The headline on 20 May 2020
CMS issued guidance this week to aid nursing homes in safely reopening. Officials warn that these facilities should be “among the last to reopen.
UnitedHealth Group led promising research on the use of ACE inhibitors to treat high-risk patients with COVID-19, and now they’re launching a clinical trial to dig into the findings further.
Humana is expanding its care coordination options for patients with kidney disease in partnership with Healthmap Solutions in Florida.
CMS, state Medicaid programs, and commercial payers have made sweeping changes to telehealth reimbursement policies amid COVID.
Following the passage of a $3 trillion stimulus bill by the U.S. House last week, several GOP senators say they’d prefer to wait to see the impact of previous stimulus packages or explore other fixes such as liability protections for providers than take up more spending measures.
Six southern states ranked among those where doctors earned the most on average, according to Medscape’s latest Physician Compensation Report.
The headline on 19 May 2020
Where are doctors making the most money on average? It might surprise you. Read the findings from Medscape’s 10th Annual Physician Compensation Report.
AMGA said its endorsing legislation (H.R. 6837 and S. 3750) that aims to revive a Medicare loan program for providers as medical practices have been hit hard financially from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The traditional waiting room experience might change due to COVID-19. Case in point: Banner Medical Group practices across Arizona and several other states are rolling out virtual waiting rooms.
Mayo Clinic, CommonSpirit Health and Mass General Brigham gave their first glimpse into how COVID-19 is impacting their finances.
States could face a major budget crisis as Medicaid enrollment goes up and tax revenue goes down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As nursing homes prepare to reopen, they should not relax restrictions until all residents and staff have received results from a baseline test indicating they do not have COVID-19, the Trump administration said in new guidance released Monday.
Health IT giant Cerner started moving employees back to its Kansas City-based offices Monday.
Premera Blue Cross is partnering with 98point6 to launch a new virtual primary care health plan. Find out why they say COVID-19 is making the case for the initiative.
As new serology tests for COVDI-19 rapidly come to the market, the AMA cautioned physicians about using them.
The headline on 18 May 2020
As new serology tests for COVID-19 rapidly come to the market, the AMA cautioned physicians about using them. Read more about that, plus my experience getting an antibody test for myself.
Sutter Health said in a notice to bondholders Thursday it suffered a massive operating loss of $168 million in April as the COVID-19 pandemic upended the system’s finances.
As Medicaid rolls swell, states are facing a potential growth crisis due to the pandemic. Robert King has more.
A new study from J.D. Power highlights a key issue for commercial plan members that the novel coronavirus is only making worse: communication.
In its first quarter as a public company, One Medical reported wider-than-expected quarterly losses while data analytics company Health Catalyst also saw its quarterly loss in Q1 expand to $17.5 million.
The headline on 15 May 2020
The Trump administration is moving to replenish a national stockpile of medical supplies to prepare for a potential second surge of COVID-19 or another respiratory illness, including adding critical care drugs.
A CVS Health subsidiary will pay $15.3 million to settle allegations that it improperly dispensed opioids and other controlled substances.
Phoenix-based Banner Health is rethinking the traditional waiting room experience. Banner Health is rolling out virtual waiting rooms across 300 clinics in an effort to reimagine the care delivery experience in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
CVS subsidiary Omnicare will pay $15 million to settle a federal case that alleges the company improperly dispensed opioids and other controlled substances.
Amazon-led healthcare company Haven is on the hunt for a new CEO now that Atul Gawande has stepped down.
The headline on 14 May 2020
Humana released a report examining its employee’s well-being in 2019, and executives say that work offers lessons in helping workers weather COVID-19.
Aetna said it will extend its cost-sharing waivers for COVID-19 care and treatment through the end of September.
With mounting evidence that COVID-19’s symptoms extend far beyond respiratory troubles, Mount Sinai Health System is launching a new center for post-COVID care for post-COVID care to help patients — and study the long-term impacts of the virus.
U.S. healthcare workers on the frontlines fighting COVID-19 are among the highest paid in the world compared with other major nations, a new study found.
Payer and provider groups are urging the Supreme Court to keep the ACA intact in a series of briefs filed on Wednesday evening. Payer and provider groups are both imploring the Supreme Court to defeat a lawsuit that wants to overturn the ACA, which they say would wreak havoc on the healthcare system.
Kaiser Permanente just teamed up with an unlikely ally: the popular esports team Cloud 9.
Which specialists earn the most money? Here’s a look at Medscape’s annual list of the top salaries for docs.
The CDC plans to alert doctors to report cases of a rare life-threatening inflammatory syndrome associated with COVID-19 in children, Reuters reported.
The headline on 13 May 2020
Addiction treatment startup Eleanor Health is teaming up with Horizon BCBSNJ to expand the reach of its value-based model.
Since the pandemic began, United Health Group has paid out nearly $24 million to help employees who need emergency child care for kids aged 12 and under.
UnitedHealthcare has filed to offer coverage on Maryland’s ACA exchange next year, signaling a willingness to expand its reach in the marketplace despite largely pulling out previously.
The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that more than 20 million newly unemployed people could qualify for subsidies to purchase ACA plans.
Health startups that focus on virtual care and direct-to-consumer healthcare services are getting an injection of cash from investors amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Epic CEO Judy Faulkner said during an interview on CNBC Tuesday that the EHR giant is working on “immunity passport” technology.
The headline on 12 May 2020
UnitedHealth Group quickly stood up a program to help its workers cover the cost of emergency childcare due to COVID-19.
U.S. payers feel they’re likely to make it through COVID-19 and largely expect to be operating at about 90% capacity on average, according to a new survey. A new survey suggests U.S. payers are more confident than some of their global peers in how well they’ll weather the storm of the pandemic.
CMS officials released proposed changes for acute care and long term care hospitals on Monday, including an approximately 1.6% increase to inpatient hospital stay payments. The Trump administration proposed changes for acute care and long-term care hospitals Monday, including an approximately 1.6% increase to inpatient hospital stay payments.
Primary care physicians are concerned delayed healthcare likely due, in large part, to stay-at-home restrictions will lead to serious and sometimes fatal repercussions for patients over time.
Drug-company sales representatives, grounded by the coronavirus pandemic, have overhauled their sales pitch to doctors by blasting out emails and hosting video calls to offer new treatments for a variety of ailments, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Atul Gawande is looking to step down as chief executive and take on a less operational role as chairman of Haven, the health care venture backed by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The headline on 11 May 2020
CVS has adapted its digital strategies for specialty pharmacy due to the pandemic. Here’s how they’re doing it.
Speaking of evolving approaches to digital health, employers are also rethinking their health and wellness benefits due to COVID-19, a new survey shows.
April was a tough month for the entire U.S. economy and healthcare was no exception. The healthcare industry bled 1.4 million jobs in April.
CommonSpirit Health recently released a new toolkit for guiding its 137 hospitals through the process of restarting elective surgeries.
As experts have been warning about COVID-related cyberthreats for weeks, it appears hackers found an especially attractive target in Gilead Sciences, the maker of the first therapy to treat COVID-19.
