News Briefs
HHS Offers 75,000 Pages in Defense of Nursing Home Staffing Mandate
The Department of Health and Human Services filed more than 75,000 pages of rule-making records with a federal court, beginning its formal defense of its controversial nursing home staffing mandate. The submission of the administrative record is the first significant advance in the case since the American Health Care Association brought its challenge to the minimum staffing standard in late May.
(Source: McKnight's Long-Term Care News, 2024-09-15)
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80 Hospitals Sue HHS Over Disproportionate Share Payments
Eighty hospitals have sued the Department of Health and Human Services over disproportionate share hospital payments that include calculations for Medicare Advantage. The civil action stems from how the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services determines inpatient days in calculations for disproportionate share hospital payments for providers that serve vulnerable populations.
(Source: Healthcare Finance News, 2024-09-12)
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House Approves Biosecure Act to Restrict China's Role in U.S. Biotech
The U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve legislation that would restrict U.S. companies from working with five China-based biotechnology firms on clinical development, research, and manufacturing, in an attempt to secure the pharmaceutical supply chain. The Biosecure Act passed 306-81 under a procedure used to pass relatively noncontroversial legislation. The legislation still needs Senate support to advance.
(Source: BioPharma Dive, 2024-09-10)
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More Americans Turning to AI for Medical Advice, Survey Finds
About one in six adults -- and about a quarter of adults younger than 30 -- use chatbots to find medical advice and information at least once a month, according to a recent survey from KFF, a nonprofit health policy research organization. Supporters hope AI will empower patients by giving them more comprehensive medical explanations than a simple Google search might.
(Source: The New York Times, 2024-09-11)
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57% of Health Finance Leaders Plan to Invest in AI to Cut Costs
Healthcare finance leaders are increasingly focused on cutting costs, with 38 percent identifying it as their top priority, according to U.S. Bank's latest CFO Insights Healthcare Report. Artificial intelligence has emerged as a critical area of investment, with 57 percent of executives planning to invest in AI technologies this year, up from 45 percent in 2023.
(Source: Healthcare Finance News, 2024-09-13)
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Clinicians Report E-Health Record Interoperability Falls Short
In seeking the opinions of more than 500,000 clinicians on electronic health record interoperability, KLAS Arch Collaborative researchers learned that external integration was reported to be the worst part of their EHR user experiences, and "the most-requested physician fix." In asking 33,000 clinicians specifically about their experiences using patient data from outside organizations, 47 percent said that they could not access patient information from outside organizations through their EHRs easily, KLAS said in the new report, EHR Interoperability.
(Source: Healthcare IT News, 2024-09-13)
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300 Telehealth Organizations Urge Extending Virtual Prescribing
Following reports that the DEA plans to limit telehealth prescriptions for controlled substances, hundreds of healthcare stakeholders are urging lawmakers to intervene. More than 330 organizations signed letters to both branches of Congress and the White House asking lawmakers to extend telehealth prescribing flexibilities for controlled substances that were enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Source: Tech Target, 2024-09-11)
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Hospitals Getting Some Relief as Labor Challenges Ease Up
Hospitals and health systems are finally seeing labor challenges easing up, even if they're not returning all the way to pre-pandemic levels. Specifically, hospitals are experiencing wage inflation stabilization and fewer job openings, according to a report by Fitch Ratings, which is providing organizations some breathing room from the spikes of recent years.
(Source: HealthLeaders Media, 2024-09-16)
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Financial, Regulatory Pressure Boosting Nonprofit Hospice M&A
Recent years have seen an uptick in consolidation activity among nonprofits in the hospice space. Driving this trend are reimbursement and regulatory pressures, as well as a need to compete with larger, well-capitalized for-profit entities, according to Mark Kulik, senior managing director for the M&A advisory firm The Braff Group.
(Source: Hospice News, 2024-09-12)
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Report Finds Hospital Patient Risk of Death Dropped Dramatically
Hospital patients' risk of death has fallen substantially since the COVID-19 pandemic and the months preceding it, even as hospitals are treating more and sicker patients, according to a new report on 715 acute care centers' performance data. The analysis, conducted by Vizient and released by the American Hospital Association, reviewed changes in patient safety metrics from the fourth quarter of 2019 through the first quarter of 2024.
(Source: FierceHealthcare, 2024-09-12)
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Healthcare AI Startups Target Different Venture Capital Sources
Health systems are a large market for artificial intelligence startups, but companies selling to insurers or life sciences firms create value more quickly, according to an analysis by venture capital firm Flare Capital Partners. Most AI startups selling their products to health systems haven't progressed past early-stage investment rounds.
(Source: Healthcare Dive, 2024-09-16)
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