Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Patients Seeking Care After Hurricane Ian Strain Hospital Systems
Hurricane Ian continues to strain Florida's healthcare system more than a week after the storm tore through the state. Some hospitals are still closed after flooding and high winds damaged their buildings. Others struggled to operate without running water. (Colombini, 10/10)
In other health news from across the U.S. —
Residents of a small community in Vermont were blindsided last month by news that one official in their water department quietly lowered fluoride levels nearly four years ago, giving rise to worries about their children’s dental health and transparent government — and highlighting the enduring misinformation around water fluoridation.
A federal judge Wednesday will take up a battle about whether Florida’s Medicaid program should pay for treatments such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender people. (10/10)
Officials at Vanderbilt University Medical Center announced Friday that they are pausing gender-affirming surgeries for minors in order to review their practices. (10/10)
Columbia University and its affiliated hospitals will pay $165 million to 147 patients who reported instances of sexual abuse or misconduct by former gynecologist Robert Hadden. (Habeshian, 10/7)
Unions representing nurses and other health-care workers at Western Maryland Hospital Center are fighting what they say is Gov. Larry Hogan’s final chance to outsource care at the Hagerstown facility before he leaves office. The powerful three-member Board of Public Works, which includes the governor, is scheduled Wednesday to vote on expediting contracts that would outsource key functions of the public, long-term-care hospital, which cares for patients with complex conditions who often have been turned away from private facilities. (Portnoy, 10/10)
The state Department of Health Services is warning more than 12,000 Medicaid members that their personal health data — including first and last name, date of birth, gender, county location, Wisconsin Medicaid member identification number and Social Security number — may have been exposed to "unauthorized individuals." (Shastri, 10/8)
Even as the COVID-19 pandemic intensified economic hardship and unemployment, Missouri saw one of the nation’s sharpest drops in participation in WIC, a federal benefits program for low-income women and children, according to a report released last week. (Bates, 10/10)
