Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Large Health Systems Vie To Be Lifeline For Struggling Rural Hospital In Florida
Suncoast Searchlight: DeSoto Memorial Weighs Offers From Major Health Systems As Rural Challenges Mount
Facing with an uncertain financial landscape for rural hospitals, the hospital board voted to hear competing presentations from Tampa General Hospital, AdventHealth and NorthStar. (Newhouse, 10/17)
The Daily Yonder: Study: Mobile Health Clinics Offer Alternative Access To Care
A new report found that mobile health clinics can provide rural communities with access to healthcare in areas where healthcare facilities and healthcare workers may be scarce. (Carey, 10/18)
More health industry updates —
Los Angeles Times: Kaiser Healthcare Worker Strike Ends After Five Days. Bargaining Resumes This Week
A five-day strike that affected hundreds of Kaiser Permanente clinics and hospitals in California and Hawaii came to an end after the union representing workers said it had “new momentum” to head back to the bargaining table, but no apparent agreement has been reached. (Hernandez, 10/19)
The Baltimore Sun: Rehabilitation And Wellness Center FutureCare Opens In Annapolis
FutureCare, a company that operates rehabilitation and wellness centers across the region, has opened in Annapolis, the company’s 16th facility. (Rothstein, 10/17)
Asheville Watchdog: HCA Arrived With Plans To Cut 800 Staff As Soon As It Bought Mission, New Court Filings In Antitrust Case Show
Mission Hospital administrators were aware, before the sale, that HCA Healthcare intended to cut hundreds of staff positions once it acquired Asheville’s flagship hospital, including deep reductions to the nursing staff that caused Mission’s then-president to have “significant concerns,” according to depositions filed recently in a long-running antitrust lawsuit against HCA. Jill Hoggard Green, a registered nurse who was Mission’s president and chief operating officer from 2011 until the sale of nonprofit Mission to HCA in February 2019, testified in a deposition earlier this year that she was “very, very concerned” when she learned that HCA was “working on building models related to reducing nursing.” (Lewis, 10/17)
Asheville Watchdog: Mission Hospital Faces New Immediate Jeopardy Recommendation As State Agency Flags Major Safety Risks
Mission Hospital should again be put in immediate jeopardy, the worst sanction a hospital can face, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has recommended. The finding, made by NCDHHS and reported to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is a devastating blow to the largest healthcare provider in western North Carolina: For the second time in two years, and the third since for-profit HCA Healthcare bought the nonprofit Mission Health system in 2019, the hospital risks losing Medicare and Medicaid funding because of deficiencies in care so severe that state inspectors believe they pose imminent risk of serious injuries or death to patients. (Evans and Jones, 10/17)
Asheville Watchdog: Mission Hospital Had Earlier, Unreported Immediate Jeopardy Citation After Patient’s Death In 2021, Court Documents Reveal
A patient found dying on the floor of her room at Mission Hospital led to a previously unreported citation of “immediate jeopardy” in 2021, two years after Asheville’s flagship hospital was acquired by HCA Healthcare, court documents show. The 2021 sanction, for violating federal hospital safety regulations so severely that patients are in imminent danger of serious injury or death, was not disclosed by HCA. It was followed in 2024 by a second, widely publicized immediate jeopardy citation against HCA and Mission, for violations that contributed to the deaths of four patients. (Lewis, 10/17)
On Medicare and Medicaid —
Modern Healthcare: Mayo Clinic To Leave Major Medicare Advantage Networks
Mayo Clinic will be out of network next year for most UnitedHealthcare and Humana Medicare Advantage plans. Starting Jan. 1, Mayo facilities in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa will not be in network for UnitedHealthcare members enrolled in Medicare Advantage individual plans and Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans. In-network coverage will continue for group Medicare Advantage plans, which offer employers flat monthly fees. (Kacik, 10/17)
Axios: Medicare Advantage Plans Embrace Riskier Patients
Some health plans are finding new business opportunities customizing coverage for the sickest Americans. (Goldman, 10/20)
KFF Health News: Private Medicare, Medicaid Plans Exaggerate In-Network Mental Health Options, Watchdogs Say
Companies running private Medicare and Medicaid insurance plans inaccurately list many mental health professionals as being available to treat the plans’ members, a new federal watchdog report says. The investigators allege that some insurers effectively set up “ghost networks” of psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals who purportedly have agreed to treat patients covered by the publicly financed Medicare and Medicaid plans. In fact, many of those professionals do not have contracts with the plans, do not work at the locations listed, or are retired, the investigators said. (Leys, 10/20)
