As the number of nurse practitioners continues to grow in the
U.S., hospitals and health systems must adapt to the changing
registered nurse workforce that comes as a result, according to a
new study published in Health Affairs.
The flu is infecting an unusually high amount of children this
early in the season because influenza B is the predominant strain
— a trend that hasn’t been seen for more than a quarter century,
reports The Wall Street Journal.
Four military bases in Texas, California and Colorado were
preparing to house American citizens for up to two weeks as part
of a highly unusual federal effort aimed at slowing the spread of
the deadly coronavirus.
A room with a view, access to a garden, warm-tone light settings,
and quiet areas: A clinic’s atmosphere can contribute to a
patient’s recovery, studies find. Such insights are gaining more
and more importance in hospital planning processes.
The Trump administration said on Thursday that it would
allow states to cap Medicaid spending for many poor adults,
a major shift long sought by conservatives that gives states the
option of reducing health benefits for millions who gained
coverage through the program under the Affordable Care Act.
The World Health Organization declared the outbreak sparked by a
new virus in China that has been exported to more than a dozen
countries as a global emergency Thursday after the number of
cases spiked tenfold in a week.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has scheduled another meeting
of its emergency committee on Thursday to determine whether or
not this outbreak of novel coronavirus constitutes an
international health emergency, the agency said on Wednesday.
With California facing an urgent and growing shortage of mental
health professionals, three schools of nursing within the
University of California system (UCSF, UC Davis, and UCLA) are
announcing the launch today of a new online certificate program
that will prepare 300 psychiatric mental health nurse
practitioners (PMHNPs) by 2025. In addition to psychiatrists,
PMHNPs are the only mental health professionals authorized to
prescribe medications to people suffering from mental health
issues.
Every day, a small army of women and men rise to help meet the
needs of Californians experiencing homelessness. These are people
who work at California’s hospitals: social workers,
case managers, nurses, doctors and others.
Two travel-associated cases of novel coronavirus were confirmed
in California, along with another in Arizona, bringing the total
to five confirmed travel-associated cases in the U.S., CDC
officials said on Sunday.
St. Vincent Medical Center, one of the oldest hospitals in Los
Angeles, is permanently closing this week. This comes after a
previous deal to purchase the property fell through.
California is known for progressive everything, including
its health care policies, and, just a few weeks into 2020, state
leaders aren’t disappointing.
Baby boomers – the generation born immediately after World War II
– have left their mark on the U.S. and will undoubtedly leave
their mark on the future of the nursing profession as they enter
retirement age.
There are seven healthcare industry sectors ripe for growth,
consolidation and investment in 2020, according to
a report from Epstein Becker Green and EBG Advisors.
Riverside County’s public health department reported an uptick of
confirmed influenza cases as the season of sniffles, fevers and
body aches intensifies.
Jaquie Finn imagines a future where hospital patients won’t have
to wear or plug themselves in to devices because vitals
monitoring will be “contactless”.
Influenza is still going strong in the United States and
isn’t expected to slow down for at least several more weeks,
according to a report from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC).
Tenet Healthcare improved operational efficiencies last year,
cutting $300 million in expenses, its CEO Ron
Rittenmyer said during a presentation at the J.P.
Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco.
As the demand for mental health care in California continues to
grow, several partnerships are forming to address one of the most
pressing needs — mental health crisis care for the uninsured.
Fulfilling a promise that Kaiser Permanente made when it averted
a threatened strike in October 2019, the big national HMO has
partnered with Service Employees International Union-United
Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) to establish a new
organization, Futuro Health, that will train allied healthcare
workers for jobs in Kaiser facilities.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to announce a plan Jan.
9 that would create a state-run generic drugmaker and would set
uniform drug prices in the state, including for those on private
insurance, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Overall cancer death rates in the U.S. fell by 2.2 percent from
2016 to 2017, the largest single‐year drop ever recorded,
according to a report from the American Cancer Society.
A record number of children have died from the flu at this point
in the season, reports CNN. As of Dec. 28, 27
pediatric deaths have occurred this season, according to the
CDC’s most recent Fluview report. This figure marks the
highest death toll seen this early in the season since the CDC
first started tracking flu data 17 years ago.
Approximately 50,000 to 60,000 persons may be found homeless on
any given night in Los Angeles County. Each unsheltered
person faces unique obstacles making it difficult to deliver
healthcare to such a diverse population.
