Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Walmart, UnitedHealth Pair To Provide Preventive Care For Seniors
Reuters: Walmart, UnitedHealth To Offer Preventive Healthcare Program For Seniors
Walmart and healthcare giant UnitedHealth Group are planning to team up to provide preventive care for people aged 65 and up, and virtual healthcare services for all age groups, the companies said on Wednesday. (McLymore, 9/7)
Modern Healthcare: UnitedHealth, Walmart In Medicare Advantage Deal
UnitedHealth Group subsidiary Optum's data and analytics tools will guide Walmart Health clinicians to provide value-based care for Medicare beneficiaries, according to the companies. The initiative will begin in January at 15 Walmart Health locations in Florida and Georgia before expanding elsewhere, and the partners project it eventually will serve hundreds of thousands of patients. The companies also will market a co-branded Medicare Advantage plan in Georgia and Walmart Health Virtual Care will be in-network for some UnitedHealthcare commercial members in January. (Berryman, 9/7)
In news about UnitedHealthcare —
Star Tribune: UnitedHealthcare Plans To Start Selling Obamacare Coverage Again In Missouri
UnitedHealthcare is seeking regulatory approval to begin selling coverage to individuals in Missouri and three other states in 2023, expanding the insurer’s return to a market it largely abandoned five years ago. (Snowbeck, 9/7)
In other health care industry news —
The Boston Globe: Hospitals Scale Back Spending As Multimillion Dollar Losses Mount
Facing multimillion dollar operating losses in the most recent quarter, several midsized and small Massachusetts hospitals and systems have begun intense efforts to scale back spending, as they grapple with the aftermath of COVID. (Bartlett, 9/7)
Montana Free Press: Study Finds Montana Underpays Medicaid Providers By Tens Of Millions
For Dave Eaton, hiring enough staff to help developmentally disabled clients in Livingston with day-to-day tasks is a constant, brutal cycle. Out of every 10 people who come to work at Counterpoint Inc., the small nonprofit he leads, Eaton estimates three leave within a year. Eaton, the organization’s longtime executive director, attributes the high turnover to one key factor: finding people who want to work a tough job for less than $16 an hour isn’t easy. (Silvers, 9/7)
Stat: A New Report Brings Telehealth Fraud Risk Into Focus
Washington’s attempts to permanently lock in telehealth coverage have been hobbled by a fear that virtual care could drive up Medicare fraud and spending. But a new watchdog report offers early evidence that only a small portion of providers are billing for virtual care in a potentially fraudulent way, suggesting that targeted interventions could crack down on abuse. (Ravindranath, 9/8)
KHN: Patient Satisfaction Surveys Earn A Zero On Tracking Whether Hospitals Deliver Culturally Competent Care
Each day, thousands of patients get a call or letter after being discharged from U.S. hospitals. How did their stay go? How clean and quiet was the room? How often did nurses and doctors treat them with courtesy and respect? The questions focus on what might be termed the standard customer satisfaction aspects of a medical stay, as hospitals increasingly view patients as consumers who can take their business elsewhere. But other crucial questions are absent from these ubiquitous surveys, whose results influence how much hospitals get paid by insurers: They do not poll patients on whether they’ve experienced discrimination during their treatment, a common complaint of diverse patient populations. Likewise, they fail to ask diverse groups of patients whether they’ve received culturally competent care. And some researchers say that’s a major oversight. (Bichell, 9/8)
