Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Kaiser Permanente, Nurses Reach Agreement To Avert Strike
About 22,000 nurses and nurse practitioners reached a tentative agreement with Kaiser Permanente on a new four-year contract that includes provisions for a 22.5% raise and increased staffing. The tentative deal averted what聽would have been the biggest private-sector nurses' strike in American history.聽Nurses working at nearly two dozen Kaiser Permanente locations planned a two-day strike that was set to begin on Monday. (Landi, 11/20)
On health care costs 鈥
UnitedHealthcare and AARP are teaming up on a new program to reduce the cost of prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids.聽... Through AARP Hearing Solutions, which UnitedHealthcare is now administering, the nearly 38 million members of AARP can buy hearing aids through UnitedHealthcare Hearing. Prices start as low as $699 per hearing aid, according to the company, and members also get professional support from a licensed hearing professional plus personalized assistance from UnitedHealthcare Hearing during and after purchase. (Landi, 11/18)
People don鈥檛 receive bills after going to a grocery store or a mechanic鈥檚 shop. They know what things will cost them well before they leave. But in health care, patients get bills and 鈥渆xplanations of benefits鈥 after the fact 鈥 usually creating confusion or shock as to how much they owe. (Herman, 11/21)
In other health care industry news 鈥
Patricia Eddy had always believed in early detection of breast cancer, and she was relieved when her mammograms in 2015, 2016, and 2017 revealed nothing suspicious. It wasn鈥檛 until later that she learned the alarming truth: Those three annual screening tests had shown signs of cancer, she said, but her New Hampshire radiologist, Dr. Mark Guilfoyle, had missed them every time. (Saltzman, Ostriker and Kowalczyk, 11/19)
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services recently announced an $8.2 million investment to help K-12 schools across the state hire and retain school nurses. Milwaukee will receive more than $1 million of the funds. (Wells, 11/18)
A company being built from the ashes of IBM鈥檚 Watson Health division is launching new lines of business with a much different message: The real value is in the health data, not the fancy AI engine it might eventually power. (Ross, 11/21)
