Nonprofit City Of Hope Buying Cancer Treatment Centers Of America

Stat: City Of Hope To Buy Cancer Treatment Centers Of America For $390 Million
City of Hope, the Los Angeles-based nonprofit hospital system, said Wednesday that it will purchase Cancer Treatment Centers of America for $390 million. The deal, a study in contrasts, brings together a hospital system that is famous for research — City of Hope was instrumental in the development of synthetic insulin and the basic technologies behind many cancer drugs — with one better known for marketing that critics have described as overly aggressive and for controversies involving how it selects patients and their insurance. (Herper and Chen, 12/8)

In other health industry news —

Modern Healthcare: Memorial Sloan Kettering Paid $1.4 Million In Severance To Three Former Execs In 2020
Memorial Sloan Kettering paid $1.4 million in severance in 2020 to three top former executives, including its longtime chief information officer, the cancer center disclosed in its latest tax form. Some of the money went to Dr. Jose Baselga, MSK's former chief medical officer, who resigned in 2018 after failing to disclose industry ties in his research. The largest payment went to Patricia Skarulis, MSK's longtime chief information officer, who the tax form says left in 2019. Avice Meehan, the system's former chief communication officer, also got a payout. (Bannow, 12/8)

Modern Healthcare: Shareholder Sues Centene For Insight On Leadership's Role In Alleged Medicaid Fraud
A Centene investor is taking the nation's largest Medicaid managed care insurer to court, seeking access to company records to determine how much its leaders are to blame for the $1.25 billion the company expects to pay out in drug fraud settlements. Shareholder Robert Garfield filed the lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court Tuesday. Under state law, stock owners have the right to inspect corporations' internal books and records. The plaintiff aims to ascertain whether company leaders breached their fiduciary duties and engaged in wrongdoing, according to the complaint. (Tepper, 12/8)

Stat: At Biotech VCs, Collecting 'Consulting Fees' From Startups Is Widespread
Some of the biggest names in biotech venture capital have charged their startups millions of dollars in “consulting fees” over the past decade, effectively taking back a small portion of the money they invested in a company. The fees are usually charged in exchange for certain additional services — such as when a venture capital firm loans an experienced executive to a startup to lead the company through its early days. They are far more common for venture capital firms that fund life science companies than for those that focus on technology or other sectors, according to venture capital experts, and can range from a few dollars to tens or hundreds of thousands per year, according to a STAT review of Securities and Exchange Commission filings. (Sheridan, 12/9)

KHN: Some Montana Nonprofit Hospitals Fall Short Of Peers In Required Charitable Giving
Montana’s richest nonprofit hospitals receive millions of dollars in tax exemptions each year to operate as charities, but some fall short of other medical facilities in what they give back to their communities to get those breaks. Overall, Montana’s nearly 50 nonprofit hospitals directed, on average, roughly 8% of their total annual expenses toward community benefits, such as covering the treatment costs of people who can’t afford care. That’s according to a KHN analysis of the hospitals’ IRS filings ending in 2019, which provide a snapshot of hospitals’ financial picture from before the pandemic. The national average as of 2018 was 10%, according to the American Hospital Association. (Houghton, 12/9)

Roll Call: Health Care Industry Seeks Surprise Billing Changes This Month
Some health care industry groups are pressing the Biden administration to change its plan for implementing a law meant to shield patients from surprise medical bills that is set to take effect next month. Many of the arguments sent in letters to federal agencies by Monday night reflect the debate that stakeholders had last year as Congress drafted the law. The groups are also commenting on policies set to take effect next year designed to provide patients with more insight into what medical services and procedures cost. (McIntire, 12/8)

Also —

KHN: Never Mind Toys, It’s Time To Ask Santa For Crutches And Catheters
America’s hospitals, strained by nearly two years of fighting the covid-19 pandemic, are now scrounging for basic medical supplies. In another consequence of the global supply chain crisis, hospitals managing holiday covid surges and all their other patients are running short of many necessities of care: crutches, syringes, needles, tubing, gloves, catheters, drapes for surgery, suction canisters for medical waste and even urine cups. After the difficulties that health care workers faced in securing personal protective equipment in 2020, supply chain managers and other experts say shortages and delays of other common supplies escalated this year. (Pradhan, 12/9)

AP: Nobels For Medicine, Economics Given In California Ceremony 
The 2021 Nobel Prize laureates for medicine and economics received their awards in Southern California on Wednesday during a scaled-down ceremony adapted for pandemic times. Swedish Ambassador Karin Olofsdotter was on hand in Irvine, south of Los Angeles, to award the Nobel for physiology or medicine to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian and the prize for economic sciences to David Card, Joshua D. Angrist and Guido W. Imbens. Julius, a professor of physiology at the University of California, San Francisco, and Patapoutian, a molecular biologist at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California, were honored for independently discovering key mechanisms of how humans sense heat, cold and other stimuli. (12/9)