Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
More Oversight Needed To Avoid Dangerous Nursing Home Situations During Disasters, Senate Inquiry Finds
The New York Times: Poor Disaster Oversight Imperiled Nursing Homes, Senate Report Finds
A Senate inquiry faulted state and federal oversight for fatal heat strokes and chaotic evacuations at nursing homes after last year’s hurricanes, calling for tougher disaster preparedness standards on Friday. Officials with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a federal agency that was a subject of the inquiry, have said they would clarify expectations for how nursing homes must maintain safe temperatures in emergencies. Officials added in an interview this week that they were actively seeking lessons from recent disasters. But they defended the agency’s new preparedness requirements for health care providers, which did not come under enforcement until just after last year’s hurricane season. (Fink, 11/2)
Boston Globe: Synergy Health Centers Closing Nursing Homes Amid Mounting Bills, Patient Injuries And Deaths
Fending off creditors and repeated fines for patient deaths and injuries, a New Jersey nursing home company plans to close two of its 10 Massachusetts facilities as a court-ordered receiver works to sell its other properties. Synergy Health Centers’ facilities in Sunderland and Newton are set to close in February, according to state records. (Lazar, 11/2)
Meanwhile, hospitals in North Carolina, Minnesota, Illinois, Florida and Michigan are in the news —
The Wall Street Journal: North Carolina Faces Hospital Fight Trying New Tack To Set Health-Care Payments
North Carolina wants to reshape how it pays for its workers’ health care—and save hundreds of millions of dollars—by scrapping the secret negotiations typically used to set rates with doctors and hospitals. The fate of the plan, from the state’s treasurer, is expected to be watched closely by other employers eager to stem rising health costs. But hospitals are already fighting back. At issue is the system that employers’ health plans have long used to determine how much they will pay doctors and hospitals. The payments are typically set through negotiations, conducted in secret, between health insurers and the hospital systems and physician groups. (Wilde Mathews, 11/4)
The Star Tribune: New Mothers With Opioid Addiction Challenge Rural Hospitals, U Study Finds
A substantial number of mothers with opioid addictions are giving birth in rural hospitals that are presumably less equipped to address their challenges and to manage the withdrawal symptoms that their babies suffer in their first days. The University of Minnesota’s Katy Kozhimannil examined births involving rural mothers with opioid-use disorders in the U.S. from 2007 through 2014 and found that 60 percent occurred in local, smaller-town hospitals. (Olson, 11/3)
Chicago Tribune: State Approves $98 Million Expansion For Advocate South Suburban Hospital
Advocate South Suburban Hospital has received approval from state regulators for a nearly $98 million expansion and modernization of the Hazel Crest hospital. The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board approved the project Oct. 30, and work will include adding nearly 91,000 square feet and modernizing another 37,000 square feet, according to Advocate Aurora Health. (Nolan, 11/2)
The Washington Post: Ramon Vazquez: Woman Sues Surgeon For Removing Her Kidney During Back Surgery
Maureen Pacheco had expected to have a spinal procedure. It was April 2016, and she was told a surgeon would fuse together a couple of vertebrae in her lower back to help relieve pain believed to be from an injury she sustained in a car accident the previous year. However, when she woke up from surgery at Wellington Regional Medical Center in Wellington, Fla., she learned that the surgeon had done something else, according to court records. (Bever, 11/2)
Detroit Free Press: Beaumont Announces New Mental Health Hospital In Dearborn
Beaumont Health is to announce details Monday about its plan to build a new mental health hospital in Dearborn in conjunction with Pennsylvania-based Universal Health Services. Construction on the $40 million free-standing hospital is to begin in early 2019 on eight acres of vacant land on Oakwood Boulevard near the Southfield Freeway. When it opens, the hospital — Beaumont's ninth — will have space for 150 beds and will be operated and managed by UHS, which also will be the majority owner. (Shamus, 11/5)
