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Hospital administrators on Monday gave state House committees a glimpse into the challenges facing health care professionals, describing efforts to reimagine how care is delivered amid a nursing shortage and sizable financial hit from the COVID-19 pandemic. At the forefront of the concerns is a shortage of nurses, which the executives told lawmakers has created an emergency for hospital administrators. (Dailey, 9/21)

Across the insurance industry, health plan CEOs are awarded the highest salaries and pocket the most compared to their subordinates, although the gap narrowed during the pandemic, a new survey shows. Centene CEO Michael Neidorff's $25 million compensation package ranked the highest among the 20 publicly traded insurance company chiefs, according to an S&P Global Market Intelligence report published Monday. Neidorff took home 362 times more than the median $68,987 his workers earned, representing the greatest salary spread between employees and CEOs among health, property and casualty, and life insurance companies. Centene employees had the highest median pay among health insurers, S&P reports. (Tepper, 9/21)

More than 14,000 registered union nurses at Dignity Health ratified a four-year contract with the health system that includes wage increases and provisions to recruit and retain workers. Members of the California Nurses Association and National Nurses Organizing Committee voted to approve the contract with the San Francisco-based health system on Sept. 17. The contract covers Dignity Health nurses in California and Nevada. (Devereaux, 9/21)

The parent company of the Walgreens drugstore chain said Tuesday it will invest $970 million for a controlling stake in Shields Health Solutions, a Stoughton company that works with hospitals to set up specialty pharmacies. The deal will leave Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. with about 71 percent of Shields Health, the companies said in a statement, up from 23 percent. It values Shields Health, which was launched in 2012, at about $2.5 billion, and gives Walgreens Boots the option to buy the rest of the company in about two years. In 2019, Walgreens Boots teamed up with private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe to buy about half of Shields Health for between $850 million and $900 million. (Edelman, 9/21)

Two Baltimore hospitals — Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and the University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus — have been ranked among the top 10 most “socially responsible” health centers in the U.S. by a health care think tank and consulting organization. The ranking, released Tuesday by the Lown Institute, a Massachusetts-based think tank, placed Hopkins Bayview as the third most socially responsible hospital and UMMC Midtown as the fifth. The institute, which said it is dedicated to helping develop “a just and caring system for health,” launched the ranking to highlight the importance of health equity, calling it the missing piece for many elite hospitals. (Miller, 9/21)

Providence has formed a national foundation to fund efforts to tackle a wide range of challenges straining the nation's healthcare system, the not-for-profit Catholic provider announced Monday. The healthcare giant seeks to accelerate the adoption of whole-person care, spur innovation and develop additional clinical research and best practices to improve access to healthcare services. The health system also aims to address the needs of vulnerable populations by better integrating mental health services and addressing social determinants of health. Health equity initiatives and environmental stewardship are also top funding priorities for the new Providence National Foundation. (Brady, 9/21)

MetroHealth has named two senior leaders to new roles in moves to underscore the system's commitment to inclusion, diversity and equity, according to a news release. Alan Nevel, who has served as MetroHealth's chief diversity and human resources officer since 2018, will become its first chief equity officer, a new position in which he will work with MetroHealth departments and initiatives to eliminate disparities and make equity a central principle of all the system does. (Coutré, 9/21)