Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Kaiser Permanente Acquiring Geisinger To Create New Not-For-Profit System
Stat: Kaiser Permanente, Geisinger To Merge Into National Health System
Kaiser Permanente has agreed to acquire Geisinger and create a new national not-for-profit system that encompasses health insurance, hospitals, and medical groups. (Herman, 4/26)
In other health care industry news —
Modern Healthcare: CMS Hospital Price Transparency Enforcement Toughened
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is strengthening enforcement of its hospital transparency rule by imposing stricter timelines and levying fines more quickly, the agency announced Wednesday. (Turner, 4/26)
Stat: Health Insurance CEOs Set Another Record For Pay In 2022
Business has never been better for the largest health insurers in the country, which led to another record-setting windfall last year for their chief executives. (Herman, 4/27)
Modern Healthcare: Walmart Health Expands Into Oklahoma
Walmart Health plans to add four health centers in Oklahoma City in 2024, adding another state to its growing footprint. The new centers will be about 5,800 square feet each and located next to Walmart Supercenters, the mega-retailer said Wednesday. They will offer primary care, lab, X-ray, behavioral health, dental and hearing services, among others, although the offerings may vary by location. (Hudson, 4/26)
Modern Healthcare: Universal Health Services Considers Expansion As Staff Shortage Eases
Patient volumes rebounded and staff shortages began to moderate in the first quarter at Universal Health Services, signaling what CEO Marc Miller on Wednesday called a "year of continued transition into a post-pandemic world." Universal Health, a King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based for-profit system, reported more patients in acute care and behavioral health during the first quarter. Same-facility admissions in behavioral health grew 7.5% from a year ago, while acute care admissions jumped 7.2%. (Hudson, 4/26)
The Boston Globe: Point32Health, State’s Second Largest Insurer, Has Yet To Restore Services Following Ransomware Attack
Over a week after it was targeted in a ransomware attack, Point32Health is still facing technical difficulties that have sidelined payments to providers and forced the insurer to use manual workarounds to meet some patient needs. (Bartlett, 4/26)
Also —
Fox News: Most Seniors In America Can’t Afford Nursing Homes Or Assisted Living, Study Finds
As many as 80% of aging adults in America lack the financial resources to pay for two years of nursing home care or four years of an assisted living community. That's according to a new study from the National Council on Aging (NCOA) and the LeadingAge LTSS Center at the University of Massachusetts Boston. (Rudy, 4/26)
Tampa Bay Times: What Dentists Accept Medicaid Patients In Florida? Too Few.
Every day, Adrienne Grimmett and her colleagues at Evara Health in Pinellas County see stories of inequity in their patients’ teeth, gums and palates. Marked in painful abscesses, dangerous infections and missing molars are tales of unequal access to care. All of these ailments — which keep patients out of work because of pain or social stigma, and children out of school because they can’t concentrate with rotting roots — are preventable. (Peace, 4/27)
AP: Feds Wrote $128M In Duplicate Checks To Docs, Report Finds
The federal government wrote duplicate checks to doctors who provided care for veterans, costing taxpayers as much as $128 million in extra payments, according to a new watchdog report out this week. In nearly 300,000 cases, private doctors were paid twice — once by the Veterans Health Administration and another time by Medicare — for the same care provided to veterans from 2017 to 2021, the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General found in its report. There’s been a spike in those duplicate payments since 2020, when the program that allows veterans to seek care from private doctors was expanded. (Seitz, 4/27)
The Boston Globe: ‘Everyone Gets Away With It Because There Isn’t Accountability’: Boston Center Launches New Plan To Reduce Medical Errors
Nearly 30 years after Betsy Lehman died from an accidental overdose of chemotherapy drugs, Massachusetts facilities are still grappling with the issue of medical errors. (Bartlett, 4/26)
KFF Health News: How One Patient’s Textured Hair Nearly Kept Her From A Needed EEG
Sadé Lewis of Queens, New York, has suffered migraines since she was a kid, and as she started college, they got worse. A recent change in her insurance left the 27-year-old looking for a new neurologist. That’s when she found West 14 Street MedicalArts in New York. MedicalArts recommended that she get an electroencephalogram (EEG) and an MRI to make sure her brain was functioning properly. (Lofton, 4/27)
KFF Health News: Expectant Mom Needed $15,000 Overnight To Save Her Twins
It was Labor Day weekend 2021 when Sara Walsh, who was 24 weeks pregnant with twins, began to experience severe lower-back pain. On Wednesday, a few days later, a maternal-fetal specialist near her home in Winter Haven, Florida, diagnosed Walsh with twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, a rare complication that occurs when fetuses share blood unevenly through the same placenta. The doctor told her that the fetuses were experiencing cardiac issues and that she should prepare for treatment the following day, Walsh said. (Rayasam, 4/27)