In 2017, as the Tubbs Fire made its dramatic and rapid assault on
Santa Rosa, California, our doctors, nurses, and support staff
faced the unimaginable task of evacuating the hospital. It was a
job that many, if not most, of them never imagined doing in their
careers. And yet, again this fall, wildfire threatened the
facility.
Most of the country is experiencing high influenza-like illness
activity and 800 more deaths were reported during the last week
of 2019 alone, according to the most recent report from
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Verity Health System (“Verity Health”), a nonprofit healthcare
system, filed a motion today seeking court authority to proceed
with the closure of St. Vincent Medical Center, located at 2131 W
3rd St, Los Angeles, CA. The closure follows KPC Group’s default
under a binding purchase agreement to acquire St. Vincent, St.
Francis Medical Center, Seton Medical Center and Seton Coastside.
An emergency room patient has a broken bone. Could she suffer
from human trafficking, too? Thanks to a growing call to
treat trafficking as a public health problem, an ER worker who
treats a trafficking victim might be able to connect the dots.
Good Samaritan Hospital, Los Angeles has cleared regulatory
hurdles and has joined PIH Health, the health system announced.
The hospital will be renamed as PIH Health Good Samaritan
Hospital.
Effective Jan. 1, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles
broadened eligibility for charity care to 400% of the federal
poverty level for free care and 600% for discounted care. Its
financial aid policy is now the most generous of the state’s 10
largest nonprofit hospitals, based on net patient revenue from
the 2017-18 fiscal year.
A Google artificial intelligence system proved as good as expert
radiologists at detecting which women had breast cancer based on
screening mammograms and showed promise at reducing errors,
researchers in the United States and Britain reported.
California health officials are gearing up for the launch of a
statewide screening effort that aims to help doctors measure
children’s exposure to trauma and their risk of related health
problems.
On December 14, a federal judge in Texas issued a sweeping
ruling in a lawsuit that attempts to invalidate the entire
Affordable Care Act (ACA). The decision by Judge Reed O’Connor of
the Northern District of Texas in Texas v. Azar holds
that the ACA is unconstitutional. Despite this expansive ruling
and the ample confusion that it has already caused, the ACA
remains the law of the land, and we believe that will remain the
case for the foreseeable future.
A federal appeals court has ruled that the individual
mandate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is unconstitutional, but
the panel sent the case back to a lower court to decide how much
of the remainder of the law could topple along with it.
Jenifer Nyhuis, CEO of Vista del Mar Hospital in Ventura, was
presented with the 2019 Šimanek Distinguished Service Award on
Dec. 9 during the 14th annual Behavioral Health Care Symposium in
Riverside.
As of Jan. 1, 2020, all hospitals in the state will be required
to structurally survive a major earthquake. Ten years later, they
will not only have to show they are sound, but can keep their
doors open.
For the first time since the early 1900s, more Americans are
dying at home rather than in hospitals, a trend that reflects
more hospice care and progress toward the kind of end that most
people say they want.
Our nation’s lack of health equity has serious implications for
our well-being. An individual’s life expectancy can vary by
as many as 25 years1 between neighborhoods in some U.S.
cities, with similar outcome gaps in infant mortality, obesity,
violence and chronic disease also occurring in these areas.
Integrating physical and behavioral health care services can help
hospitals and health systems overcome patient barriers to
accessing behavioral health services while improving outcomes and
value, according to a new brief from AHA’s The
Value Initiative.
Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals named Gregory A.
Adams chairman and CEO, following the sudden death of the
previous top executive last month, the health care organization
announced.
Employment at the nation’s hospitals rose by 0.19% in November to
a seasonally adjusted 5,283,200 people, the Bureau of Labor
Statistics reported today.
Where you live shouldn’t determine your access to health care or
the quality of that care. But because one in five Americans lives
in a rural area, many millions of people face significant
barriers to care and in almost every state are burdened with
higher mortality rates than people in urban areas, according to
the new issue of Health Affairs.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) is always looking for ways to
innovate and achieve incremental growth, and the company has
shown it isn’t afraid to disrupt other industries to do so.
Focusing on sectors outside e-commerce not only adds
diversification but makes the stock a safer long-term buy.
Healthcare, in particular, is a significant opportunity for
technological advancements, and it’s one area where Amazon could
become a significant player in the years to come.
