Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
State Highlights: Despite Connecticut’s Wealth Many Residents Struggle With Health Care Access; Higher Deductibles Overshadowed By Maryland's Premium Rate Success
The CT Mirror: In A State Of Great Wealth, All The Health Care Some Can Afford
Despite her current coverage, however, Grossman is one of tens of thousands of Connecticut residents whose access to health care is hanging by a thread, despite Connecticut’s tremendous wealth and strong embrace of the federal Affordable Care Act, health care advocates say. Among the challenges is that HUSKY, which covers more than 800,000 low-income state residents, could face steep cuts — either because of Connecticut’s continued struggles with huge budget deficits, or because Congressional leaders succeed in changing how Medicaid is funded. (Phaneuf, 10/15)
The Baltimore Sun: As Maryland Leaders Celebrate Lower Health Insurance Rates, They Don't Mention Rising Deductibles
For weeks, Maryland leaders have been touting a bipartisan deal that will allow the state’s residents to pay lower premiums to buy health insurance — the first such rate reductions in years. The deal, made by Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, Maryland House of Delegates Speaker Michael Busch and Senate President Thomas V. “Mike” Miller, created a reinsurance program that uses taxpayer dollars to help insurers cover the costs of expensive health care claims — and led to a recently announced reduction of premiums of up to 17 percent. (Broadwater, 10/13)
Chicago Tribune: Frustrated With Health Insurance Costs, Some Turn To Religious Plans: 'For Us It's Been A Godsend'
The Barazza family belongs to a health care sharing ministry, a religious nonprofit in which members pay for each other’s health care needs. Compared with traditional health insurance premiums, ministries’ monthly member costs are often much lower. But unlike traditional insurance, members must often commit to religious principles. The ministries generally won’t pay for services that don’t align with those principles, such as abortion and substance abuse treatment, and they often limit coverage of pre-existing conditions and prescriptions. (Schencker, 10/14)
San Francisco Chronicle: Suit Against Sutter Spawns Fight With Bay Area Hospitals Over Trade Secrets
In Silicon Valley, trade secrets are often thought of as a coveted technology or a patent for a lucrative device. But for hospitals, it is their confidential contracts with health insurance companies, which determine how they get paid, that they guard with their life. (Ho, 10/14)
New Hampshire Union Leader: Losing As Much As $10K Per Baby Born, Another NH Hospital No Longer Delivers
It cost Lakes Region General Hospital $10,000 in staff and equipment for every healthy baby delivered in its labor ward. Well over half of the mothers who gave birth at the hospital were Medicaid recipients, and the federal program only reimbursed LRGH $5,000 for each delivery, hospital president Kevin Donovan said. And fewer babies are being born in the lakes region — in all of New Hampshire, compared to past years — with fewer obstetricians to deliver them. (Feathers, 10/14)
WBUR: Nurses Are Split On Staffing Ratio Ballot Question, WBUR Poll Finds
A WBUR poll of 500 registered nurses shows 48 percent plan to vote for the ballot question that would establish nurse-to-patient ratios in state law, and 45 percent say they'll vote against the measure. Seven percent are undecided. ...Why the split? Koczela says the answer is in the range of experiences among nurses in Massachusetts. (Bebinger, 10/15)
State House News Service: Mental Health Study Could Address ‘Structural Disaster,’ Joe Kennedy III Says
US Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III wants to put a dollar figure on the amount the United States spends as a result of limited access to mental and behavioral health services, a tally of incarceration and addiction-fighting costs he says will help make the case that the money would be better spent addressing the root issue of mental health. ... Kennedy said that 20 percent of Americans will battle with a mental or behavioral health issue in their lifetime and the National Alliance on Mental Health said serious mental illness costs Americans $193.2 billion in lost earnings each year. (Young, 10/13)
California Healthline: Children’s Hospitals Again Cry For Help From Voters, But Are They Really Hurting?
Back in 2004, California’s children’s hospitals asked voters to approve a $750 million bond measure to help fund construction and new medical equipment. In 2008, they asked for $980 million more. Now they’re hoping voters will agree on Nov. 6 to cough up an additional $1.5 billion. The state’s 13 children’s hospitals treat California’s sickest kids — including those with leukemia, sickle cell disease, rare cancers and cystic fibrosis — so approving their fund-raising requests is an easy “yes” for many voters. (Ibarra, 10/12)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: ProHealth Care's New Mukwonago Hospital Continues Growth Of Campus
ProHealth Care unveiled design plans Friday, Oct. 12, for a new $55 million hospital in Mukwonago that depict a three-story glass façade. The designs for the hospital will come before the village of Mukwonago Plan Commission at an upcoming meeting. (Kuhagen, 10/12)
The Times-Picayune: Program Offers Rides To Cancer Patients To, From Treatment
The ACS conducted a national survey of hospital social workers who reported that about 125,000 cancer patients require transportation services each year to keep up to date with their treatment appointments. To address the need, the organization launched the Road to Recovery Volunteer Program to recruit drivers able to provide rides to and from patients' cancer-related medical appointments. (Clark, 10/14)
Austin American-Statesman: Pension Checks Delayed For Hundreds Of Recently Retired Texas Teachers
One-third of recently retired Texas teachers were delayed in receiving their first pension checks after the state transitioned to a new pension processing system. In previous years, the Teacher Retirement System of Texas would have sent out almost all checks by Sept. 1 to teachers who had retired over the summer — about 20,000 annually. (Chang, 10/12)
Austin American-Statesman: Despite Legal Uncertainty, Sales Of Cannabis Extract Booming In Texas
Stores selling CBD – a nonpsychoactive component of marijuana and hemp – have been popping up statewide, almost as if Texas recently enacted a sweeping medical cannabis program. It hasn’t. The boom in retail sales of products containing CBD, or cannabidiol, has instead been taking place in a legal gray zone, with law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and some pro-cannabis activists disagreeing among themselves as to whether it is lawful in Texas. (Sechler, 10/12)
