Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
State Highlights: Calif.'s Biggest Industry Is Now Medical Care; Urgent Care Biz Takes Hold In Twin Cities
Sacramento Bee: Medical Care Now California’s Biggest Industry, Dwarfing All Others
A new UCLA Center for Health Policy Research study reveals that we Californians are directly or indirectly spending a mind-numbing $367.5 billion a year on our physical well-being, equal to 15 percent of the state’s $2.5 trillion economy. That makes it, by a huge margin, our largest industry, dwarfing such high-profile California mainstays as movies, agriculture, aerospace and tourism. The $50 billion film industry, for instance, is scarcely one-seventh the size. (Walters, 10/1)
The Star Tribune: The Urgent Care Business Is About To Get A Lot Bigger In The Twin Cities
Urgent care clinics are proliferating across the Twin Cities as patients footing a bigger share of their medical bills hunt for convenience. Up to 19 new urgent care centers will be rolled out across Minnesota by the end of next year by the Optum unit of Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group, bringing a 20 percent increase in the state from just one provider. Hospitals and clinics that have been offering urgent care for several years also are promising expansions, setting up a battle to retain patients and capture new business. (Snowbeck, 10/1)
Boston Globe: State’s Shaken-Baby Prevention Campaign Stalls
When Stacey Nee delivered her second child, nurses talked to her about breastfeeding, safe sleeping practices, and postpartum depression, but she took note of what they did not mention: the potentially angry emotions, even dangerous actions, that can be stirred by a chronically crying baby. The omission was particularly jarring to Nee, who works at the Children’s Trust in Boston, an agency that helped implement a 2006 state law calling on maternity wards to train parents, before discharge, about the dangers of shaken-baby syndrome. (Wen, 9/30)
Los Angeles Times: Thousands Of Deaths From Hospital Superbugs Are Going Unreported, Research Shows
Many thousands of Californians are dying every year from infections they caught while in hospitals. But you’d never know that from their death certificates. Sharley McMullen of Manhattan Beach came down with a fever just hours after being wheeled out of a Torrance Memorial Medical Center operating room on May 4, 2014. A missionary’s daughter who worked as a secretary at Cape Canaveral, Fla., at the height of the space race, McMullen, 72, was there for treatment of a bleeding stomach ulcer. Soon, though, she was fighting for her life. (Petersen, 10/2)
Kansas Health Institute: Kansas Infant Mortality Rate Drops In 2015
Kansas recorded its lowest-ever infant mortality rate in 2015, when 230 infants died before their first birthday, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. (Thompson, 9/30)
WBUR: Mass. Department Of Public Health Recommends Boston Children's Expansion Move Forward
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has recommended a planned $1 billion clinical building at Boston Children's Hospital be approved. In a statement released Friday, DPH says its staff has determined the proposed building "meets the regulatory requirements and includes many positive aspects to improve care for the children and families the hospital serves. "The agency's Public Health Council will vote on the project on Oct. 20. (Jolicoeur, 9/30)
Boston Globe: State Department Of Public Health Recommends Approval Of Children’s Hospital Expansion
Massachusetts health regulators said Friday that Boston Children’s Hospital should be allowed to go forward with a $1 billion expansion project, a recommendation that seeks to support one of the state’s premier hospitals without undermining efforts to control medical spending. The staff at the Department of Public Health recommended approval of the plan to build an 11-story building in Longwood and an eight-story outpatient clinic in Brookline. The expansion has sparked controversy over its potential to drive up health care costs. (Dayal McCluskey, 9/30)
California Healthline: California Governor Signs Flurry Of Health Laws
Gov. Jerry Brown signed off on a variety of bills in September that aim to protect patients and health care consumers. The following laws are set to go into effect in 2017. (Ibarra, 10/3)
Sacramento Bee: Sacramento-Area Clinics Offer Free Breast Cancer Screenings
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month starts Saturday, and clinics around Sacramento will be offering free breast cancer screenings to promote early detection of the disease. A mammography screening can help reduce the likelihood of death from breast cancer among women ages 40 to 74, especially for those older than 50, according to the National Cancer Institute. (Caiola, 9/30)
The Star Tribune: Legionnaire's Investigation Redoubled As 3 New Cases Arise
State health investigators are intensifying efforts to pinpoint the source of the Hopkins outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease even as three new cases were confirmed Friday. The outbreak has now sickened 23 people and led to one death. After weeks of testing and disease tracking, epidemiologists at the Minnesota Department of Health still have not found ground zero of the outbreak, but they are looking at a likely culprit. (Howatt, 10/1)
North Carolina Health News: Survey: N.C.’s Health Care System Ranks 40th In The U.S.
