Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Health Industry Pushes To Control Its Own Cost, Access Issues
Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Leaders: 'Government Ought To Get Out Of The Way'
Healthcare leaders are increasingly skeptical the government can do anything to solve their industry's pervasive cost and access problems, and it's fueling calls that they go it alone, according to those who spoke at a Modern Healthcare event Tuesday. "My belief is looking to the government to actually fix something as complex as this won't work," said Dan Liljenquist, chief strategy officer for Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare. "We (the audience made up of healthcare C-suite leaders) know healthcare. How do we organize for a different future?" (Bannow, 9/28)
Modern Healthcare: Tower Health Restructures Amid Operating Losses
Tower Health plans to sell and close two of its seven acute-care hospitals as the Pennsylvania not-for-profit health system continues to lose money. The board approved a non-binding letter of intent to sell Chestnut Hill Hospital and more than a dozen urgent care centers to Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic, the Reading, Pennsylvania-based system announced Tuesday. Board members also signed off on closing Jennersville Hospital by the start of next year. Tower acquired five hospitals, including Chestnut and Jennersville, from Community Health System in 2017. The health system's operating income has waned since 2017, reporting operating losses since 2019. (Kacik, 9/28)
And in news about the insurance industry —
Modern Healthcare: Big Health Insurers Control Market In Nearly Three-Fourths Of The U.S., AMA Report Shows
Almost three-fourths of U.S. metropolitan areas lacked a competitive health insurance market in 2020, with shrinking options among payers harming patients and providers, the American Medical Association concluded in a study published Tuesday. Seventy-three percent of 384 metropolitan statistical markets were highly concentrated in 2020, up from 71% in 2014, the physicians' society reported in its 20th annual study of health insurance markets. In many cases, competition declined in areas dominated by just a few health insurers. Fifty-four percent of markets that were designated as highly concentrated in 2014 became even less competitive by 2020, and another 26% markets also reached highly concentrated levels, the report says. (9/28)
Georgia Health News: Weekend Deadline Looms As Wellstar, United Wrangle Over Contact
For the second time in recent months, insurance giant UnitedHealthcare is mired in a contract squabble with a large Georgia health care system. And as before, the battle to hammer out an agreement that both sides can accept is coming down to the wire. About 80,000 of the insurer’s members would face being out of network – and paying higher costs for medical care – if a contract agreement isn’t reached with the 11-hospital Wellstar Health System by Sunday. (Miller, 9/28)
Modern Healthcare: Insurance Broker EHealth Names Fran Soistman CEO
Online insurance broker eHealth's new CEO will be Fran Soistman, the company announced Tuesday. Soistman will join eHealth's board of directors in addition to being chief executive as of Nov. 1. Current CEO Scott Flanders will retire after leading the company for five years and serving on the board for more than a decade. Flanders will act as a consultant to the company until the end of the year. (Devereaux, 9/28)
In other health care industry news —
Modern Healthcare: Amazon Looks To Ease Patient Communication For Hospital
Amazon Web Services will offer hospitals three new ways to make communicating with patients faster, easier and more efficient, according to a news release on Monday. Health systems will soon be able to automate outbound calls, texts and emails with patients via Amazon Connect without the need for third-party integrations with other systems. That could make it easier for health systems to send appointment reminders and market to consumers, the company said. "A large hospital healthcare network can send texts and emails to ask patients to confirm upcoming appointments, and then automatically call all patients that fail to respond," the news release said. (Brady, 9/28)
Modern Healthcare: Centene, Highmark And CareSource Join $75 Million Investment In Substance Use Disorder Business
Wayspring, a value-based care organization focused on substance use disorder, received $75 million in new funding from Valtrius, Centene and six other investors, the firm announced Tuesday. The company, formerly known as axialHealthcare, began partnering with health plans in 2020 to take on full financial risk for their substance use disorder populations in specific geographic areas in exchange for shared savings. Wayspring will use the new investments to expand its full-risk medical home model for substance use disorder in Arizona, Tennessee, and states in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, CEO Carter Paine said. (Brady, 9/28)
WLRN 91.3 FM: A $1 Billion Deal Brings New Player To South Florida Hospital Market
There's a saying that business should not be personal. Dr. Ralph de la Torre ignored that adage. De la Torre is the founder, chairman and CEO of Steward Health Care. It is the newest player in the South Florida health care market. In August, the company closed on a $1.1 billion purchase of five hospitals in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. "It was personal. It's home for many of us," he said. (Hudson, 9/28)
New Orleans Times-Picayune: Administrator At Center Of LSU Health Controversy Charged 'Abusive' Expenses To Foundation
Keith Schroth, chief financial officer of the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, in the late 2000s racked up thousands of dollars in “abusive” purchases he charged to LSU Health Foundation New Orleans before his superiors revoked his credit card and launched an investigation, the foundation’s former president and chairman both said. Though Schroth, then an LSU associate dean, was not a foundation employee, his access to a foundation credit card had the blessing of LSU Health Chancellor Larry Hollier, said Chad Leingang, foundation CEO and president from 2007-16. (Cranney, 9/28)
New Orleans Times-Picayune: Neurosurgeon Living In New Orleans Helps Woman Deliver Baby On Overseas Flight
Having spent a month in his native Turkey, Dr. Feridun Kubilay never imagined that delaying his flight home to New Orleans by a week would be a fateful decision. But then a voice crackled over the jet's loudspeaker, asking for any doctors on board to come to the front of the plane. Kubilay, 60, was the only one to respond, and ended up helping a woman who had managed to get on the flight despite being nine months pregnant deliver a baby boy. (Antonio Vargas, 9/28)
KHN: The Part Of The ‘Free Britney’ Saga That Could Happen To Anyone
When Britney Spears last went before a judge, in June, she bristled as she told of being forced into psychiatric care that cost her $60,000 a month. Though the pop star’s circumstances in a financial conservatorship are unusual, every year hundreds of thousands of other psychiatric patients also receive involuntary care, and many are stuck with the bill. Few have Spears’ resources to pay for it, which can have devastating consequences. To the frustration of those who study the issue, data on how many people are involuntarily hospitalized and how much they pay is sparse. (Magoon, 9/29)