State Sen. Jim Beall is angry. Four times now, he has
introduced legislation to better enforce state and federal
“parity” laws, which require equal treatment of mental and
physical health problems. Four times, that legislation has
failed.
Emerging Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies can help
organizations create more value for their patients and
communities by converting time-consuming, labor-intensive and
often inefficient tasks and functions into actionable information
to produce better outcomes.
Artificial intelligence may seem like just a buzzword in health
care today, but the technology is poised to significantly
transform how health care is delivered — and the type of work
required to deliver it.
A lonely and anxious Rebecca Massie first called the Mental
Health Association of San Francisco “warmline” during the
2015 winter holidays. “It was a wonderful call,” said
Massie, now 38 and a mental health advocate. “I was laughing
by the end, and I got in the holiday spirit.”
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to add
500 mental health treatment beds over the next two years, as part
of a larger effort to increase services for Angelenos who need
psychiatric help.
Primary care doctors are a hot commodity across California.
Students are being lured by full-ride scholarships to medical
schools. New grads are specifically recruited for training
residencies. And full-fledged doctors are being offered loan
repayment programs to serve low-income residents or work in
underserved areas.
California Influencers this week answered the following question:
What should the most important priority in the area of health
care policy be for Governor Newsom and the State Legislature in
2020? Below are the Influencers’ answers in their entirety.
U.S. hospitals are expecting moderate year-over-year gains as the
calendar year winds down despite anticipating significant
month-over-month decreases in their margins, according to a
new report from Kaufman Hall.
We all know that when the power goes out, refrigerators, heaters
and air conditioners stop running. Homes go dark, and desktop
computers shut down. But those are mere inconveniences. If
you need regular dialysis or chemotherapy at a clinic, or you
have an infant in a neonatal intensive care unit or a loved one
on a hospital ventilator, a loss of power carries far more dire
implications.
The increasing amount of credible and actionable information that
has become available through public reporting efforts has helped
spur improvements. While it is worth celebrating the
improvements in patient safety and quality, such as reductions in
hospital-acquired infections and early elective deliveries, it
also is imperative that hospitals continue to strive for better
performance.
Sen. Kamala Harris is pitching a new mental health plan to tackle
rising suicide rates, mental illness among homeless people and a
severe shortage in treatment facilities across the country.
Nearly all of the at least 31 St. John’s
hospital employees in Oxnard and Camarillo told a month ago
their jobs were being eliminated will remain employed, according
to union and hospital officials.
Primary care doctors are a hot commodity across California.
Students are being lured by full-ride scholarships to medical
schools. New grads are specifically recruited for training
residencies. And full-fledged doctors are being offered loan
repayment programs to serve low-income residents or work in
underserved areas.
Five years from now, the U.S.’ already overburdened mental health
system may be short as many as 15,600 psychiatrists as the growth
in demand for their services outpaces supply, according to a
2017 report from the National Council for Behavioral Health.
But some proponents say that, by then, an unlikely
tool—artificial intelligence—may be ready to help mental health
practitioners mitigate the impact of the deficit.
In communities across California, and across the country, mental
health conditions are prevalent. But for too many, mental health
care is inaccessible — or stigmatized. In fact, of the 6 million
in our state that experience mental health issues, only 1 out of
3 will get the treatment they need.
The new school, which was announced in 2016, is slated to open in
2020. • Tuition will be waived for the first five cohorts of
students. Oakland, California–based Kaiser Permanente will name
its new medical school after late Chairman and CEO Bernard J.
Tyson, who died unexpectedly in his sleep earlier this
month.
Flu season is upon us early this year, hitting older adults and
children under 4 the hardest, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Concerned about the nation’s health care safety net, a bipartisan
coalition of California’s congressional leaders urged the U.S.
House leadership Tuesday not to cut off supplemental Medicaid
payments to hospitals because doing so could jeopardize care for
millions.
We know that effective communication plays a critical role when
caring for people living with serious illness. Yet, too often
conversations with our sickest patients about goals, personal
values and what might be ahead happen too late in the course of
illness to fulfill their most important wishes.
Eleven years after Congress passed a law mandating that insurers
provide equal access for mental and physical health care,
Americans are actually finding it harder to obtain affordable
treatment for mental illness and substance abuse issues.
As suicide and overdose rates have increased, mental health and
substance abuse insurance coverage has gotten worse, according to
a new Milliman report commissioned by the Mental Health
Treatment and Research Institute.
Medi-Cal currently serves more than 13.5 million residents.
