Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Pennsylvania Care Home Shuts Down Abruptly In Staffing Crisis
CBS News: Jefferson Hills Healthcare And Rehabilitation Shuts Down Due To Emergency Staffing Shortage
A care home in Jefferson Hills closed after it was forced to shut down due to an unexpected staffing shortage. Many Jefferson Hills Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center employees walked off the job last week after delayed paychecks or none at all. They told KDKA-TV that paychecks have been delayed three times since the start of the new year and employees still haven't been paid for the scheduled Feb. 23 payday. "A lot of us have shut off notices and overdrawn bank accounts," former employee Jenna Smith said. (Bortz and Borrasso, 3/4)
San Francisco Chronicle: Kaiser To Lay Off Dozens Of Bay Area Employees
Kaiser Foundation Hospitals is set to reduce its workforce by more than 70 employees by April, primarily in the East Bay, according to information provided last week to the California Employment Development Department. In regulatory filings, Kaiser’s Human Resources Director Christine Neubauer said the layoffs would affect 49 workers at the company’s Pleasanton location, one in Oakland, two in Stockton, and 20 from elsewhere around the state, mainly in Pasadena. (Vaziri, 3/4)
Chicago Tribune: Nurses At UChicago Medicine Announce One-Day Strike
Nurses at UChicago Medicine announced Monday they will go on a one-day strike March 14 to call attention to staffing concerns amid a breakdown in contract negotiations. (Ahmad, 3/4)
WUFT: Gainesville Hospital Removes VP, Gets State OK After Concerns Over Sanitizing OR Instruments
HCA North Florida Hospital removed one of its vice presidents and fired other employees nearly six weeks after nonemergency surgeries abruptly halted with concerns about sterilized operating room equipment. (Sandoval, 3/4)
KFF Health News: Whistleblower Accuses Aledade, Largest US Independent Primary Care Network, Of Medicare Fraud
A Maryland firm that oversees the nation’s largest independent network of primary care medical practices is facing a whistleblower lawsuit alleging it cheated Medicare out of millions of dollars using billing software “rigged” to make patients appear sicker than they were. The civil suit alleges that Aledade Inc.’s billing apps and other software and guidance provided to doctors improperly boosted revenues by adding overstated medical diagnoses to patients’ electronic medical records. (Schulte, 3/5)
