VA Hospitals Having Difficulty Wooing Doctors, Nurses Amid Federal Turmoil
Internal documents examined by ProPublica show nearly 4 in 10 of the approximately 2,000 doctors offered jobs from January through March turned them down — quadruple the rate during the same period last year — because the doctors worried the jobs weren't stable.
ProPublica:
Doctors And Nurses Reject VA Jobs Under Trump
Veterans hospitals are struggling to replace hundreds of doctors and nurses who have left the health care system this year as the Trump administration pursues its pledge to simultaneously slash Department of Veterans Affairs staff and improve care. Many job applicants are turning down offers, worried that the positions are not stable and uneasy with the overall direction of the agency, according to internal documents examined by ProPublica. The records show nearly 4 in 10 of the roughly 2,000 doctors offered jobs from January through March of this year turned them down. That is quadruple the rate of doctors rejecting offers during the same time period last year. (Armstrong, Umansky and Coleman, 8/8)
The War Horse:
Military Service Members Struggle With Eating Disorders, Risk Careers
Leah Stiles kept a dark secret tucked in a pocket of her Navy uniform, something she knew could get her booted from the service. In the end, it did. In 2017, her ship, the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush, was at war as part of a strike group that attacked Islamic State forces in Syria and Iraq. For 15 years in uniform, she’d been at war with an eating disorder — a constant urge to purge her meals. She kept a toothbrush in her pocket to gag. (Wiehe, 8/8)
Other news from the health industry —
Stat:
UnitedHealth Medicare Advantage Studies Raise Bias Concerns
In every way, a study published this January in a major medical journal was a win for UnitedHealth Group. It showed that UnitedHealth’s preferred approach to covering Medicare patients, an especially profitable line of business, was producing higher-quality care for older Americans than the standard method. But a closer inspection reveals reasons to distrust the narrative. (Ross, Herman, Bannow and Lawrence, 8/11)
KFF Health News:
Why Young Americans Dread Turning 26: Health Insurance Chaos
Amid the challenges of adulthood, one rite of passage is unique to the United States: the need to find your own health insurance by the time you turn 26. That is the age at which the Affordable Care Act declares that young adults generally must get off their family’s plan and figure out their coverage themselves. When the ACA was voted into law in 2010, what’s known as its dependent coverage expansion was immediately effective, guaranteeing health insurance to millions of young Americans up to age 26 who would otherwise not have had coverage. But for years, Republicans have whittled away at the infrastructure of the original ACA. The erosion of the law has now created an “insurance cliff” for Americans who are turning 26 and don’t have a job that provides medical coverage. (Rosenthal and Norman, 8/11)
KFF Health News:
A Guide To Finding Insurance At 26
Young adults looking for health insurance will likely benefit from talking with so-called navigators who work for the online marketplaces. But if you want to go it alone, here are some tips about shopping for a plan, based on the advice of policy experts and people who have spent hundreds of hours helping others navigate this unwieldy set-up. Buckle up. (Rosenthal, 8/11)
The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer:
Bladder Testing Gets A Dignified Makeover, Thanks To Cleveland Clinic-Backed Tech
Margot Damaser has long been fascinated by bladders, urine and figuring out what’s wrong when a person can’t tinkle properly. Decades ago, the associate professor of biomedical engineering at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine wondered if there was a way to replace a common, though cumbersome, bladder-function test that requires patients to urinate in front of strangers while wired up to a monitor. (Washington, 8/11)
St. Louis Public Radio:
New AI Software To Help Assess Breast Cancer Risk
Breast cancer may become easier to detect before it even develops with the help of new AI-based software created in St. Louis. Prognosia Breast, which was developed by a team of Washington University School of Medicine researchers, analyzes mammograms to determine a person’s risk of developing breast cancer within five years. The technology recently cleared a major hurdle earning a breakthrough device designation from the Food and Drug Administration. (Lewis-Thompson, 8/11)
Newsweek:
Nationwide Soap Recall Issued Over Contamination Linked To Sepsis
DermaRite Industries has voluntarily recalled specific lots of its products nationwide due to contamination with Burkholderia cepacia, a bacterium that can cause serious infections in immunocompromised individuals. The products include DermaKleen, Dermasarra, Kleenfoam, and Perigiene items. The products are commonly used in health care settings for handwashing and skin care. (Marsden, 8/10)
