Prison Health Care Provider Wellpath Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
Bloomberg reports that the H.I.G. Capital-backed firm is dealing with debt and high labor costs. Other health industry news is on Kaiser Permanente, Henry Ford Health’s integrated insurer, St. Vincent Charity Community Health Center, Denver Health, and more.
Bloomberg:
Prison Health Firm Wellpath Declares Bankruptcy
Wellpath Holdings Inc., one of the largest providers of health-care services to prisons and jails across the US, has filed bankruptcy after failing to meet its debt obligations while grappling with high labor costs. The H.I.G. Capital-backed firm, which filed for Chapter 11 in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, listed assets and liabilities between $1 billion to $10 billion each. In a separate statement, Wellpath said it has secured a $522 million debtor-in-possession financing facility from some lenders and plans to sell some businesses. (Ma and Phakdeetham, 11/11)
Modern Healthcare:
Kaiser Permanente Streamlines Operations To Cut Costs
Kaiser Permanente has continued implementing cost-cutting measures in an attempt to quell losses stemming in part from high medical expenses. Kaiser has reduced administrative expenses, implemented controls on discretionary spending and streamlined business operations to help offset costs attributed to higher-than-expected utilization, increased patient acuity and pharmaceutical spending, the nonprofit health system said Friday in its third-quarter earnings report. (Hudson, 11/8)
Crain's Detroit Business:
Henry Ford Health’s Integrated Insurer Makes CEO Change
Dr. Michael Genord is out as the top executive at Henry Ford Health’s integrated insurer Health Alliance Plan. The Detroit-based health system announced Monday that President and CEO Genord has left the company, effective immediately. It’s unclear whether Genord resigned or was terminated from HAP; and the system declined to elaborate on his departure. (Walsh, 11/11)
The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer:
Cleveland’s Former St. Vincent Charity Hospital Now Set To Be Demolished
Paperwork has been submitted to the city of Cleveland Department of Building and Housing to demolish St. Vincent Charity Community Health Center -- formerly known as St. Vincent Charity Medical Center. A clerk at the Department of Building and Housing confirmed Monday that paperwork had been received and said it would take several weeks to process. This comes almost exactly two years after St. Vincent ended all-inpatient and emergency room care. (Sims, 11/11)
Colorado Sun:
Denver Health Was Losing 90% Of N₂O To Leaks. So It Cut The Gas.
Deep inside Denver Health’s main building, on a locked floor that even most doctors who work at the hospital have never visited, around giant tanks of oxygen and under low-hanging ductwork and plumbing, there is a cramped room with eight tall, blue cylinders of compressed gas. (Ingold, 11/8)
Also —
Stat:
Hospitals, Pharma Companies Increasingly Turning To OpenAI
The company behind ChatGPT didn’t set out to tackle health care. But despite ongoing concerns about its technology’s tendency to hallucinate, OpenAI is already inking deals with health care customers desperate to use it to speed up workflows without burdening their staff. (Ravindranath, 11/12)
Axios:
Robot Learned Surgical Tasks From Videos And AI
A research team used videos of surgeries and the machine learning architecture behind ChatGPT to successfully train a robot to do basic tasks like manipulate a needle, lift body tissue and suture. Showing a robot can perform with the skill of a doctor opens up new possibilities for devices like the widely used da Vinci surgical system and reduce the risk of medical errors, the Johns Hopkins-led scientists said. (Bettelheim, 11/12)
