Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Concerns Rise Over Health Startups Sharing Patient Data With Big Tech
Open the website of Workit Health, and the path to treatment starts with a simple intake form: Are you in danger of harming yourself or others? If not, what鈥檚 your current opioid and alcohol use? How much methadone do you use? Within minutes, patients looking for online treatment for opioid use and other addictions can complete the assessment and book a video visit with a provider licensed to prescribe suboxone and other drugs. But what patients probably don鈥檛 know is that Workit was sending their delicate, even intimate, answers about drug use and self-harm to Facebook. (Palmer, Feathers and Fondrie-Teitler, 12/13)
In other health care industry news 鈥
A 鈥渟ecret shopper鈥 accountability study shows that medical patients can鈥檛 readily schedule appointments by phone through Medicaid providers in New Mexico, even as the state and federal government spend $8.8 billion annually on the health care program that serves nearly half of state residents. The budget and accountability office of the Legislature presented its findings Tuesday to a panel of lawmakers as evidence of an inadequate network of health care providers. (Lee, 12/14)
Almost 90% of the health care companies deemed to be under financial stress by a leading credit rating agency are owned by private equity, a stark indicator of the toll financial investors have taken on a vital sector. (Bannow, 12/14)
The insurtech received a notice from the New York Stock Exchange Dec. 6 that, because its average stock price has been below $1 for the past 30 days, the company is in danger of being dropped from the exchange if it does not raise its share prices within six months. (Tepper, 12/13)
In news about health personnel 鈥
鈥淭he nurses鈥 union at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center has called a 9-day strike from December 24 - January 2, its third strike of the year,鈥 according to a Sutter, which released a statement on Tuesday night. Alta Bates Summit has hospitals in Oakland and Berkeley. (Parker, 12/13)
In Central Florida, AdventHealth is known for, well, health care. But the organization is made up of people 鈥 individuals who have put everything they have into caring for the community. And now, they say they have a new way to help 鈥 and to heal: the AdventHealth Orchestra. (Creston, 12/13)
A former employee of a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy whose mold-tainted drugs sparked a deadly nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak in 2012 was sentenced on Tuesday to five months in prison for deceiving regulators about its operations before the tragedy. (Raymond, 12/13)