Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Health System Leaders Move To Improve Quality Of Ambulatory Care
Becker's Hospital Review: Health Systems Sharpen Focus On Outpatient Safety
Efforts to improve quality and patient safety have historically focused on the inpatient setting. But as more care moves outside of hospital walls, health systems are beginning to craft structures and processes to better measure and improve safety in ambulatory settings. "We have to focus on outpatient safety because it's just going to come up more, as more care that would have traditionally been dealt with inpatient moves outpatient," said Esme Singer, MD, senior vice president of Philadelphia-based Temple Health's physician enterprise and chief medical officer of Temple Faculty Physicians. (Carbajal, 2/13)
Modern Healthcare: SSM Health-Inbound Health's Home Care Program Shows Good Results
SSM Health hopes to expand home-based skilled nursing to other hospitals in its system after achieving good results from a program it launched last spring in Madison, Wisconsin. The St. Louis, Missouri-based health system launched the Recovery Care at Home program with technology company Inbound Health at St. Mary’s Hospital. The program provides nurse visits, therapy, durable medical equipment, infusion services, imaging and telehealth support to certain patients in their homes following a hospitalization. (Eastabrook, 2/13)
Modern Healthcare: Humana, Eastern Kentucky University Launch Partnership
Humana announced a partnership Thursday with Eastern Kentucky University to teach nursing students how to deliver healthcare in the home. Humana is contributing $75,000 to add a home studio lab within the university’s nursing simulation center, the Louisville, Kentucky-based company said in a news release. The studio will help student nurses learn how to provide care to patients in diverse settings and better assess social determinants of health. The partnership with the university expands Humana and its CenterWell division’s collaboration with approximately 50 nursing schools nationwide. (Eastabrook, 2/13)
Modern Healthcare: How Masimo, Cardinal Health Are Approaching Hospital-At-Home
Medtech companies have their eye on the growing hospital-at-home market, which is driven largely by the rising elderly population, the prevalence of chronic diseases and favorable reimbursement policies. There have been hiccups but some of the largest health systems have leaned into providing hospital-level care at home. Other systems, meanwhile, are establishing smaller programs that don't involve acute-level care and are less costly to scale. (Dubinsky, 2/13)
More health care industry updates —
Stat: Judge: Lawsuit Over UnitedHealth AI Care Denials In Medicare Advantage Can Move Forward
Medicare Advantage beneficiaries who are suing UnitedHealth Group over allegedly wrongful denials of care that were based on artificial intelligence scored a victory Thursday, as a judge ruled their case could move forward. (Herman, 2/13)
Modern Healthcare: Cigna's Customer Service Improvements May Inspire Other Insurers
Cigna’s new plan to bet big on customer service could be a blueprint for other health insurers to follow as the sector grapples with public discontent. The sweeping changes — at least on paper — to how Cigna interacts with its insurance members and Express Scripts pharmacy benefit manager customers could augur a new era for health insurance. (Berryman, 2/13)
Newsweek: Every Health System Faces Crisis—Here's What Industry Leaders Recommend
Nearly five years after the global COVID-19 shutdowns began, health care leaders continue to grapple with all manner of emergent situations and challenges—both large scale and small, the anticipated and the unforeseen. Newsweek brought five health care industry experts together for a virtual panel event on Thursday, to discuss best practices for managing future crises. The hourlong event, programmed and led by Newsweek's health care editor, Alexis Kayser, featured insights from a former CEO of The Permanente Medical Group, the current chief physician executive at Press Ganey and the field chief information security officer with Lumifi Cybersecurity, among others. (Taheri, 2/13)
MedPage Today: Meet The World's Healthcare Billionaires
Six of the world's 500 richest people are Americans who have reaped fortunes from healthcare -- and two of them are physicians. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, only 32 people globally have become mega-rich from healthcare enterprises. The richest person to make their fortune in healthcare is Thomas Frist, Jr., MD, who alongside his father in the 1960s co-founded Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) Healthcare. (Robertson, 2/13)