Telemedicine is increasingly seen as a way to help the
hard-pressed program carry out its mission while the state
struggles with a growing shortage of doctors. The new rules offer
pay parity for telemedicine visits versus in-office
consultations.
The House of Representatives today voted 231-192 to approve
a continuing resolution that would fund the federal
government through Dec. 20 and delay impending Medicaid cuts,
among other provisions.
After months of feedback from payers and providers unhappy with a
proposal to mandate price transparency in healthcare, the Trump
administration unveiled its final rule on the topic.
More than a decade after Congress passed a law mandating equal
access for mental and physical health care, Americans struggle to
find affordable, in-network mental health providers.
California’s success in implementing the Affordable Care Act
resulted in the number of uninsured falling from 6.5 million in
2013 to 3.5 million in 2017. At the end of 2017, Congress voted
to eliminate the individual mandate penalty starting with the
2019 tax year, a change projected to increase the uninsured by
more than half a million Californians.
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) urges everyone
to refrain from vaping, no matter the substance or source, until
current investigations are complete. Since June 2019, CDPH has
received reports that 166 people in California who have a
history of vaping were hospitalized for severe breathing problems
and lung damage, and four people have died.
Hospitals will soon have to share price information they have
long kept obscured — including how big a discount they offer
cash-paying patients and rates negotiated with insurers — under
a rule finalized Friday by the Trump administration.
Like many of my colleagues at CHCF and across the world of health
care, I have been reflecting on the life and career of Bernard
Tyson, who died unexpectedly last weekend. Bernard is best known
for serving as president and CEO of Kaiser Permanente, one of the
nation’s most important health care organizations, but his legacy
only starts there.
A top federal homelessness official announced Friday that he has
left his post at the Trump administration’s request, an
unexpected move that comes as the White House plans a sweeping
crackdown aimed at homelessness in California.
Hospitals immediately promised to sue the Trump administration
after it released two new price transparency regulations on
Friday, threatening the future of one of the president’s most
ambitious health policies.
CDC estimates that, from October 1, 2018, through May 4, 2019,
there have been 531,000 – 647,000 flu hospitalizations, and more
than 27 million were affected by flu-related illnesses, according
to the CDC. In addition to symptoms including sore throat,
aches and fever, the flu can lead to serious health complications
such as pneumonia. One of the most important steps you can
take to avoid serious, flu-related illnesses is to be vaccinated.
Drug-resistant “superbugs” infect 2.8 million people and
cause more than 35,000 deaths each year, underscoring the
enormous public health threat of germs in what one official
describes as a “post-antibiotic era,” according to a new Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention report.
The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee today approved
two bipartisan bills to strengthen maternal care and access to
care, including in rural areas.
Last December, Brighid FitzGibbon’s son, Evan, entered a
catatonic state. Acute psychosis had hit suddenly a few weeks
earlier, toward the end of fall semester of his sophomore year at
Bard College in upstate New York. Gripped by terrifying
delusions, his body began to shut down.
Some healthcare professionals see blood, mangled bodies, and
death every day, yet certain days are worse than others — like
when a dozen police officers are gunned down or 20 kids are
killed in their elementary school. As public mass shootings
happen nearly every 6 weeks in America, these tragedies are
having a more frequent impact on the healthcare workforce.
The field has lost a giant in health care. Bernard Tyson was a
champion for creating a more integrated and coordinated delivery
system, and expanding coverage and access.
I must have missed the wildfire evacuation course in medical
school. Learning how to move critically ill patients while flames
lick the ground just feet away wasn’t part of my residency
training. Most physicians never anticipate having to empty their
hospitals while smoke fills the halls and the sky glows red.
ERs throughout California are reporting a sharp increase in
adolescents and young adults seeking care for a mental health
crisis. In 2018, California ERs treated 84,584 young patients
ages 13 to 21 who had a primary diagnosis involving mental
health.
Governor Gavin Newsom released the following statement today
after learning of the passing of Bernard J. Tyson, chairman and
CEO of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Kaiser Hospitals.
Mass shootings, health care concerns and the upcoming 2020
presidential election top the list of Americans’ worries these
days. That’s according to a new survey out this week from the
American Psychological Association.
The AHA, Association of American Medical Colleges and several
member hospitals intend to immediately request that the U.S.
