Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
The Only Hospital In Eugene, Oregon (Pop. 178,000) To Close
AP: PeaceHealth To Shutter Only Hospital In Eugene, Oregon; Nurse's Union Calls It 'Disastrous'
PeaceHealth announced this week it is closing the only hospital in Eugene, Oregon, and moving services 6 miles to its Springfield location. PeaceHealth said Tuesday the hospital serving the city of about 178,000 people is underutilized, the Register-Guard reported. The PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center University District in Eugene, which first opened in 1936, employs hundreds of nurses, health care professionals and staff. (8/23)
The Boston Globe: UMass Memorial Still Closing Leominster Hospital Maternity Unit
UMass Memorial Health is pushing forward with the closure of maternity services at Leominster hospital, saying in a letter to state officials that it is developing a transportation plan to accommodate women who will have to give birth elsewhere than the local hospital. (Bartlett, 8/23)
Modern Healthcare: Nursing Homes At Risk As More Companies File Bankruptcy
High labor costs, rising interest rates and looming federal staffing minimums are prompting more nursing homes and senior living operators to file for bankruptcy. The two kinds of care providers accounted for half of the 40 filings for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in healthcare through the first half of the year, according to Gibbins Advisors, a healthcare advisory and restructuring consultancy. (Eastabrook, 8/23)
Modern Healthcare: Optum Layoffs Executed In Texas, West Virginia
UnitedHealth Group is laying off Optum employees as it restructures its healthcare service subsidiary. The healthcare conglomerate cut jobs at MedExpress urgent care clinics and at WellMed Medical Group this month, the company confirmed, although it would not disclose how many employees were laid off or if Optum workers in other locations have been or will be let go. (Tepper, 8/23)
In other health care industry news —
Axios: Medicare Gets Serious On Hospice Fraud
After a year of scrutinizing fraud in the hospice industry, Medicare dropped the hammer this week: The agency warned nearly 400 hospices are at risk of being bounced from the program if they can't prove they're a legitimate enterprise. (Goldman, 8/24)
Modern Healthcare: Allina Health Rescinds Patient Debt Policy Amid Investigation
Allina Health said Wednesday it rescinded a policy that denied non-urgent treatment to patients with unpaid medical bills. The announcement follows reporting in June by The New York Times that revealed the Minneapolis-based nonprofit system prevented patients with at least $4,500 of unpaid debt from booking an appointment at its 90 outpatient clinics. Last week, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) said his office is investigating Allina’s billing practices. (Kacik, 8/23)
Modern Healthcare: Oak Street, Strive Health Launch Kidney Care Partnership
CVS Health-backed primary care provider Oak Street Health struck a multiyear deal with Strive Health to offer care focused on patients with chronic or end-stage kidney disease. With the partnership, the primary care provider's doctors can refer patients to Strive, whose nurses, nurse practitioners and other staff members offer care virtually, in-home and at partner nephrology offices. Strive began rolling out the services to Oak Street's 21-state footprint in 2022's fourth quarter and plans to complete the rollout by the end of this year, said Will Stokes, Strive's co-founder and chief strategy officer. (Hudson, 8/23)
The Boston Globe: Brown And Mass General Doctors Use AI To Simplify Medical Forms
It’s something all future doctors learn in medical school: how to communicate informed consent to patients. Yet medical forms are littered with impenetrable jargon, making it hard for lay people to understand exactly what they’re signing up for. Dr. Rohaid Ali, a neurosurgery resident at Brown University in Providence grew fed up with the forms and enlisted ChatGPT, a language model-based chatbot developed by OpenAI, to help translate them into regular English. (Scales, 8/23)
Stat: Two Tragic Stories Show How Hard It Is To Be A Mother In Medicine
In Igbo-Nigerian culture, new moms receive exquisite care from their own mothers, mothers-in-law, or surrogate mothers for the first few months postpartum. After each of my daughters was born, I was blessed to participate in this tradition, called omugwo, which allowed me to be nurtured by the mothers who came before me. They cooked and cleaned. Massaged my belly and taught me how to breastfeed. They took care of my newborn overnight. These women were my village. This nurturing helped me recover from childbirth and grow into my own role as a mother. (Okwerekwu, 8/24)
In military news —
Military.com: 32,000 Veterans Have VA Disability Claims Decisions Delayed By Technical Glitch
Roughly 32,000 veterans are receiving letters this month notifying them that their disability claims submitted through the VA.gov website weren't processed, with the error dating back to 2018 for some. A Department of Veterans Affairs official told Military.com Monday that the letters were going to all veterans “impacted by the issue,” which was described as a "technical issue" that resulted in the claims not being automatically routed for processing. (Kime, 8/23)
