Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Organization That Sets Standards For Medical Residents Weighs Reducing Rest Periods Between Shifts
MedPage Today: Are Resident Work-Hour Protections Being Rolled Back?
Proposed changes to the standards that govern accredited residencies are raising concerns about potential roll-backs of work-hour protections. In its proposed revision of the Common Program Requirements, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) suggested eliminating the requirement that residents have 8 hours off between shifts, and reducing the mandatory rest period after a 24-hour in-house call from 14 to 12 hours. (Robertson, 9/17)
Healthcare Dive: Mental Health Gap Widens Between Employed And Independent Physicians: Survey
Employed doctors report worse well-being than independent practitioners, with workload and administrative burden driving distress. (Hughes, 9/17)
In other healthcare industry developments —
Chicago Tribune: Insight Health To Operate West Suburban And Weiss Hospitals
After months of fighting in court, the owners of West Suburban and Weiss Memorial hospitals hammered out an agreement late Wednesday night that could ultimately see the hospitals sold to Insight Health Systems. (Schencker, 9/17)
Modern Healthcare: Intermountain Closes Idaho Hospital Deal With Surgery Partners
Surgery Partners has sold its ownership interest in two Idaho hospitals to Intermountain Health. Surgery Partners received $797 million in gross proceeds, netting $587 million in cash, according to a Thursday news release. Transaction proceeds will go toward paying down debts, the release said. (DeSilva, 9/17)
Healthcare Dive: Federal Watchdog Accuses Humana, UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage Plans Of Upcoding
Plans operated by the two largest Medicare Advantage insurers jointly overcharged the government almost $180 million in 2020 and 2021 by exaggerating the health needs of their members, according to new audits from a federal watchdog that could intensify concerns about insurers gaming the privatized Medicare program. HumanaChoice and UnitedHealthcare of Wisconsin frequently submitted diagnosis codes to Medicare that weren’t backed up by medical documentation, generating an extra $131 million and $47 million in reimbursement, respectively, over the two years, according to the HHS Office of the Inspector General. (Parduhn, 9/17)
Modern Healthcare: Aetna Eases Prior Authorization For Medicaid Cancer Treatment
Aetna announced Thursday that some Medicaid members only have to obtain a single prior authorization for cancer treatments. The CVS Health subsidiary’s announcement comes as the health insurance industry works to pare back and streamline precertification requirements. Beginning Sept. 1, Aetna launched a program to bundle prior authorization requests for Medicaid members in eight states seeking a range of cancer treatments, including chemotherapy and radiation oncology services where appropriate. The initiative builds on a pilot program the insurer unveiled in June 2025. (Tepper, 9/17)
The Baltimore Sun: Luminis Health Sued Over Anne Arundel Cybersecurity Incident
Patients are suing Maryland hospital system Luminis Health over a cybersecurity incident that has left crucial systems offline for over two weeks. (Wilson, 9/17)
Also —
Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Rethink Services To Ease Bed Capacity Strain
Limited capacity and growing financial pressure are forcing health systems to reconfigure service offerings as they look to increase access and revenue. They are eliminating duplicative services after years of mergers and acquisitions. That often means consolidating low-volume facilities that are expensive to staff and operate and tend to produce worse outcomes. Executives hope more rigorous service-mix evaluations and the resulting changes will prepare their organizations for reimbursement reductions and rising costs. (Kacik, 9/17)
KFF Health News: Sticker Shock At The Doctor's Office Could Motivate Midterm Voters
Healthcare prices are likely to keep increasing next year. As midterm elections approach, candidates are laying out their plans to tackle these growing expenses. KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner joined WAMU’s Health Hub on Sept. 16 to explain how healthcare could play a critical role in the midterm elections. She said similar cost increases in the early 2000s led to the debate that became the Affordable Care Act. (Rovner, 9/18)
Stat: Geriatrician Explains Why AI For Older Adults Deserves Careful Scrutiny
Across medicine, doctors are increasingly using artificial intelligence models to predict patient risk, from sepsis to falls to death. Often embedded directly into electronic health records, these predictions can be easy to incorporate into care — and their performance can be easily taken for granted. (Palmer, 9/18)
CIDRAP: Study Suggests Carbapenem-Resistant Acinetobacter May Spread Through The Air
A new study by Chinese researchers suggests a highly resistant, healthcare-associated bacterial pathogen could be transmitted through the air. In the study, published yesterday in the American Journal of Infection Control, researchers from Sichuan University investigated the extent of air contamination with carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) in an intensive care unit (ICU) at West China Hospital. CRAB is a multidrug-resistant pathogen that tends to infect severely ill hospital patients, and is known to spread in ICUs through contact with contaminated high-touch surfaces and shared medical devices. (Dall, 9/16)
