State Highlights: In Mass., Judge Rejects Partners’ Hospital Acquisition Deal; Iowa Physician Assistants Seek To Have Oversight Rule Eased
A selection of health policy stories from Massachusetts, Iowa, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, New York, Kansas and Maryland.
WBUR:
Judge Rejects Partners Deal To Acquire 3 Hospitals
The state health care market is reverberating with the aftershocks of a major court decision Thursday which rejected a deal that would have let Partners HealthCare, the state’s largest hospital network, acquire three more hospitals. (Bebinger, 1/29)
The Boston Globe:
Partners’ Deal To Acquire Three Hospitals Rejected
A Superior Court judge on Thursday dealt a devastating blow to Partners HealthCare’s plans to expand its dominance across Eastern Massachusetts, rejecting a controversial deal that would have allowed Partners to acquire three community hospitals and add hundreds of doctors to its network. (McCluskey and Weisman, 1/29)
The Des Moines Register:
Physician Assistants Want Oversight Rule Eased
Ed Friedmann is the top health care provider on most days in this Dallas County town of 876 people, where he has worked for 29 years as a physician assistant. He owns his red-brick clinic, which once was a small hospital but hasn’t had a full-time physician in decades. He can prescribe most medications. He can stitch up a cut leg or remove a wayward fish hook from a finger. Friedmann’s work is overseen by a physician 19 miles away in Dallas Center. A state regulation requires the doctor to travel to the Redfield clinic at least every other week to go over cases. But Friedmann is helping lead an effort to get rid of the state requirement that such reviews be done in person. (Leys, 1/29)
The Associated Press:
Mississippi Uses New Program For Stroke/Trauma Patients
State health officials say Mississippi is now the first in the nation to have a third statewide system of care in place to help save the lives of trauma and stroke victims. Hospitals must have 24/7 CT capability and a specific drug available to break up blood clots, and a neurologist available 24/7. (1/30)
Georgia Health News:
Is Tenet Looking For Deal On Its Georgia Hospitals?
State hospital industry officials say Tenet Health is seeking a buyer or a partner for its five Georgia hospitals. The five hospitals are all in greater metro Atlanta, and they include 460-bed Atlanta Medical Center and 202-bed North Fulton Hospital in Roswell. (Miller, 1/29)
Health News Florida:
Tampa-area Hospitals Face $151M Cut
Hillsborough County hospitals are scheduled to lose more than $151 million a year in funds for care of the uninsured beginning June 30, according to a report released Thursday. Statewide, the coming annual loss will be $2.1 billion, estimates co-author Charlotte Cassel. The Tampa Bay area report strongly urges that Florida accept the federal funds provided through the Affordable Care Act for states that expand Medicaid expansion to people under the poverty level who are not covered now. That includes close to 1 million uninsured Floridians. (Gentry, 1/29)
The New York Times:
As New York Moves People With Developmental Disabilities To Group Homes, Some Families Struggle
For John Cosentino, 50, an intellectually disabled adult with profound autism and self-injurious behavior who does not speak, this routine has been his refuge. He has lived at the sprawling, state-run center in East New York off the Belt Parkway since he was a teenager. Sometime this year, however, his routine will abruptly end, and he, like the other remaining residents of the institution, will probably enter a group home. (Robbins, 1/29)
The Kansas Health Institute News Service:
Mental Health Providers Wary Of Effort To Regulate Use Of Behavioral Health Drugs
The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services is attempting to head off opposition to a bill being crafted to allow the state to regulate the use of prescription mental health drugs. Kansas Mental Health Coalition made it clear they would likely continue to oppose any proposal aimed at limiting Medicaid patients’ access to brand-name antipsychotic drugs. (Ranney, 1/29)
The Kansas Health Institute's News Service:
Kansas Pushes For Savings Accounts For Children With Disabilities
On a day when Congressman Kevin Yoder testified before a Kansas House committee, it was a 15-year-old Olathe South High School freshman who stole the show. Rachel Mast, who has Down syndrome, ebulliently encouraged the Children and Seniors Committee to approve a bill to allow tax-exempt savings accounts for Kansas children with disabilities that would not jeopardize their Medicaid benefits. Yoder said with federal bill’s passage in December Kansas should now act quickly to become the first state to take advantage of it. (Marso, 1/29)
The Kansas Health Institute's News Service:
Legislators Consider Allowing Access To Drugs In Early Testing Phase
Legislators heard emotional testimony Thursday from an Emporia woman about a bill to allow access to drugs in preliminary federal testing. They also heard questions about whether the “Right to Try” legislation is sound policy or an ideological quest that will give terminal patients false hope. Versions of “Right to Try” have passed in Colorado, Arizona, Michigan, Missouri and Louisiana. (Marso, 1/29)
The Baltimore Sun:
After Delay, Hogan To Implement Regulation Banning LGBT Discrimination
Gov. Larry Hogan will allow implementation of three health care regulations his administration had previously flagged for further review, including one that bans discrimination against Medicaid patients based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Hogan's withholding of the regulation, which also prevents discrimination based on religious affiliation, had riled advocates for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. (Rector, 1/29)