District Court for the District of Columbia enforce its September
ruling vacating a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rule
reducing payments for hospital outpatient services provided in
off-campus provider-based departments grandfathered under the
Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015
Tara Roberts has two children who both struggle with emotional
and behavioral challenges. But the single mother says her biggest
challenge is finding sufficient help for her youngest, who is now
18.
With pregnancy comes a lot of doctor appointments. Regular and
frequent prenatal, postpartum and well-baby visits help to ensure
healthy mothers and babies. But attending all these in-person
appointments can be difficult, especially for women challenged by
social determinants of health, such as a lack of transportation
or social support.
Members of the House and Senate Telehealth Caucus today
introduced the CONNECT for Health Act, AHA-supported legislation
that would expand access to telehealth for Medicare patients and
remove barriers to its adoption and use by hospitals and other
providers.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
today launched FindTreatment.gov, a website to help Americans
locate substance use disorder treatment services.
The number of U.S. children without health insurance rose by
406,000 or 11.1% between 2016 and 2018, to 4.06 million,
according to a new report by the Georgetown University
Center for Children and Families based on data from the Census
Bureau’s American Community Survey.
In 1986, Congress enacted a law to bar hospitals from turning
away patients who are unable to pay. Any hospital with an
emergency room that participates in federal health programs must
evaluate and stabilize every patient who comes through the door,
including those who are uninsured, indigent, addicted to drugs,
or mentally ill.
Drug shortages threaten the quality of patient care, narrow
treatment options and often result in the use of potentially less
effective alternative medications, hospital and health system
leaders said at a briefing today on Capitol Hill, urging Congress
to pass the AHA-supported Mitigating Emergency Drug
Shortages Act (S.2723).
More than 177,000 people signed up for ObamaCare plans during the
first two days of open enrollment, according to numbers released
Wednesday by the Trump administration.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee today
passed by voice vote the Title VIII Nursing Workforce
Reauthorization Act (S. 1399), legislation that would reauthorize
for five years federal programs to develop the nursing workforce.
The House of Representatives passed its own version of the bill
(H.R. 728) on Tuesday. The AHA and its American Organization for
Nursing Leadership subsidiary support the legislation to help
address a national shortage of nurses and nurse educators.
Living with a serious illness impacts all facets of a person’s
life. Results from a statewide survey released today by the
California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) show that the vast
majority of people with serious illness want the kinds of
supportive services provided by palliative care, which focuses on
providing relief from the symptoms and stress of serious illness
and can be provided alongside curative treatment.
Smoke was in the air as the Tubbs Fire blew towards Sutter Santa
Rosa Regional Hospital on Monday, October 9th, 2017. Dr.
Scott Witt, the managing director of the hospital’s Neonatal
Intensive Care Unit (NICU) was at home, four miles away, after a
long, busy day. Jennifer Huot, R.N., the night shift nursing
supervisor, was doing her rounds — but had smelled smoke on the
drive into work. Then the hospital was ordered to evacuate,
and these two health heroes jumped into action. Read on to hear
how they kept their patients healthy and safe.
More than 80,000 acres of California have burned since the
Kincade, Tick, Getty, and other wildfires erupted last month.
Millions of Californians are dealing with unpredictable,
dangerous, and smoky conditions complicated by the massive power
shutdowns aimed at preventing faulty power company equipment from
sparking more blazes.
As policymakers confront significant social and economic
inequality throughout our country, the role of racial and ethnic
disparities in health care must be acknowledged and addressed.
The success of these efforts depends on our ability to track
relevant health care data about different population groups.
Hospitals will receive $1.9 billion in value-based incentive
payments for inpatient care, the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services announced yesterday.
California is one of the most diverse places on the planet. One
thing we all have in common is a deep desire for ourselves and
our loved ones to be healthy, live to their full potential, and
have productive, satisfying lives. That shared aspiration
explains why the idea that everyone should have access to health
care is such a universal value.
Millions of Californians are smelling smoke after a new round of
wildfires ignited this week, bringing with it another round of
power blackouts, evacuations, and air quality alerts.
Chronic drug shortages that threaten patient care are caused by
rock-bottom prices for older generic medicines and a health care
marketplace that doesn’t run on the rules of supply and demand,
among other factors, according to a federal report published on
Tuesday.
In what may be a watershed moment in the fight against
tuberculosis, the world’s most lethal infectious disease, an
experimental new vaccine has protected about half the people who
got it, scientists reported on Tuesday.
