Marketing Wars Intensify Over Personalized Medicine
Hospitals seek to increase their visibility in this growing field. Meanwhile, an Ohio health system loses its final appeal in an antitrust case and several hospital and insurance companies report their latest earnings.
Modern Healthcare:
Imprecise Marketing Of Precision Medicine: Advertising May Be Running Ahead Of Science
Public radio listeners across the country recently heard the following commercial: “Destroying cancers based on each tumor's genetic fingerprint. The promise of discovery. More information at VanderbiltHealth.com.” ... Why was Vanderbilt in Tennessee beaming its message to National Public Radio listeners in Boston and other markets across the country? Jill Austin, Vanderbilt's chief marketing officer, said it was to educate the public about what personalized medicine has to offer and to raise the academic medical center's profile, which could help recruit faculty and staff. ... Other health systems also have taken to the airwaves, print and the Internet to market their prowess in precision medicine. ... The personalized medicine marketing wars are on. (Wolinsky, 5/2)
Kaiser Health News:
Patients Not Hurt When Their Hospitals Close, Study Finds
A hospital closure can send tremors through a city or town, leaving residents fearful about how they will be cared for in emergencies and serious illnesses. A study released Monday offers some comfort, finding that when hospitals shut down, death rates and other markers of quality generally do not worsen. (Rau, 5/4)
Modern Healthcare:
Rejected At Supreme Court, ProMedica Plans To Divest Contested Hospital
The U.S. Supreme Court denied ProMedica's request Monday to review a ruling that the Ohio health system's 2010 hospital deal violated antitrust laws. The defeat ends a nearly five-year battle with the Federal Trade Commission. ProMedica said in a statement Monday that the system and the hospital it acquired, St. Luke's in Maumee, Ohio, will work together over the next six months to develop a detailed divestiture plan to submit to the FTC. (Schencker, 5/4)
The Dallas Morning News:
Strong Growth For Tenet Healthcare
Benefiting from declines in the number of uninsured patients, Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp. reported strong first-quarter revenue growth Monday after the markets closed. (Jacobson, 5/4)
Reuters:
Tenet Posts Profit As Newly Insured Visit Its Hospitals
Hospital operator Tenet Healthcare Corp on Monday posted a net profit in the first quarter, compared with a year-ago loss, as more people with health insurance used its facilities. The third-largest U.S. for-profit hospital chain said the number of uninsured and charity patients it treated continued to decline, while its paying admissions jumped 6.2 percent, reflecting growth in newly insured patients. (Kelly, 5/4)
The Wall Street Journal:
Tenet Healthcare Swings To Profit
Tenet Healthcare Corp. swung to a first-quarter profit as the hospital operator’s revenue benefited from increased admissions and more insured patients. Tenet in March reached a deal that will give it control of United Surgical Partners International Inc. amid a wave of consolidation in the sector. The deal will create a joint venture with Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe, combining Tenet’s short-stay, or ambulatory, surgery centers and imaging facilities with USPI, which the private-equity firm owns. ... The Affordable Care Act and other government health-care-payment changes have sparked a wave of hospital industry consolidation in recent years. (Stynes, 5/4)
Modern Healthcare:
DaVita Reports $111M Net Loss In First Quarter
DaVita HealthCare Partners' first-quarter performance swung to a net loss of $111 million from a year ago, when the kidney care and medical group operator posted net income of $183.3 million. The first quarter results include a tentative $495 million settlement in a civil suit brought in 2009 alleging DaVita wasted medication and then billed Medicare for it. The case was unsealed in 2011. DaVita, based in Denver, said settlement negotiations were ongoing. (Evans, 5/4)
Minnesota Public Radio:
Iron Range Hospital Finds New Life With Essentia In Charge
Critics questioned if Essentia would deliver what it promised. Three years later, though, even some skeptics say that while concerns remain, Essentia has made things better. The health care system says it's spent $7 million upgrading the facility, per the lease agreement and has paid down nearly $6 million in hospital debt. The city still owns the hospital but Essentia can buy it outright once the bonds are satisfied. (Zdechlik, 5/4)
Modern Healthcare:
Health Net Boosted By Medicaid Expansion, ACA Exchanges
First-quarter profit at Health Net edged slightly upward, but the effects of the Affordable Care Act on the health insurer's swelling membership and top line was perhaps more notable. Health Net's Medicaid enrollment increased 31% in the first quarter of 2015 compared with the same period last year, totaling more than 1.7 million low-income Americans. That's more than half of the company's 3.2 million members. Health Net sells Medicaid managed-care plans in Arizona and California, both of which expanded Medicaid under the healthcare reform law to people making up to 138% of the poverty line. (Herman, 5/4)