North Carolina has fallen behind in the quality of and access to its health care system, according to a new survey by the personal-finance website Wallet Hub. One of the state’s leading health economists said it’s not surprising given some of the economics of North Carolina and the fact that its residents have some of the highest rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease in the United States. (Hoban, 9/30)
Richmond Times Dispatch: Chesterfield Medical Practice Becomes Patient-Centered: 'This Isn't Just Change, It's Transformation'
Dr. Ted Abernathy has fundamentally changed the way his medical practice operates. Now, patients know the nurses and receptionists as well as their physicians. Day-to-day tasks are distributed among the staff to streamline operations, freeing up time that providers can then spend with patients. It took more than year for Abernathy’s practice, Midlothian-based Pediatric & Adolescent Health Partners, to achieve certification as a patient-centered medical home, a philosophy of care that calls for a coordination among providers and staff that is always focused on the patient. (Demeria, 10/1)
Boston Globe: Home Health Company, Executives Indicted For Health-Care Fraud
A Worcester-based home health agency and three people involved with the company have been indicted by a grand jury for allegedly defrauding the state’s Medicaid program of more than $800,000. Compassionate Homecare Inc. provided nursing and other services for low-income patients on the government program known here as MassHealth. The agency is accused of conducting “numerous fraudulent schemes” and billing the state for providing services to patients who didn’t need them, and for services that were never authorized by a doctor, in violation of rules. (Dayal McCluskey, 9/30)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Care For Caregivers: Report Finds They Are Often Ignored
About 12 years ago, Nancy Menchhofer’s husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at the age of 59. When she moved him to a care facility five years ago, it was the hardest thing she had ever done. Menchhofer visits him once a week and feeds him lunch. He doesn’t know who she is or why she’s there. (Munz, 10/2)
The Mercury News: Stanford Health Care Sued For Negligence In Patient Molestation Case
A 16-year-old boy who was sexually abused while under anesthesia at Stanford Health Care is suing the hospital system for negligence. The lawsuit, filed in San Mateo County Superior Court on Thursday, alleges that some Stanford employees did not report what they saw and hospital officials should have known the abuser had a “proclivity to have inappropriate sexual contact” because of past encounters. The suit also stated some Stanford leaders fostered a toxic environment by allowing a group of managers to band together and look out for each other, including the abuser, while retaliating against those who spoke out. (Lee, 9/30)
The Des Moines Register: Survey: School Sexual Assault Training Lacking
Almost without exception, when a student who’s being abused by a parent or caregiver goes to any school in Iowa, every teacher, counselor and building administrator knows what to do. But that's not necessarily the case if the same student reports she or he has been sexually assaulted by another student or staff member, a Des Moines Register survey of 25 school districts suggests. (Rood, 10/2)
The Detroit Free Press: Medical Marijuana Regulation Among Bills Made Into Law
ith the Legislature only in session for three weeks after its summer break, there weren't a whole lot of bills for Gov. Rick Snyder to sign. But he did sign long-stalled bills to regulate and tax the medical marijuana industry. The bills will allow communities to decide whether and where they want medical marijuana dispensaries located in their towns. The bills also provide for licensing fees, annual assessments and a 3% tax on retail gross income of dispensaries. (Gray, 10/1)
Boston Globe: Marijuana Dispensaries A Tough Sell In Many Communities
Four years after Massachusetts residents — including voters in Hopkinton, Seekonk, and Southborough — overwhelmingly approved legalizing marijuana for medical use, dispensaries have become the ultimate not-in-my-backyard symbol in many towns. Just seven dispensaries have cleared local hurdles and opened since voters backed medical marijuana in 2012. Yet the law put no restrictions on the number of dispensaries allowed after the first year. (Lazar, 10/3)