Anticipating the future workplace needs of hospitals and health
systems is key to ensuring that patients continue to receive the
extraordinary care they deserve. That’s why one of our top
priorities is ensuring the right blend of skills, training and
education for the health care worker of the next decade and
beyond.
Shortly before it was set to take effect last Tuesday, five
federal districts courts, sitting in Washington (PDF),
California, Baltimore, Cook County and New York City issued
preliminary injunctions against the Trump Administration’s new
public charge rule, halting at least for now a rule that was
widely expected to reduce immigrants’ access to health care,
place new burdens on safety-net providers, and jeopardize public
health, especially in immigrant communities.
Obamacare premiums will stay flat in 2020 — and in many of the
states that have aggressively intervened to support their
insurance markets, rates are going to be lower next year.
Unless overturned, a recent Court of Appeals decision in a False
Claims Act case “may force hospitals to adopt fundamental changes
to their compensation practices at significant cost and loss of
productivity,” AHA and other hospital groups said in a
friend-of-the-court brief filed yesterday in U.S. ex rel.
Bookwalter v. UPMC. “
The House Ways and Means Committee last night voted 24-17 to
approve a revised version of the Lower Prescription Drug Costs
Now Act (H.R. 3), legislation that would make a series of changes
to the Medicare program in an effort to lower the price of
prescription drugs.
“I want you to listen to the scientists. I want you to unite
behind the science, and I want you to take real action,” 16
year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg told Congress. The
same applies to vaccines, as the World Health Organization
declares “vaccine hesitancy” a global health threat, and the
United States experienced the largest number of measles cases
since 1992.
Almost everyone knows that industries change with the
introduction of new technology and alterations in public taste.
The healthcare industry is no different. Healthcare is
experiencing demands and changes that affect the overall
management and administration of the system.
Nonprofit Casa Pacifica Centers for Children and Families, a
crisis-care facility for foster and at-risk youth, will
formally unveil a new multi-purpose building and two new
residential cottages at its Camarillo campus Thursday.
A person who was infectious with measles visited Disneyland last
week, leading public health officials to warn that hundreds of
other people at the theme park were possibly exposed to the
highly contagious disease.
A federal judge today reaffirmed her previous order to the
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to vacate cuts to
Medicare payments for hospital outpatient services provided in
off-campus provider-based departments grandfathered under the
Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 that were included as part of the
agency’s outpatient prospective payment system final rule for
calendar year 2019.
Drugmakers fought hard against California’s groundbreaking drug
price transparency law, passed in 2017. Now, state health
officials have released their first report on the price hikes
those drug companies sought to shield.
California faces serious shortages in its health workforce, which
makes it difficult for too many people to access the care they
need. For example, in the next decade, California will face
a shortfall of 4,100 primary care clinicians, will need an
additional 600,000 home care workers, and will only have
two-thirds of the psychiatrists we need.
UPS announced Monday that it’s expanding drone-delivery services
to include CVS Pharmacy, Kaiser Permanente, wholesale
pharmaceutical distributor AmerisourceBergen and the University
of Utah health system.
Precision medicine uses some of the world’s most sophisticated
technologies, but the goal is quite simple: Find the root causes
of each patient’s unique condition and apply the best, most
precise treatments.
An armed Border Patrol agent roamed the hallways of an emergency
room in Miami on a recent day as nurses wheeled stretchers and
medical carts through the hospital and families waited for
physicians to treat their loved ones.
Gov. Gavin Newsom wrapped up his bill-signing marathon Sunday,
capping the end of a legislative session that will have a big
impact on Californians’ health care and coverage.
The most recent measles outbreak ― the worst in the U.S. since
1992 ― may be over. But the impact of the disease, whether from
this outbreak or previous ones, is not.
Emerging Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies can help
organizations create more value for their patients and
communities by converting time-consuming, labor-intensive and
often inefficient tasks and functions into actionable information
to produce better outcomes.
Two House committees today marked up revised versions of the
Lower Prescription Drug Costs Now Act (H.R. 3) — legislation
that would make a series of changes to the Medicare program in an
effort to lower the price of prescription drugs.
Parents, teachers and lawmakers are grappling with the worst teen
suicide rate in U.S. history, despite a spate of state laws and
training programs designed to help.
The California Earthquake Early Warning System marries a
smartphone application with traditional alert and warning
delivery methods such as Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA). The
system uses ground motion sensors from across the state to detect
earthquakes before humans can feel them and notifies you in real
time.
