Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
To Cut Costs, Hospital Systems Are Selling Non-Core Businesses
Modern Healthcare: Hospital Portfolios Shrink As Systems Sell Non-Essential Businesses
Hospital systems are returning to their roots as they look to cut costs and simplify operations. Over the past two decades, many health systems have acquired long-term care, rehabilitation, home health, nursing home and hospice businesses, seeking to keep patients within their system. Owning these services allowed providers to generate extra revenue while closely overseeing care transitions and quality. (Kacik, 8/28)
Bloomberg: University Of Oregon’s Hometown Eugene Poised To Lose Only Hospital
Oregon’s third-largest city is about to lose its only hospital, illustrating the fallout of pressured health-care systems across the country. Operator PeaceHealth announced last week its plan to shutter University District hospital because of underutilization. The hospital in Eugene, which is home to the University of Oregon, loses an average of $2 million a month, PeaceHealth, a nonprofit Catholic health system, said in a press release. The departure will leave roughly 23,000 college students without an emergency room in town. (Coleman-Lochner, 8/28)
In other health industry updates —
Modern Healthcare: Cigna To Exit Kansas, Missouri Health Insurance Exchanges In 2024
Cigna will halt health insurance exchange sales in Kansas and Missouri while expanding its presence in North Carolina for the 2024 plan year, the company announced Monday. The insurer will participate in the health insurance exchange marketplace in 350 counties across 14 states for next year, including 15 additional counties in North Carolina, a net decrease of 13 counties compared with this year. Cigna previously outlined plans to sell exchange policies in 20 states by 2025. (Tepper, 8/28)
Modern Healthcare: Bon Secours Mercy Sues Anthem For Alleged $93M In Unpaid Claims
Bon Secours Mercy Health sued Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield on Monday, alleging that the insurer owes the health system nearly $100 million in unpaid, reduced and denied claims for patient care provided in Virginia. ... Cincinnati-based Bon Secours Mercy filed the suit in the Circuit Court of Henrico County. It seeks the damages of at least $93 million and an injunction that would stop “Anthem’s slow pay and systemic, unfair claims practices,” according to the suit. (Kacik, 8/28)
Modern Healthcare: CommonSpirit, Penn Medicine Investigate Racial Bias In Healthcare
Healthcare providers and researchers have combed through clinical guidelines and decision-support tools to uncover debunked racial biases that contribute to inequity and disparities in care. Expunging those problematic elements from electronic health records systems, however, has proven to be vexing. The task is technically simple. Health systems such as Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health and Philadelphia-based Penn Medicine are slowly working with EHR vendors, medical societies and other healthcare organizations to identify and fix the problem. (Hartnett, 8/28)
Modern Healthcare: Providence Still Recovering After Fallout From Hoag Split
Providence Health & Services is still working to recover from last year's multibillion-dollar losses. The Renton, Washington-based system on Monday reported a net loss of $232 million in the first half of 2023, compared with a loss of $5.24 billion in the year-ago period. Providence did not report the size of its second-quarter net loss but a spokesperson said it totaled $115 million. The system reported a net loss of $117 million in the first quarter. (Hudson, 8/28)
The Baltimore Sun: Expansion Planned To Hopkins’ Bloomberg School Of Public Health; Groundbreaking Slated For 2024
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health plans to expand into a new building to accommodate its growth. Construction is slated to start early next year on a 250,000-square-foot, seven-story building on existing Johns Hopkins property at the corner of McElderry and Washington streets, next to Bloomberg School’s main building at 615 N. Wolfe Street, Johns Hopkins said in a news release. (Roberts, 8/28)
Crain's New York Business: Telehealth Pivots To Hybrid To Treat Youth Mental Health Crisis
Amid the pandemic and a behavioral workforce shortage, the growing need for adolescent mental healthcare has created opportunities for telemedicine startups to provide specialized services to children and teens. But in an unstable funding environment for telemedicine, emerging companies in the New York City area say they’ve had to develop solutions that address the complexity of the youth mental health crisis—such as combining virtual care with in-person models and creating a supply of clinicians to mitigate the behavioral health workforce shortage. (D'Ambrosio, 8/28)
KFF Health News: She Paid Her Husband’s Hospital Bill. A Year After His Death, They Wanted More Money
Last summer, Eloise Reynolds paid the bill for her husband’s final stay in the hospital. In February 2022, doctors said that Kent, her husband of 33 years, was too weak for the routine chemotherapy that had kept his colon cancer at bay since 2018. He was admitted to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, not far from their home in Olivette, Missouri. Doctors discovered a partial blockage of his bowel, Reynolds said, but she remained hopeful that his treatment would soon resume. (Liss, 8/29)
