Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
How Fake N95s Got Spotted
Becker's Hospital Review: How A Massachusetts Hospital Supply Leader Spotted Fake N95 Masks
A supply chain manager at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, Mass., told CBS Boston that after ordering 30,000 3M N95 masks from a third-party vendor, he was able to spot from a shipping box label that the masks were counterfeit. Barry O'Shaughnessy, a procurement manager at the hospital, told the publication that he went through a third-party vendor to get the masks since he wasn't able to get enough from the hospital's normal suppliers. (Anderson, 4/6)
ProPublica: The Emergency 911 System Where Callers Still Don’t Always Get Proper CPR Instructions
It’s been nearly two years since Rhode Island lawmakers approved funding to train all 911 call takers to provide CPR instructions over the phone, but new data shows no improvement in people’s chances of receiving CPR in the critical minutes prior to the arrival of first responders. Only about one in five people who went into cardiac arrest in their homes or someplace other than a hospital or health care setting in Rhode Island last year received CPR before police, fire or emergency medical providers showed up, according to data provided to The Public’s Radio by the state Department of Health. The state’s bystander CPR rate has remained between 19% and 21% since 2018. (Arditi, 4/6)
Health News Florida: Lawmakers Address Medical Necessity, Reporting Requirements
Physicians wouldn’t be required to determine medical necessity for behavior analysis services for Medicaid patients under proposals moving through the Legislature. The House and Senate are considering identical bills that would make a variety of changes to Florida’s Medicaid laws, from allowing doctoral-level, board-certified behavior analysts to determine medical necessity for patients to deleting a number of state-mandated reporting requirements. (4/6)
Modern Healthcare: Providers See Losses In COVID-19 Property Insurance Lawsuits
Healthcare providers are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to recouping pandemic-related financial losses. They've had success with the federal government, which has doled out more than $160 billion in stimulus grants and counting. But legal efforts like those from big names like Northwell Health, RWJBarnabas Health and Carilion Clinic to force property insurers to pay hundreds of millions in claims for business lost during the COVID-19 crisis so far haven't gotten a positive reception from judges. (Bannow, 4/7)
Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Providers Enter Philadelphia's Legal Fight To Enact Gun Laws
New filings in an ongoing lawsuit by Philadelphia city officials against the state over the right to enact municipal gun control regulation sheds light on how healthcare stakeholders may tackle gun violence. An amicus brief filed Monday in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania by gun control advocates that included the city of Philadelphia and the organization CeaseFire Pennsylvania included statements from nine area physicians. (Ross Johnson, 4/6)
In news about health care personnel —
KHN: Doctor Survived Cambodia’s Killing Fields, But Not Covid
Linath Lim’s life was shaped by starvation. She was not yet 13 when the Khmer Rouge seized power in Cambodia and ripped her family apart. The totalitarian regime sent her and four siblings to work camps, where they planted rice and dug irrigation canals from sunrise to sunset — each surviving on two ladles of rice gruel a day. One disappeared, never to be found. (Bazar, 4/7)
Modern Healthcare: Front-Line Workers Want More Assistance After A Year Of COVID-19
More than half of front-line care workers say the stress of the COVID-19 crisis continues to hurt their health over a year after it began, but only 13% received support services, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation/Washington Post survey. Front-line workers under 30 were the hardest hit, with 56% reporting the pandemic stress had a negative impact on their physical health and 75% on their mental health. (Gellman, 4/6)
Boston Globe: Most Boston Hospital Chiefs Moonlight On Corporate Boards
As chief of Boston Children’s Hospital, one of the most esteemed pediatric hospitals in the world, Sandra Fenwick had outsized influence. After the pandemic struck last spring, she used that clout to lobby Massachusetts legislators for more money for telemedicine, a suddenly essential alternative to in-person visits. She also spoke glowingly about remote care during an online forum last September, saying that satisfaction among patients and staff was hitting “eight, nine, and 10.’’ The hospital, she told a Harvard public health professor, would objectively study the best uses of telemedicine, but she predicted it “is absolutely here to stay.” (Kowalczyk, Ryley, Arsenault and Wen, 4/6)
KHN: Events Of 2020 Moved Medical Students To Political Activism
Inam Sakinah and her classmates will forever be known as the students who started medical school during the 2020 covid-19 pandemic. All of them had prepared for this step for years, taking hours of hard science classes in college, studying for the medical school admissions test and often volunteering, working or even getting master’s or other advanced degrees before starting on the long path to earning a medical degree. (Knight, 4/7)