United Against the Flu is a collaborative effort by several
national health care organizations and the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention to amplify the importance of getting
vaccinated, especially this flu season.
Amador is one of six California counties without a physical
community college. It also struggles to recruit mental health
providers. A small online learning program could offer a solution
to both problems.
Roughly 57,000 Kaiser Permanente workers, all working in
California, ratified a four-year labor contract agreement that
protects certain jobs from outsourcing and creates a program that
aims to diminish a national shortage of health care workers,
union leaders announced Wednesday.
Hospitals throughout California will participate in the annual
Great ShakeOut drill Oct. 17. Intended to help Californians
prepare for the next big earthquake, the drill is an opportunity
for hospitals to review and update their plans for preventing and
minimizing damage and injuries, and to improve their continuity
of operations if an earthquake happens.
When 6-month-old James Ladeaux got his second upper respiratory
infection in a month, the doctor at the Sioux San Indian Health
Service Hospital reassured his mother, Robyn Black Lance, that it
was only a cold.
People buying insurance through Covered California might see
lower prices this time around, following changes in Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s most recent state budget.
Imagine a government program that would mobilize volunteers to
help older adults across the nation age in place. One is on the
way. Navigating Aging focuses on medical issues and advice
associated with aging and end-of-life care, helping America’s 45
million seniors and their families navigate the health care
system.
Governor Gavin Newsom has signed legislation that ensures
Californians are not left without emergency air medical services
when a state funding source sunsets in December. The Governor’s
action will fund air ambulances by an additional six months,
giving the Legislature and his office more time to work on a
long-term funding source through the state budget process.
A California native, Paul Viviano’s three decades of healthcare
leadership have been driven by a calling to support his community
however possible. Currently, he’s helping drive change in the Los
Angeles area as president and CEO of Children’s Hospital Los
Angeles, a role he has held since 2015.
Interest in artificial intelligence (AI) is soaring in the
healthcare industry, according to a recent Optum survey of 500 US
healthcare executives from hospitals, health plans, life sciences
organizations, and pharmaceutical and device companies.
Gov. Gavin Newsom wrapped up his bill-signing marathon Sunday,
capping the end of a legislative session that will have a big
impact on Californians’ health care and coverage.
The California Office of Statewide Health Planning and
Development recently released the nation’s first mandatory data
on wholesale acquisition cost increases for prescription drugs.
The AHA today submitted recommendations to the Health
Resources and Services Administration in response to the agency’s
Rural Access to Health Care Services Request for Information.
John Riggi, AHA senior advisor for cybersecurity and risk
(pictured above), sat down with AHA Today to share takeaways from
a recent Senate Cybersecurity Caucus briefing on cybersecurity
and health care. Criminal and nation state cyber adversaries are
adopting more sophisticated tactics, such as targeted
ransomwareattacks, which can shut down and encrypt both a
hospital’s main information networks and its backup data, Riggi
notes.
One of the nation’s most preventable diseases is killing newborns
in ever-increasing numbers.Nationwide, 1,306 infants acquired
syphilis from their mother in 2018, a 40% rise over 2017,
according to federal data released Tuesday. Seventy-eight of
those babies were stillborn, and 16 died after birth.
Employment at the nation’s hospitals rose by 0.15% in September
to a seasonally adjusted 5,267,000 people, the Bureau of Labor
Statistics reported today.
An updated KFF analysis estimates that almost 54 million people –
or 27% of all adults under 65 —have pre-existing health
conditions that would likely have made them uninsurable in the
individual markets that existed in most states before the
Affordable Care Act.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has finalized
significant new restrictions to reduce immigration by creating a
preference for wealthy, English-speaking, insured, and educated
immigrants and putting up new hurdles for impoverished immigrants
and their families.
Adam Stelmach volunteers twice a week in Henry Mayo’s Acute
Rehabilitation Unit. “I want to help others who want to get
better,” Adam said. “I want to make life easier for them.”
This desire is personal for Adam. He knows exactly what it’s like
to be in the rehabilitation unit because it is where he did
physical therapy only a few years ago.
California’s attorney general touted a legal victory this week
against drugmakers who he said made secretive, backroom deals to
keep less expensive drugs off the market.
