Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Humana To Shut Most Of Its SeniorBridge Home Care Facilities
SeniorBridge offers services at 23 centers in nine states. The facilities in Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, Texas and Virginia will close, while seven sites in New York will remain in operation "until further notice," the Humana spokesperson wrote in an email. (Berryman, 11/29)
In other health care industry developments 鈥
Staff at the East Anchorage hospital received an email Tuesday saying that CEO Anne Marie Lynch was no longer in the position, 鈥渆ffective immediately,鈥 and that she would be moving to another hospital in Indiana. ... Lynch鈥檚 departure comes as North Star faces federal, state and hospital accreditation regulators finding serious problems at the hospital within the past six months. Most recently, the Joint Commission, a nonprofit accreditation group meant to gauge hospital quality and safety, issued an 鈥渋nitial denial of accreditation鈥 to North Star, citing dangerous conditions for young patients. (Theriault Boots, 11/29)
A large nursing home in Concord will pay $2.3 million to the state and federal governments to settle claims that it billed them for poor and neglectful care of patients, who were given excessive amounts of psychiatric medication and also suffered physical injuries from falls and clashes at the facility, federal officials announced Tuesday. (Egelko, 11/29)
The New Albany Medical Campus is to bring a new, innovative kind of health care experience to patients, built around their needs, such as e-check-in stations, OhioHealth鈥檚 first drive-up care location and full-service retail pharmacy with curbside pickup. (Seman Jr., 11/29)
When Rich DiPaola needed new hips this year, the retired engineer headed north. He lives in Grand Junction 鈥 the regional medical center of western Colorado 鈥 but he chose to travel two hours to an out-of-the-way town long known as a hunters鈥 haven, not a medical destination. (Lofholm, 11/29)
Electronic health records don鈥檛 leave much room for nuance: On paper, two patients with the same type of knee problem might score the same on a standardized walking test, and have tried the same treatment options. But once they walk out of the clinic, the same condition could impact each of their lives in considerably different ways. (Williamson-Lee, 11/30)
Based on the data through October, 2022 is on track to set a new record for the number of healthcare data breaches. (Broderick, 11/29)