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Rhode Island's attorney general hit UnitedHealthcare with a series of subpoenas asking for information about a security breach that compromised the information of 22,000 state employees and their families. Attorney General Peter Neronha said the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority notified his office in late December that an "unauthorized third party" accessed their system in August, potentially exposing the personal information of their workers, other state government personnel and their dependents. His office is investigating whether the state agency or former administrator of the state's employee health benefit plan, UnitedHealthcare, failed to live up to industry standards when safeguarding individuals' personal information. (Tepper, 2/3)

A federal judge on Wednesday granted UnitedHealth Group workers class-action status in their fight over the company's alleged failure to manage their $7 billion retirement accounts. Judge John Tunheim of the U.S. District Court of Minnesota ruled the employee's complaint met federal class certification standards, saying the more than 150,000 people participating in UnitedHealth Group's health plan had enough in common to consolidate their complaints into a single question of whether executives upheld the fiduciary duties required under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. (Tepper, 2/3)

A federal grand jury in Grand Rapids, Mich., has indicted a McKinney doctor on charges of defrauding health care insurers and creating false medical records, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan announced Wednesday. Among the allegations in the indictment are that Dr. Daniel Castro — an otolaryngologist or ear, nose and throat physician — performed surgeries on patients “whose symptoms, history, and computed tomography scans (CT scans) did not support the medical necessity of such procedures.” In addition, the indictment alleges that Castro “routinely billed for removing diseased tissue from inside his patient’s sinuses when diseased tissue did not truly exist and billed for performing surgery on sinus cavities that did not exist, to increase his compensation.” (Caplan, 2/3)

Thousands of registered nurses at Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford Health Care and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital have launched a campaign for new union contracts, as their current agreements are set to expire March 31, according to an independent union representing them. The Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement, which represents about 5,000 RNs at Stanford Health Care and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford, cited workers' desire to improve mental health standards, staffing and working conditions. The union also cited a recent survey of thousands of nurses represented by CRONA at Stanford and Packard hospitals showing that 44 percent of respondents are considering leaving the hospitals in the near future. (Gooch, 2/3)

KHN: California Inks Sweetheart Deal With Kaiser Permanente, Jeopardizing Medicaid Reforms

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has negotiated a secret deal to give Kaiser Permanente a special Medicaid contract that would allow the health care behemoth to expand its reach in California and largely continue selecting the enrollees it wants, which other health plans say leaves them with a disproportionate share of the program’s sickest and costliest patients. The deal, hammered out behind closed doors between Kaiser Permanente and senior officials in Newsom’s office, could complicate a long-planned and expensive transformation of Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, which covers roughly 14 million low-income Californians. (Editor’s note: KHN is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.) (Wolfson, Hart and Young, 2/3)

Dozens of hospitals signed a recent letter to Congress asking, among other things, for more time to repay their accelerated Medicare loans. Some of those hospital companies, however, had already repaid the money, and even those that haven't don't anticipate needing to pay the 4% interest that gets tacked on once the initial repayment periods end. Of the $107.3 billion the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services distributed to healthcare providers and suppliers under the COVID-19 Accelerated and Advanced Payments Program, the agency recouped 53% by the end of November. That includes 55% of the $98.8 billion distributed to Part A providers, mostly hospitals, and 28.7% of the $8.5 billion distributed to Part B providers and suppliers, mostly medical groups. (Bannow and Hellmann, 2/3)

University of Chicago Medicine plans to build a $633 million, 500,000-square-foot cancer hospital in Hyde Park — in hopes of addressing health inequities on the South Side and attracting patients from across the region. The massive center would include 128 beds for overnight patients, space for outpatient services and procedures, an urgent care for cancer patients and be a hub for cancer research, with clinical trials enrolling patients who live on the South Side and elsewhere. The hope is that patients would be able to get nearly all of their cancer care at the center rather than having to go to multiple locations for tests and treatments, said Dr. Kunle Odunsi, director of UChicago Medicine’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. (Schencker, 2/3)

Construction is ready to begin on a $34 million expansion of Orange Park Medical Center as it continues to add health care services in northeast Florida. On schedule, the expansion calls for the construction of two new inpatient units adding 48 private patient rooms. A new "state-of-the-art," 20-bed intensive care unit will be built — bringing to 48 the total ICU beds, medical center officials told the Florida Times-Union. When the project is finished, the medical center will have 408 total beds to become the fifth largest hospital in the greater Jacksonville area. (Stepzinski, 2/2)

The UMass Chan Medical School has received a $15 million gift that will boost research into ALS and neuroscience, school officials announced Thursday. The donation from alumni Dan and Diane Casey Riccio includes $10 million for what will be named the Riccio ALS Accelerator Initiative and $5 million to expand and endow the Riccio Fund for Neuroscience. (2/3)