A majority — 65% — of pregnant women in the U.S. said they were
unvaccinated for influenza and whooping cough, according to a
Vital Signs report released on Tuesday by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
With windy, dry weather in the forecast, California utilities are
considering shutting off power to more than 700,000 customers
across the state to try to prevent wildfires ignited by
electrical equipment. Southern California Edison’s website
showed Tuesday that more than 106,000 customers in parts of eight
counties could face power cuts.
Influenza vaccination reduces the risk for severe outcomes in
adults by more than one-third, and the risk for hospitalization
in children by half, according to the result of two new studies.
In California, nearly two out of three adults with a mental
illness do not receive mental health services, and only 1 out of
10 adults with a substance use disorder receives any kind of
treatment. These gaps in care have drawn the attention not only
of policymakers, but also health technology investors and
entrepreneurs.
Experts recommend getting the seasonal flu vaccination as early
as possible to provide the best protection. That’s because
if you wait until mid-season to get your flu shot, you could be
risking your health, the health of your loved ones, and your
community.
The Medicare Shared Savings Program generated $739.4 million in
total net savings across 548 accountable care organizations in
2018, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator
Seema Verma announced yesterday.
The Food and Drug Administration today recommended medical device
manufacturers, health care providers and patients take certain
actions to reduce the risk that a remote attacker could exploit a
set of cybersecurity vulnerabilities to control a medical device
or prevent it from functioning.
Legally and morally, hospitals cannot discharge patients if they
have no safe place to go. So patients who are homeless, frail or
live alone, or have unstable housing, can occupy hospital beds
for weeks or months – long after their acute medical problem is
resolved.
Annual family premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance
rose 5% to average $20,576 this year, according to the 2019
benchmark KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey released today.
Workers’ wages rose 3.4% and inflation rose 2% over the same
period.
Words are important and should reflect the urgency of a
situation. Therefore, the phenomenon of climate change is better
understood as a climate crisis. And it’s not just another
“issue,” but rather an emergency, says AMA member Jonathan Patz,
MD, MPH.
A new report from the National Academies of Sciences,
Engineering, and Medicine recommends actions for health care
systems, government agencies and others to better integrate
patients’ social needs into health care delivery. For example,
the report recommends health care providers make an
organizational commitment to addressing health-related social
needs and disparities in individual and population health, and
identify the most effective ways to assess and document social
needs.
The thrill of delivering newborns helped pull Dr. Jack Feltz into
the field of obstetrics and gynecology. More than 30 years
later, he still enjoys treating patients, he said. But now, Feltz
is also working to change the way doctors are paid for maternity
care.
Two days of negotiations have yielded a tentative agreement
between Kaiser Permanente and 80,000 of its union workers,
staving off a nationwide strike set for Oct. 14.
Technology entrepreneur Nick Desai sees a not-too-distant future
where his infant daughter will not have to learn to drive a
car, thanks to self-driving cars and ride-hailing services. His
children and others in their generation also will
likely never need to go to a doctor’s office, he predicts.
Arizona Medicaid Director Jami Snyder heard many complaints about
enrollees missing medical appointments because the transportation
provided by the state didn’t show or came too late.So this summer
she hatched a solution familiar to millions of Americans looking
for an efficient ride: She turned to Uber and Lyft.
As happened in 2017, Congress is on the precipice of failing to
meet the Sept. 30 deadline for reauthorizing the Community Health
Center Fund that supports nearly 1,400 community health centers,
which treat more than 27 million predominately poor patients.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today issued a final
rule delineating a methodology for implementing the Affordable
Care Act aggregate reductions to state Medicaid Disproportionate
Share Hospital allotments beginning in fiscal year 2020.
Nearly 100 hospital and health system leaders today came together
in Washington, D.C., to urge lawmakers to take action on critical
issues facing patients and protect access to care. During an AHA
Advocacy Day briefing, AHA Executive Vice President Tom Nickels
gave updates on Capitol Hill developments and outlined some of
the association’s main priorities.
In California, nearly two out of three adults with a mental
illness do not receive mental health services, and only 1 out of
10 adults with a substance use disorder receives any kind of
treatment.
A healthy lifestyle can cut your risk of developing Alzheimer’s
or other forms of dementia even if you have genes that raise your
risk for these mind-destroying diseases, a large study has found.
Blue Shield of California and UCLA Health have signed a new
multi-year agreement that gives the nonprofit health plan’s
Medicare Advantage plan members in-network access to UCLA Health
providers as of October 1, 2019.
HASC Calendar
See all upcoming events