Scrubs Company Apologizes To Women, DOs For Video, Poor Judgment

CNN: FIGS Ad: Popular Scrubs Company Generates Backlash From Women In Medicine And DOs After Insensitive Video 
A popular scrubs company offended DOs and women in medicine alike with a video that appeared to mock doctors of osteopathic medicine, or DOs, and women health care professionals. FIGS, a scrubs start-up, apologized for the video and pledged to donate $100,000 to the American Osteopathic Association, an organization for DOs, after the video generated backlash among Twitter's vibrant medical community. (Andrew and Ebrahimji, 10/15)

WBUR: Doctors' Unconscious Bias Affects Quality Of Health Care Services, Research Shows 
Research shows that doctors' unconscious bias can hurt patients of color. Some hospitals are trying to train doctors and stop disparate treatment. (Dembosky, 10/15)

Stat: As Telehealth Takes Off, Early Critics Embrace Change — And Harbor Doubts
If you’d talked to Joe Heyman around the 2000s, you might have taken him as a telemedicine naysayer. Back then, the Massachusetts OB-GYN was highly skeptical of the rash of new services sprouting up to remotely connect patients and physicians. He was wary, he told STAT, of patients “calling a total stranger and asking for clinical care,” and worried about building trust when a new doctor picked up the phone every time. He never once conducted a visit via video by the time he retired from seeing patients in 2014. He only wishes he’d had the chance. (Robbins, 10/16)

The Wall Street Journal: What CIOs Can Learn From The Race To Understand Covid-19 Data
Chief information officers can learn many lessons from the coronavirus pandemic when it comes to managing data, according to DJ Patil, a former U.S. chief data scientist, including the need to prepare for constant change and broadening who counts as data stakeholders. Speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s CIO Network virtual event Wednesday, Mr. Patil said he took a leave from his job as head of technology at Devoted Health Inc. to help the state of California manage its Covid-19 response this spring. The resulting experience should not be unfamiliar to CIOs, some of whom are developing their own pandemic-related analytics tools for functions such as office reopenings. (Council, 10/14)

Billings Gazette: Montana Health Care Workers Stretched Thin, Governor Says 
Gov. Steve Bullock outlined more funds for local and tribal public health departments and detailed an increasing shortage for available health care workers in the state as COVID-19 hospitalizations surge. During a Thursday press conference, Bullock said the state was beginning to see a shortage of health care workers. Some requests to the state to help fill personnel in areas across Montana are being filled, but sourcing those workers was becoming increasingly difficult, he said. (Sukut, 10/16)

On home health aides —

KHN: Most Home Health Aides ‘Can’t Afford Not To Work’ — Even When Lacking PPE
In March, Sue Williams-Ward took a new job, with a $1-an-hour raise. The employer, a home health care agency called Together We Can, was paying a premium — $13 an hour — after it started losing aides when COVID-19 safety concerns mounted. Williams-Ward, a 68-year-old Indianapolis native, was a devoted caregiver who bathed, dressed and fed clients as if they were family. She was known to entertain clients with some of her own 26 grandchildren, even inviting her clients along on charitable deliveries of Thanksgiving turkeys and Christmas hams. (Cahan, 10/16)

DCist: Some Home Health Workers In Virginia Can Get $1,500 In Hazard Pay, Northam Says
More than 43,000 home health care workers in Virginia are eligible to receive one-time, $1,500 hazard payments for working during the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Thursday. Those who took care of Medicaid beneficiaries between March 12 and June 30 can receive the payments, which will be overseen in the coming weeks by the commonwealth’s Department of Medical Assistance Services. The federal CARES Act authorized $73 million in funding for the payments, according to Northam’s office. (Giambrone, 10/15)

Also —

Modern Healthcare: HCA Healthcare To Help Launch Medical School In Nashville
HCA Healthcare announced Thursday it plans to help a Christian university also headquartered in Nashville launch a medical school. The for-profit hospital chain's Nashville subsidiary, TriStar Health, will provide the clinical elements supporting Belmont University's application for Liaison Committee on Medical Education accreditation for its proposed College of Medicine. It would be the country's 156th LCME-accredited medical school. (Bannow, 10/15)

Modern Healthcare: Premier Scores $8 Million HHS Contract For Maternal Health Data Initiative
Premier has entered into a two-year, $8 million contract with HHS focused on using its hospital database to address maternal morbidity and mortality. The federal government currently relies on states to voluntarily send copies of death certificates in order to track and understand maternal mortality, but the integrity of the data has been scrutinized over the years. Premier's database represents 45% of U.S. hospital discharges and involves maternal and infant health outcome measures. The contract with Premier will allow HHS to leverage that data and analyze risk factors contributing to maternal morbidity and mortality such as racial disparities and socioeconomic factors. (Castellucci, 10/15)

Modern Healthcare: Kaiser Pushes Back Against Oregon Provider's 30% Price Hike
Kaiser Permanente is arguing an Oregon provider's proposed 30% price increase is unfair and runs contrary to the state's collective goal of lowering healthcare costs. Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser, a not-for-profit healthcare giant that's both an insurer and a provider, is locked in a contract dispute with Salem Health, based in Oregon's capital. A seven-year contract between the two organizations expired Sept. 30, and Salem Health has proposed a new, two-year commercial contract with a 30% increase across all services. (Bannow, 10/15)