Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Much-Criticized U.S. News' Med School Rankings Issued
The New York Times: U.S. News Releases New Rankings For Top Law And Medical Schools, Despite A Boycott
U.S. News & World Report issued new rankings on Tuesday for the nation’s Top 14 law schools and Top 15 medical schools, just months after many of the schools dropped out of the rankings, saying they were unreliable and unfair. Although U.S. News said it was addressing some of the criticism with new methodology, the outcomes remained strikingly similar. Yale Law School, which ignited the exodus when it dropped out in November, kept its No. 1 status, though it is now tied with Stanford, which was previously No. 2. (Hartocollis, 4/11)
Philadelphia Inquirer: Philadelphia Medical School Diversity Discussed At Independence Blue Cross Conference
Philadelphia is a national hub for medical students, with one in six doctors passing through an area medical school at some point in their careers. Local university officials discussed on Tuesday how that makes the city primed to help combat longstanding racial disparities in the profession. Hundreds of physicians and medical students attended a conference at the National Constitution Center to address how Philadelphia schools can achieve that goal. (Whelan, 4/11)
More news from the health care industry —
KFF Health News and CBS: Feds Launch Criminal Investigation Into ‘AGGA’ Dental Device And Its Inventor
Federal prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into the Anterior Growth Guidance Appliance, or “AGGA” dental device, following a recent KFF Health News-CBS News investigation, according to a motion filed in federal court. Multiple lawsuits allege the device has caused grievous harm to at least 20 patients and the FDA is now investigating its safety, KFF Health News and CBS News have reported. (Kelman and Werner, 4/12)
The Wall Street Journal: Former Outcome Health Executives Found Guilty Of Fraud
A federal jury convicted three former executives of the once-highflying startup Outcome Health on several charges that they ran a billion-dollar scheme that defrauded customers including major pharmaceutical companies such as Novo Nordisk A/S as well as investors including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The verdict caps the fall of an executive team led by Rishi Shah, who was close to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and a budding star in Democratic circles before fraud was revealed in a Wall Street Journal article in 2017. Chicago’s then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel declared at a company press conference “as Outcome goes, so goes Chicago.” (Winkler, Keilman and Thomas, 4/11)
Stat: How Big A Pay Bump Do Hospitals Need From Medicare Next Year?
The federal government is proposing to give hospitals a 2.8% raise in their Medicare payments next year, which would result in more than $2.7 billion of additional funds for the hospital industry. That increase would mean the average payment hospitals get for each discharged Medicare patient would rise to $16,143 in 2024, compared with $15,696 for this year, according to federal regulators. Of course, that number varies widely depending on each patient’s condition. (Herman, 4/11)
Axios: Audio-Only Telehealth Still Popular Two Years After Pandemic In Some Clinics
Technology barriers and payment policies have kept safety net clinics relying on audio-only telehealth for primary care and behavioral health when its use has declined elsewhere, according to a RAND study published in JAMA. The findings raise questions about the quality of care and equity for low-income patients, researchers say, because the effectiveness of audio-only telehealth has not been established. (Dreher, 4/12)
Modern Healthcare: ABA Services Turn To Telehealth For Rural Autism Patients
Autism diagnosis rates are spiking, and providers increasingly see technology as a means to increase access to applied behavioral analysis services in underserved communities. (Perna, 4/11)
In hospital news —
The Colorado Sun: Children In Mental Health Crises Continue To Fill Up Hospital Emergency Rooms. What’s Colorado Doing About It?
On one afternoon this week, a typical day for Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora, there were 10 children and teens in the emergency department who came because of a mental health crisis. The child with the shortest length of stay had been there for four hours and 40 minutes at the time Dr. Sandra Fritsch, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Children’s Hospital Colorado, checked her computer screen. The longest? 963 hours. That’s 40 days. (Brown, 4/11)
PBS NewsHour, KVPR: After A Rural California Hospital Closes, Farmworkers Pay The Price
Jose Villa was 41 years old when he began to feel almost too exhausted to work. He was endlessly thirsty, and he found himself getting up as many as eight times a night to use the bathroom. “My colleagues noticed,” he said in Spanish. “They told me to get checked out because it could be something serious.” (Klein, 4/11)
AP: Officials: Mississippi Getting Designated Burn Center Again
After the October closure of Mississippi’s only accredited burn center threatened to upend access to care, the state’s next designated burn center will be housed at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, the state Department of Health announced Tuesday. (4/11)
