Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Pennsylvania's Crozer Health Will Close Unless It Receives $9M By Today
CBS News: $9 Million Needed By Wednesday To Save Crozer Health System In Delaware County, Pennsylvania
The deal to save the Crozer Health system in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, is on the brink of collapse. An attorney for Prospect Medical Holdings, which owns Taylor Hospital and Crozer-Chester Medical Center, told the judge on Tuesday an additional $9 million is needed by 4 p.m. Wednesday to keep the hospitals open, or Prospect attorneys said they'll pursue a closure motion with the court for an orderly closure. (Holden and Kenworthy, 4/8)
In other corporate news —
Modern Healthcare: Connecticut Approves Northwell Health, Nuvance Health Merger
Northwell Health and Nuvance Health have cleared the last regulatory hurdle in their proposed merger after receiving certificate of need approval from Connecticut's Office of Health Strategy, a spokesperson for the agency said Tuesday. The two systems will follow terms outlined by New York's and Connecticut's attorneys general in August, including expansion of women’s health services through labor and delivery at Nuvance's Sharon (Connecticut) Hospital, ... according to a news release from Connecticut's Office of Health Strategy. (DeSilva, 4/8)
Modern Healthcare: Ascension St. Thomas, PathPoint Form Joint Venture
Ascension Saint Thomas and PathPoint Health formed a joint venture to open two outpatient centers in Tennessee. The centers, which will open near Ascension Saint Thomas' Midtown hospital in Nashville and near Ascension's Rutherford hospital in Murfreesboro, will focus on treating metabolic conditions such as diabetes and obesity. They will offer medical care, exercise and nutritional planning, lifestyle counseling, diagnostic assessments and care coordination services with in-person and virtual visits, according to a Tuesday news release. (Hudson, 4/8)
Modern Healthcare: Transcarent Finalizes $621M Acquisition Of Accolade
Transcarent closed its acquisition of Accolade for approximately $621 million, the company said Tuesday. Transcarent, which connects self-insured employer customers to behavioral health, urgent care, cancer care, pharmacy and weight management services, said it purchased Accolade for $7.03 per share in cash. The deal was first announced in January. (Turner, 4/8)
The Wall Street Journal: Health Insurer Stocks Soar On Medicare Rate Boost
Health insurer stocks soared on Tuesday because the Trump administration said it would substantially increase payment rates for Medicare insurers next year, generating more than $25 billion in additional revenue for the industry and doubling the boost proposed in January. The news led to a rally in the shares of big Medicare insurers such as UnitedHealth Group, Humana and CVS Health, parent of Aetna. Shares in UnitedHealth rose 8% in morning trading, while Humana was up more than 11% and CVS increased 9.5%. (Mathews, 4/8)
More health care and tech news —
MedPage Today: USPSTF Still Recommends Counseling To Support Breastfeeding
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) still recommends primary care behavioral counseling for breastfeeding, mostly in line with its 2016 guidelines. In the updated recommendation statement published in JAMA, USPSTF wrote that "providing interventions or referrals, during pregnancy and after birth, to support breastfeeding" received a B grade, indicating moderate certainty these interventions will have moderate net benefit. (Robertson, 4/8)
Stat: As More Patients Get Automated Test Results, Researchers Seek Ways To Calm Their Nerves
Since 2021, when the information blocking rules kicked in, health systems and patients have been reckoning with the impact of electronic medical records that allow instant access to test results — good, bad, and in between — sometimes before a doctor has ever seen them. (Palmer, 4/8)
KFF Health News: Rural Hospitals And Patients Are Disconnected From Modern Care
Leroy Walker arrived at the county hospital short of breath. Walker, 65 and with chronic high blood pressure, was brought in by one of rural Greene County’s two working ambulances. Nurses checked his heart activity with a portable electrocardiogram machine, took X-rays, and tucked him into Room 122 with an IV pump pushing magnesium into his arm. “I feel better,” Walker said. Then: Beep. Beep. Beep. (Tribble, Hacker and Jackman, 4/9)
Modern Healthcare: CardioVia’s ViaOne Device Gets FDA Clearance For Heart Treatments
CardioVia announced Tuesday it received Food and Drug Administration clearance for its ViaOne device that can access the heart’s surface to diagnose and treat cardiac conditions without using an exposed needle. ViaOne is designed for treating cardiac arrhythmias. Conventional techniques point a needle toward the heart, which comes with the risk of puncturing it, according to CardioVia. (Dubinsky, 4/8)
Stat: AI Agents Slowly Gaining A Foothold In Health Care Industry
“This year is going to be the year AI agents are going to get deployed,” NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang declared at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. But what are AI agents, and how do they apply to health care? (Trang, 4/9)
Fierce Healthcare: Seattle Children's Equips Providers With AI Agent From Google
Seattle Children’s Hospital has partnered with Google Cloud to bring an AI agent to its providers’ fingertips. The new agent will help physicians and clinicians easily access information from the system’s clinical pathways at the point of care to ensure a high standard of care for all patients, the organizations said. (Beavins, 4/9)
Modern Healthcare: Proprio's Paradigm AI Platform Receives FDA Clearance
Surgical technology company Proprio announced Tuesday that its Paradigm AI guidance platform has received FDA clearance to take spinal alignment measurements during surgery. This platform, which is already being used by Durham, North Carolina-based Duke Health and Seattle-based UW Medicine, allows surgeons to evaluate their surgical performance in real time. (Dubinsky, 4/8)
The Washington Post: What Goes Into The Algorithm Behind Machine Learning For Health Care
The human body constantly generates a variety of signals that can be measured from the outside with wearable devices. These bio-signals — which include heart rate, sleep state and blood oxygen levels — can indicate whether someone is having mood swings or be used to diagnose a variety of bodily and brain disorders. It can be relatively cheap to gather a lot of bio-signal data. To teach a machine-learning algorithm to find a relationship between bio-signals and health outcomes, however, you need to teach the algorithm to recognize those health outcomes. That’s where research scientists like myself come in. (Geenjaar, 4/8)
