More Insurers Making Patients Pay For Virtual Care

Stat: Insurers Move To Stop Waiving Telehealth Copays This Week
Starting Oct. 1, several private health insurers will no longer fully pay for virtual visits under certain circumstances — effectively reinstituting costs for patients reliant on the virtual care that has been heralded as a lifeline at a time when Covid-19 is still killing more than 700 Americans each day. (Robbins and Brodwin, 9/29)

In nursing news —

Des Moines Register: Iowa Nurse Is Fired After A Patient's Family Calls COVID-19 A 'hoax'
An Iowa nurse was fired from her job after arguing with a patient’s family who said COVID-19 is a “hoax.” State records indicate that in April, Lisa Dockery was fired from her job as a home-health nurse for Recover Health Services, an agency with offices throughout Iowa. For the previous eight years, Dockery worked with one patient full-time — a nonverbal boy with severe disabilities. (Kauffman, 9/28)

Crain's New York Business: Pandemic Revives Debate Over Nurse Staffing Ratios
Pat Kane, executive director of the New York State Nurses Association, has seen the pandemic intensify the decades-long fight over adequate nurse staffing. Before Covid-19 struck, the Midtown South–based union of more than 42,000 frontline nurses made safe-staffing ratios a top priority for its members, who work in major hospitals and other health care settings across the state. The ratios regulate the number of patients that may be assigned to a single nurse (Henderson, 9/28)

In other health industry news —

FierceHealthcare: Blue Cross NC Teams Up With North Carolina Providers, Experts To Manufacture N95 Masks 
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina is teaming up with prominent providers and companies in the state to manufacture N95 respirators for healthcare workers. The Made in NC initiative is a public-private partnership that also includes North Carolina State University's Nonwoven Institute, Freudenberg Performance Materials, UNC Health, the NC Healthcare Strategic Partners and NC Medical Society, and aims to manufacture the masks and then distribute them in the communities most in need of personal protective equipment during the pandemic. (Minemyer, 9/28)

CIDRAP: Non-COVID-19 Hospital Admissions Rebounding, Study Finds
Dramatic declines in US hospital admissions for non–COVID-19 reasons at the onset of the pandemic have reversed since the lowest point in April, but such hospitalizations remain lower than pre-pandemic baseline levels, particularly for patients from Hispanic-majority neighborhoods, according to a Health Affairs study. The study included data from about 1 million hospital admissions at 201 US hospitals, tracking admissions for the top 20 acute medical conditions from early February through early July. From February to April, declines in non–COVID-19 hospital admissions exceeded 20% for all medical conditions, and did not show significant differences across patient demographic subgroups of age, race, and ethnicity. (9/28)

Modern Healthcare: Short-Term Plans Spent Little On Medical Claims In 2019
The short-term health plans touted by the Trump administration continued to shell out few dollars on members' medical claims in 2019, according to the latest data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. The NAIC's 2019 Accident and Health Policy Experience Report also confirmed that enrollment in the notoriously skimpy policies, which don't have to cover preexisting medical conditions, spiked last year after the federal government finalized a rule in August 2018 allowing the plans to last up to 364 days and be renewed for up to three years. The Obama administration had limited the duration of the policies to up to three months. (Livingston, 9/28)

Kaiser Health News: ‘No Mercy’ Explores The Fallout After A Small Town Loses Its Hospital 
Midwesterners aren’t known for complaining. But after Mercy Hospital Fort Scott closed, hardship trickled down to people whose lives were already hard. Pat Wheeler has emphysema. Her husband, Ralph, has end-stage kidney failure, and the couple are barely making ends meet as they raise their teenage grandson. Pat is angry with hospital executives who she said yanked a lifeline from residents. “They took more than a hospital from us,” she said. (Tribble, 9/29)

Crain's Chicago Business: Rush University Medical Center, Select Medical In Joint Venture
Rush University Medical Center and post-acute care provider Select Medical today announced a joint venture to operate outpatient facilities in the region, as well as a new 84-bed rehabilitation hospital on the academic medical center’s Near West Side campus.In addition to 63 physical therapy centers in the Chicago and Northwest Indiana region, the deal includes the construction of Rush Specialty Hospital, which will have 30 critical illness recovery beds and 54 inpatient rehabilitation beds, according to a statement. Until the hospital’s expected 2022 completion, Select Medical will manage Rush’s existing rehabilitation unit in the Johnston R. Bowman Health Center on its campus. (Goldberg, 9/28)

Indianapolis Star: Kinship Care Indiana: How It Changed These Siblings' Lives
The Family Connection Network is a voluntary program administered by The Villages that serves relative and non-relative caregivers who are raising children that are not their own, regardless of whether that child is part of the foster care system. After an initial assessment, each family is assigned a case manager who can connect them to various resources. (Hays, 9/28)

The Hill: Poll Finds Support For Independent Arbiters Resolving 'Surprise' Medical Bills 
A new poll commissioned by a conservative group finds that a strong majority of voters support an independent arbiter resolving disputes over so-called “surprise” medical bills patients sometimes receive from hospitals and providers when their services aren’t covered by insurance. The poll, which was sponsored by the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, found that 75 percent of voters believe doctors, rather than health insurers, should determine the amount physicians charge for their work. (Easley, 9/28)