Hospitals Cheer Judge’s Decision On Site-Neutral Payments, But Experts Warn The Victory Is Short-Sighted
The site-neutral payment policy is one of CMS Administrator Seema Verma's central efforts to try to curb hospital consolidation and lower costs. In other health industry news: mergers, electronic health records and the financial health costs of environmental disasters.
Modern Healthcare:
Court Win May Not Solve Hospitals' Site-Neutral Pay Problem
While hospitals groups have welcomed a federal judge's ruling against the CMS' expansion of site-neutral payments for basic doctor's visits, some analysts see it as a short-term solution that can't survive as a long-term strategy. U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer's ruling Tuesday sealed the divide between the Trump administration and hospitals in the push to lower costs. But policymakers and regulators will continue to push for deep payment reforms despite the recent loss. (Luthi, 9/18)
Modern Healthcare:
Ballad Health At Odds With Community Over Controversial Changes
Since the merger to form Ballad became official in February 2018, the health system, which has $2 billion in annual revenue, has swiftly rolled out changes to consolidate high-level services into Ballad’s Johnson City hospital a half-hour south. That’s meant stripping the Kingsport hospital of its neonatal intensive care unit and downgrading its trauma center. Ballad’s CEO, Alan Levine, said competition between the two legacy systems led to an irrational, inappropriate duplication of services in the region that were expensive to run. He also said patient care will be safer once it's centralized in Johnson City. (Bannow, 9/18)
Modern Healthcare:
Ochsner Health System, Rush Health Systems Solidify Partnership
Ochsner Health System and Rush Health Systems on Tuesday solidified a long-term partnership that will unify their electronic health records as they look to streamline operations and build on their telehealth capabilities. Through the partnership, New Orleans-based Ochsner will install and implement Epic, which will sync up with Meridian, Miss.-based Rush's system and ideally improve care coordination, patient registration, scheduling, clinical integration and billing, executives said. The not-for-profit health systems also plan to build on their telehealth partnership and expand their digital health offerings. (Kacik, 9/18)
Bloomberg:
Sandy, Other 2012 Events Cost Health Care $10 Billion, NRDC Says
The environmental advocacy group estimates that Superstorm Sandy, which wreaked havoc in the Northeast, and nine other events it says were linked to climate change in 2012 cost the U.S. health-care system about $10 billion. Other incidents included in the study done with the the University of California San Francisco include a resurgence in mosquito-borne West Nile virus in Texas and a record-breaking heat wave in Wisconsin. (Flanagan, 9/18)
