Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Starting January, Hospitals Will Report Quality Data On Older Patients' Care
Modern Healthcare: Medicare Quality Measures Push Providers To Improve Senior Care
Medicare will begin compensating hospitals for providing quality data to support "age-friendly" medical care as the government seeks to bolster private sector efforts to adapt to the aging population. Starting in January, hospitals will report on a slew of measures to assess whether they are improving care for older patients in emergency departments, operating rooms and other settings. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services laid out the new policy in the Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System final rule for fiscal 2025, which it published last month. (Early, 9/25)
New Hampshire Public Radio: Exeter Hospital Cuts Are Postponed For 6 Months, After Pressure From AG's Office
Under pressure from state regulators, Exeter Hospital has agreed to delay a series of planned cuts for six months, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said Wednesday. Exeter Hospital has faced an uproar over its plans to cut neurology, podiatry, pediatric dentistry and allergy and immunology care at its Core Physicians practice, along with a widely used paramedic service. The hospital initially told patients those services would end within weeks. (Cuno-Booth, 9/25)
Crain's New York Business: Mount Sinai Partners With Noom
Mount Sinai Health System is teaming up with a major venture-backed company aimed at behavioral approaches to weight loss. The hospital system announced a partnership Wednesday with Princeton, N.J.-based health platform Noom, which offers tailored coaching on lifestyle and nutrition to address chronic diseases with a particular focus on obesity. The companies want to open up a two-way referral channel between one another in hopes of filling gaps in treatment created by the explosion in tech startups offering nontraditional healthcare. (Geringer-Sameth, 9/25)
Reuters: Healthcare Firm Guardian Pharmacy Raises $112 Mln In US IPO
Guardian Pharmacy, which provides pharmacy services to long-term healthcare facilities, raised $112 million in its U.S. initial public offering on Wednesday, valuing the company at $869.3 million. The Atlanta, Georgia-based firm priced its offering of 8 million shares of Class A common stock at $14 apiece, the low-end of its targeted range of $14 to $16 each. (9/25)
USA Today: Cancer Patient Receives Double Lung Transplant At Northwestern Medicine
At 34 years old, Minnesota resident Mandy Wilk thought she had just 2½ years left to live. She had been diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer, and it had spread to her liver. ... Eventually, doctors detected cancer in her lungs, and she found out about the DREAM program, housed in Northwestern Medicine’s Canning Thoracic Institute. Doctors in the program treat cancer patients who have no other options by performing double lung transplants. (Martin, 9/25)
CBS News: Westmoreland County Nurses Fired After Taking, Sharing Inappropriate Patient Pictures, Police Say
Four Independence Health System employees at Westmoreland Hospital have been fired after an investigation uncovered misconduct involving at least eight patients. Police here say that misconduct is disturbing, and includes videos and pictures of nude elderly patients taken inside their rooms at the hospital. (Bortz, 9/25)
