Spotlight On Opt-Out Fees As NewYork-Presbyterian Charges Union Fund $25M
The Wall Street Journal writes about a $25 million fee charged by NewYork-Presbyterian hospital system to a major union benefits fund, which wanted to exclude the system from its plan over alleged high prices. The fee exists via Aetna's contract with the hospital.
The Wall Street Journal:
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital System Demanded $25 Million To Stay Out Of A Union’s Health Insurance Plan
Peter Goldberger, who leads a major union benefits fund, was on the verge of completing a new health-insurance deal with Aetna to cover its 210,000 members. Then he learned the union fund would have to pay the powerful NewYork-Presbyterian hospital system $25 million—to stay out of its plan. The 32BJ Health Fund didn’t want its insurance to include NewYork-Presbyterian, which the Service Employees International Union affiliate says has high prices. But Aetna’s contract with the hospital system required the insurer to get a signoff from NewYork-Presbyterian to omit it from a client’s plan. (Mathews, 5/21)
Modern Healthcare:
Prime Healthcare To Switch 2 PA Hospitals To Nonprofit Status
Prime Healthcare plans to switch two Pennsylvania hospitals to nonprofit status. The for-profit, privately held health system wants to transfer ownership for Philadelphia-based Roxborough Memorial Hospital and Bristol, Pennsylvania-based Lower Bucks Hospital to Prime Healthcare Foundation, its nonprofit that operates 14 hospitals in six states. (Hudson, 5/21)
CBS News:
2 Chicago Howard Brown Health Clinics Closing
Two of Howard Brown Health's 10 Chicago clinics will shut down. The Diversey clinic—at 2800 N. Sheridan Rd. in East Lakeview—and the Thresholds South clinic, at 734 W. 47th St. in Canaryville—will both close in the coming months. The nonprofit said the clinics are closing due to a budget shortfall, and because of the departure of the sole providers and the end of Howard Brown Health's leases at each location. (Kaufman and Harrington, 5/21)
Fortune Well:
Cyberattacks Are Soaring—Treat Them As An 'Act Of War', Health Care Exec Warns
The Change Healthcare cyberattack that disrupted nationwide health care systems earlier this year—affecting a third of Americans at a total loss of $100 million—was a major wake-up call: Such attacks in the health care industry are on the rise. And they should be treated with utmost seriousness, agreed a panel at Fortune’s Brainstorm Health conference in Dana Point, Calif., on Tuesday. “In my world, it’s almost an act of war,” said Stephen Gillett, chairman and CEO of Verily, a life sciences company. “It’s that level of aggression toward infrastructure. Those are people’s lives, their personal information. That is not something that should just be a tech issue that we’re solving for.” (Greenfield, 5/21)
KFF Health News:
He Fell Ill On A Cruise. Before He Boarded The Rescue Boat, They Handed Him The Bill
Vincent Wasney and his fiancée, Sarah Eberlein, had never visited the ocean. They’d never even been on a plane. But when they bought their first home in Saginaw, Michigan, in 2018, their real estate agent gifted them tickets for a Royal Caribbean cruise. After two years of delays due to the coronavirus pandemic, they set sail in December 2022. (Sable-Smith, 5/22)
In health worker updates —
The Boston Globe:
Tufts Medicine Lays Off 174 Employees
Tufts Medicine, one of the state’s largest health care systems, is laying off about 1.3 percent of its 13,000-person workforce as it continues to weather financial difficulties. The “vast majority” of the 174 employees whose jobs will be cut are “administrative and non-direct patient care roles,” according to a statement sent by a Tufts spokesperson to the Globe on Tuesday. (Gerber, 5/21)
San Francisco Chronicle:
S.F. Public Hospital Nurses Reach Tentative Agreement To Avert Strike
San Francisco public nurses reached a tentative agreement with the city Tuesday, potentially ending the threat of a strike authorized just days ago over staffing shortages and unsafe conditions for patients at the city’s public hospital and clinics. The union representing the nurses, SEIU Local 1021, said the nurses secured improvements in several areas, including retention and recruitment, safety, and reduction in the use of contractors. (Parker, 5/21)
