from Covid-19 in African Americans on a single gene in their nasal passages; a letter claiming structural racism doesn’t play a role in pulse oximeters working less well on patients with dark skin because machines can’t exhibit bias; and an article claiming that students of programs designed to increase diversity in medicine won’t make good doctors. (McFarling, 4/6)
