News Briefs
Lawmakers Boosting Investigation of P.E. Role in Healthcare
Influential U.S. Senators are the latest to launch investigations into private equity's increasing role in owning and operating everything from hospitals and health systems to physician practices and clinics. In a letter to Ascension Illinois, a not-for-profit operator of 10 hospitals in the Chicago area, Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, said he wants to know how private equity is impacting patients, healthcare quality, and outcomes.
(Source: Forbes, 2024-06-10)
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State Efforts to Cap Health Costs Would Impact Hospital Margins
State caps on how much health systems can charge patients and payers are putting many operators at a disadvantage, according to new data. The benchmarks instituted by several states could negatively impact revenue and operating margins by nonprofit hospitals during a time when operators are combating rising expenses, a Fitch Ratings report revealed.
(Source: HealthLeaders Media, 2024-06-04)
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Lawmakers Consider 340B Drug Discount Program Fixes
Congress appears to be inching toward injecting more transparency into a controversial program that forces drugmakers to give safety-net hospitals steep discounts on drugs. It would be a win for pharmaceutical manufacturers, which have long lobbied that hospitals be required to account for their savings in the 340B program -- or that it be overhauled entirely.
(Source: Healthcare Dive, 2024-06-05)
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Microsoft, Google to Help Rural Hospitals Boost Cyber Defenses
Microsoft and Google will offer free or discounted cybersecurity services to rural hospitals across the United States to make them less vulnerable to cyberattacks that have disrupted patient care and threatened lives, the White House and those tech firms said. Microsoft said in a statement to CNN that it would provide free security updates for eligible rural hospitals, as well as security assessments and training for hospital staff, while Google will provide free cybersecurity advice to rural hospitals and start a pilot program to match the firm's cybersecurity services with the needs of rural hospitals.
(Source: CNN, 2024-06-10)
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Senator Urges HHS to Address Cybersecurity Approach
In the wake of the cyberattack on Change Healthcare, a key senator is urging federal regulators to take immediate steps to require major healthcare companies to beef up their cybersecurity. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services saying the agency should immediately issue new security requirements such as minimum cybersecurity and resiliency standards.
(Source: FierceHealthcare, 2024-06-06)
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Rural Affordable Connectivity Program Runs Out of Money
During the COVID-19 pandemic, federal lawmakers launched the Affordable Connectivity Program with the goal of connecting more people to their jobs, schools, and doctors. Now, the ACP is out of money.
(Source: KFF Health News, 2024-06-05)
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Doctors, Nurses Leaving Field as Health Workforce Crisis Worsens
Demoralized doctors and nurses are leaving the field, hospitals are sounding the alarm about workforce shortages and employees are increasingly unionizing and even going on strike in high-profile disputes with their employers. Dire forecasts of healthcare worker shortages often look to a decade or more from now, but the pandemic -- and its ongoing fallout -- has already ushered in a volatile era of dissatisfied workers and understaffed healthcare facilities.
(Source: Axios, 2024-06-07)
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Virtual Nursing Expected to Help Alleviate Workforce Shortage
Virtual nursing will open up a whole new realm of possibilities. From admissions and discharges to patient monitoring, mentoring, and even at-home care, virtual care technology will push healthcare into the future.
(Source: HealthLeaders Media, 2024-06-10)
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Nursing Workforce Impacted by Negative Social Media Image
A two-fold problem is keeping healthcare providers from successfully retaining or attracting new nurses and nurse aides, new data shows. Ongoing turnover and burnout in nursing is solidifying a negative impression of the industry online -- especially among young people who skilled nursing providers desperately want to attract to the workforce.
(Source: McKnight's Long-Term Care News, 2024-06-07)
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