Huntsville, Ala., Hospital System May Have Monopoly Of City, Pending Deal
The nonprofit has agreed to acquire the only hospital not owned by them in Huntsville and the surrounding northern Alabama region, leaving residents with only one choice for care and putting antitrust officials to the test. Also in the news: the nurse strike in New York; an ambulance worker shortage in Minnesota; informed patient consent for AI use in health care; and more.
Stat:
One Hospital System May Soon Control Care In An Entire City
One hospital system is about to control care for the most populous city in Alabama, unless antitrust officials decide to intervene. (Herman, 1/22)
On health care workers —
The New York Times:
Nurses In New York City Say They Deserve $200,000 A Year. Here’s Why.
As a strike by health workers stretches into its second week, pay is a major issue in negotiations, even if it’s not discussed much on the picket line. (Goldstein and McGeehan, 1/22)
Minnesota Public Radio:
St. Olaf College Students Work As EMTs, Helping Fill Ambulance Worker Shortage
It is getting to be more difficult for ambulance services to find workers to staff their rigs. Ambulance services are experiencing a workforce shortage nationwide, and it’s felt most keenly in rural areas of the country, including right here in Minnesota. But a new pilot from a small liberal arts college south of the Twin Cities could help to fill the gap in its own backyard. (Work, 1/22)
WUWF:
How Escambia's EMS Drastically Improved Cardiac Arrest Survival Rates
The county's new medical director, Dr. Ben Abo, led training and response changes that quadrupled the number of resuscitation successes. (Andrews, 1/22)
Modern Healthcare:
How CMS' Rural Emergency Hospital Program Helped These Providers
The rural emergency hospital program is helping keep facilities afloat, but fading momentum is fueling calls to ensure the initiative and its participants remain successful. The program, which began in 2023, requires small, rural hospitals to no longer provide inpatient care, participate in the 340B drug discount program and operate swing beds for long-term patients outside of distinct skilled nursing units, among other restrictions. In return, they receive a 5% boost to Medicare outpatient reimbursement and an average facility fee payment of more than $3.2 million a year. (Kacik, 1/22)
More health industry developments —
Verite News:
LCMC Health Using AI Software Without Patient Consent
LCMC’s pilot program with Nabla first ran in October 2024 and was fully approved by hospital leadership in August of last year. Since November, Nabla has been deployed for use by physicians, advanced practitioners and trainees across the hospital system and is integrated with Epic, the medical records software LCMC uses to store patient records. ... Despite Nabla’s ability to greatly reduce workload for providers, an AI health care ethics expert, the nurse’s union at University Medical Center (UMC) — operated by LCMC Health — and even Nabla’s co-founder have expressed concerns about the use of AI tools without informed patient consent. (Yehiya, 1/22)
Modern Healthcare:
HFMA Launches Vitalic Health Finance Initiative, Data Tracker
The Healthcare Financial Management Association has started an initiative to better understand the industry’s financial pain points and develop strategies to address them. The first leg of its effort, called Vitalic Health, is the development of a tracker evaluating the industry’s affordability, economics, purchaser satisfaction, social well-being, public health and environmental factors. The tracker found that with the exception of the coronavirus pandemic year of 2020, 2023 was the worst year financially for the industry since 1997. (DeSilva, 1/22)
Modern Healthcare:
Sidecar Health Plans To Offer Employer Health Plans In Texas
Insurance technology company Sidecar Health is offering health plans to employers in Texas. The company, which launched in 2018, covers employees in 48 states who work for businesses headquartered in Ohio, Georgia, Florida and Texas. Sidecar Health in a Thursday news release pointed to the size of Texas’ employer market, noting that as of November the state had more than 3 million registered businesses. It is offering health plans to those in the state with more than 50 employees, it said. (DeSilva, 1/22)
NPR:
How North Carolina Erased Medical Debt For 2.5 Million People
After a routine trip to her mailbox, Dawn Daly-Mack almost threw away an important letter that she thought was junk mail. "I opened it up and it said, 'Your medical bill has been paid,'" says Daly-Mack, 60, who lives in Gaston, in northeastern North Carolina. "I didn't believe it." The letter turned out to be legitimate. Daly-Mack is one of about 2.5 million North Carolinians whose medical debt was erased under a new statewide agreement with hospitals. The hospital wiped away her $459 debt, dating back to a 2014 emergency room visit for a sinus infection. (Olgin, 1/21)
KFF Health News:
These 3 Policy Moves Are Likely To Change Health Care For Older People
Month after month, Patricia Hunter and other members of the Nursing Home Reform Coalition logged onto video calls with congressional representatives, seeking support for a proposed federal rule setting minimum staff levels for nursing homes. Finally, after decades of advocacy, the Biden administration in 2023 tackled the problem of perennial understaffing of long-term care facilities. Officials backed a Medicare regulation that would mandate at least 3.48 hours of care from nurses and aides per resident, per day, and would require a registered nurse on-site 24 hours a day, seven days a week. (Span, 1/23)
