Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Residents At Risk In Indianapolis Nursing Home: Report
Indianapolis Star: Report: Even After Murder, Homestead Continues To Put Nursing Home Residents In Danger
Even after the rape and murder of a resident earlier this year, inadequate staffing and poor care continued to put residents in danger at Homestead Healthcare Center, according to a recently released health inspection report. Failures in the weeks after the killing sent at least two of the nursing home's residents to the emergency room with life-threatening conditions. Others languished in urine-soaked beds and soiled bandages. One resident lost more than 40 pounds after the facility failed to provide nutritional supplements as recommended, inspectors found. (Cook, 5/26)
Las Vegas Review-Journal: ‘Superbug’ Cases Investigated In Nevada By CDC, Local Officials
For a second consecutive week, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials are in Southern Nevada to investigate cases of a drug-resistant “superbug” at local hospitals and skilled-nursing facilities. The CDC is assisting the state in investigating 12 of 19 local facilities that have reported cases of Candida auris, a once-rare fungus that can cause serious illness and even death, most often in patients who already are frail. Teams of federal and state health officials had visited five facilities as of Wednesday morning, said Kimisha Causey with the Nevada State Healthcare Associated Infection Program. She did not identify any facilities that are experiencing ongoing outbreaks, saying it was too soon to make that determination. (Hynes, 5/25)
St. Louis Public Radio: Missouri's No Patient Left Alone Act Could Hinder Hospitals
Missouri lawmakers want to require hospitals to allow patients designated caregivers. The Missouri legislature passed a bill that would give hospital patients and nursing home residents greater access to visitors and loved ones. The No Patient Left Alone Act now heads to Gov. Mike Parson. The bill requires health care facilities to allow patients to have at least two designated caregivers who can provide physical and mental support for the patient. The patient will also have access to a designated caregiver during a statewide emergency. (Davis, 5/26)
Stat: Senate Panel Wants To Axe In-Person Requirement For Virtual Mental Health
A bipartisan group of senators working on mental health policy have proposed axing a requirement that would have restricted seniors’ access to services via telehealth, they announced Thursday. Congress made access to mental health services through telehealth for seniors permanent in 2020, but there was a catch — seniors had to have visited the same provider in-person within the previous six months. That requirement hasn’t technically gone into effect yet because emergency regulations are still in place due to the pandemic, but if it were implemented, it could dramatically limit seniors’ options for mental health services. (Cohrs, 5/26)
More health care industry news —
Modern Healthcare: Physician Compensation Rebounded Slightly In 2021, Study Shows
Compensation among most physician specialties increased slightly in 2021 compared to the previous year, according to new data from the Medical Group Management Association. Compensation plateaued in 2020 as providers dealt with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and a decline in nonessential healthcare services. Those trends reversed for most specialists last year, the MGMA reports. Surgical specialists, who saw the one of the largest pay declines in 2020, experienced a median 4% compensation increase that raised median income to $517,501 last year, the study found. Median primary care physician compensation rose 2% to $286,525 in 2021. Doctors coming out of residency had median earnings that were 7%-10% greater in 2021 than in the prior year, the data show. (Christ, 5/25)
AP: Edney Named Mississippi's Next State Health Officer
Mississippi’s next State Health Officer is Dr. Daniel P. Edney, who will replace Dr. Thomas Dobbs on Aug. 1.Dobbs is resigning from the post he’s held since 2018 at the end of July. Edney currently holds the position of Deputy State Health Officer and has been with the department since February 2021. The Mississippi State Board of Health announced Edney’s promotion on Wednesday. (5/25)
Stat: A Google AI Leader On Why It's Imperative To Move Slow In Health Tech
Google has big ideas for machine learning in medicine. Greg Corrado, who helps lead health care research at Google AI, gets that those grand plans come with concerns. “With a technology that new, I think it’s reasonable for there to still be open questions,” Corrado said Tuesday at the STAT Health Tech Summit in San Francisco. Corrado, a neuroscientist by training, said that’s why it’s essential to measure the safety and efficacy of artificial intelligence systems for different uses in health care. (Joseph, 5/25)
Stat: Proton Cancer Centers Proliferate, Despite Shaky Benefits And High Debt
On May 12, the South Florida Proton Therapy Institute issued a warning to its investors: It had a week’s worth of cash left and had to dip into a reserve fund to pay off debt. The proton beam therapy center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham fired off a similar warning that same day. It had a little more than three months of cash on hand and also was struggling to make debt payments. But the longtime financial strains at those and other similar centers, which house large machines that zap cancerous tumors in a more targeted fashion than traditional radiation, aren’t scaring anyone off. In fact, three other health entities — one in Connecticut, one in Texas, and another in Arkansas — are partnering with the same group that runs the two struggling facilities, Proton International, to build new centers in the next few years. Tax incentives, political photo ops, and grandiose characterizations of “cutting-edge” technology accompanied the announcements. (Bannow and Herman, 5/26)
