‘Teamwork Environment’ Helped Prepare Rural Hospitals For COVID-19

Modern Healthcare: Rural Hospitals' Broad Experience Helps In COVID-19 Fight
Margaret Mary Health, a 25-bed hospital in Batesville, Indiana, was hit by COVID-19 in mid-March, before even the larger cities nearby like Cincinnati got a major influx of patients. "It's a new disease, and all of a sudden it's just flooding us," said Tim Putnam, president and CEO of Margaret Mary Health. "People are struggling to breathe."The hospital that normally has 15 patients at a time had as many as 28 patients at one point and went from being 80% outpatient to 80% inpatient, Putnam said. They had to purchase seven more ventilators to double their capacity to intubate patients. (Christ, 8/13)

Modern Healthcare: Behavioral Health Patients Spur 57% Of Commercial Healthcare Spending
Employers and other commercial payers spend little on behavioral health treatment, even though people with behavioral health conditions tend to have higher healthcare costs than those who don't, according to a new study. Researchers from the consulting firm Milliman analyzed commercial insurance claims for 21 million people. They found that the 27% of people who had a behavioral health condition in addition to other medical problems accounted for 57% of total annual healthcare costs across the entire study population. (Livington, 8/13)

Star-Tribune: County Commission Votes To Sell Wyoming Medical Center To Banner Health 
The $200 million deal to sell Wyoming Medical Center’s assets to Banner Health was approved Thursday by the Natrona County Commission, clearing the way for the facility to become a part of Banner’s growing system. The commission’s five members all voted unanimously, after the county’s separate hospital board also gave its approval. The deal will see $120 million go to the county’s coffers, plus roughly $40 million dispatched to the hospital’s reinforced foundation. Banner will also absorb $50 million in debt left over from WMC construction and the purchase of Mountain View Regional two years ago. (Nimmo, 8/13)

Stat: Teladoc Rival MDLive Is Preparing To Go Public Next Year
On the heels of Teladoc’s landscape-shifting deal to buy Livongo, telemedicine rival MDLive is setting its sights on a public offering early next year, the company’s chief executive officer told STAT. The offering, which is still in the early stages, would take place some time in January or February of next year, according to CEO Charles Jones. (Brodwin, 8/13)

In updates about COVID data reporting —

CNN: US Government Health Advisers Say Hospitals Are 'Scrambling' After Trump Administration's 'Abrupt' Change To Covid-19 Data Reporting Requirements 
In a letter, public health advisers to the US government said they are "extremely concerned" and "troubled" by the Trump administration's decision to change how hospitals report Covid-19 data. The letter, dated July 31, described hospitals as "scrambling" to determine how to meet new daily Covid-19 reporting requirements to the US Department of Health and Human Services, and said retiring the older system jeopardized data integrity. (Christensen, 8/14)

Kaiser Health News: COVID Data Failures Create Pressure For Public Health System Overhaul
After terrorists slammed a plane into the Pentagon on 9/11, ambulances rushed scores of the injured to community hospitals, but only three of the patients were taken to specialized trauma wards. The reason: The hospitals and ambulances had no real-time information-sharing system. Nineteen years later, there is still no national data network that enables the health system to respond effectively to disasters and disease outbreaks. Many doctors and nurses must fill out paper forms on COVID-19 cases and available beds and fax them to public health agencies, causing critical delays in care and hampering the effort to track and block the spread of the coronavirus. (Meyer, 8/14)

Bangor Daily News: What The CDC Data Doesn’t Tell Us When It Comes To Coronavirus And Race
Coronavirus has infected Black Mainers at more than 10 times the rate of their white counterparts — a racial disparity that’s more pronounced here than anywhere in the U.S. But now state officials are researching ways to disaggregate health data among racial subpopulations, acknowledging various health outcomes between persons of color which had previously been grouped together for data purposes. (Schroeder, 8/14)