Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Oscar Health Adds Inclusive Identity Options For LGBTQ+ Community
Modern Healthcare: Oscar Health Unveils Tool For LGBTQ+ Community
Oscar Health has updated its user interface to allow members to input their name, pronouns and gender identity, in a move to be more inclusive of members who identify as transgender or non-binary. "Since day one, Oscar has been focused on building a system of healthcare that is centered around our members," CEO Mario Schlosser said in a statement. "While there is still more work to be done, I am proud of our team of engineers who, through our unique full-stack technology, are able to quickly and proficiently meet the needs of our transgender and non-binary members to help them feel both seen and heard." (Tepper, 7/14)
In other health care industry news —
Modern Healthcare: Providers Vow To Fight Medicare Pay Freeze
The lobbying began just minutes after CMS released a physician payment rule for next year that doesn't include pay raises for doctors, physician assistants, nurse practitioners and others. Provider groups are geared up for a rerun of the battle over this year's physician fee schedule, which originally financed a pay increase for primary care providers by cutting payments to specialists. Congress intervened after a sustained lobbying effort that culminated in an across-the-board 3.75% pay rise for the 2021 calendar year, at a cost of $3 billion to taxpayers. CMS issued the proposed rule for 2022 on Tuesday. (Brady, 7/14)
KHN: Influx Of Medical School Students Could Overwhelm Montana Resources, Program Leaders Warn
Opening two new medical schools in Montana would stretch and possibly overwhelm the state’s physicians who provide the clinical training that students need to become doctors, according to leaders of a University of Washington medical school program that relies on those teaching physicians. The University of Washington School of Medicine’s WWAMI program in Montana requires its students who have finished their academic work to complete clerkships and clinical rotations to graduate, and then those graduates must be matched with residencies. WWAMI — an acronym of the five states participating in the program: Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho — uses hundreds of Montana physicians for that hands-on training, in addition to physicians in the other four states. (Halland, 7/15)
Modern Healthcare: Kindred Healthcare Adds Inpatient Rehab Units At Hospitals
Kindred Healthcare will add acute inpatient rehabilitation units to three of its long-term acute care hospitals to help patients recover quicker, the provider said Wednesday. The units, with a total of 33 beds, are expected to start serving patients in September 2021 and will be located at Kindred Hospital Denver, Kindred Hospital Melbourne, and Kindred Hospital Philadelphia – Havertown. They will provide intensive, interdisciplinary clinical and rehabilitation services. Patients in physical rehab will receive 24/7 nursing care and at least three hours of therapy a day for five days a week from physicians trained in physical medicine and rehabilitation. (Devereaux, 7/14)
Modern Healthcare: ONC Seeks Comments On Draft EHR Reporting Criteria For Vendors
The first draft of a set of criteria that developers of electronic health records will be required to report on as part of certification with a federal program has been released for public comment, but the new reporting requirements likely won't take hold until at least 2024. The Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank contracted to create HHS' EHR reporting program, on Wednesday opened public comment for the draft version of interoperability measures that EHR software developers will have to report on, as mandated under the 21st Century Cures Act. (Kim Cohen, 7/14)
Modern Healthcare: ONC Releases Timeline For Interoperability Network
HHS' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology announced the timeline for implementing its interoperability framework, which seeks to facilitate cost-effective data sharing across networks. ONC plans to have the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement's network open for participation in the first quarter of 2022. "We believe that it's really important for the market to know the timeline so everyone can think about how they want to participate," said ONC chief Micky Tripathi at a Health Information Technology Advisory Committee meeting on Wednesday. (Devereaux, 7/14)
Georgia Health News: N.C.-Based Atrium Clinches Deal For Another Georgia Hospital System
A Charlotte-based health care system has finalized a deal to acquire a nonprofit hospital organization based in Rome. Floyd Medical Center, a hospital in Cedartown and one in Alabama will now become part of Atrium Health under the long-delayed agreement, announced Wednesday. It’s the second big foray into Georgia for Atrium Health, which in 2018 acquired the Navicent system in Macon. Atrium may now look to expand further in the state, experts say. (Miller, 7/14)
Axios: UnitedHealth Group To Kick Off Health Care's Q2 Earnings
Corporate America is expecting big jumps in profits in the second quarter. That's especially the case in health care, an industry that hasn't really lost a lot of financial momentum throughout the coronavirus pandemic. Health care spending is basically back to pre-COVID levels. Expect big numbers across the board. (Herman, 7/14)
