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An early and unusually high surge of respiratory illnesses is packing waiting rooms with sick patients at local emergency rooms and urgent cares, resulting in long wait times and a strain on health care facilities. As a result, UnityPoint Health has implemented a new scheduling process for its urgent cares and express care locations in central Iowa, requiring all patients to reserve a time online rather than walk in for care. (Ramm, 12/5)

Patients in the Louisville area are waiting hours to be seen by doctors at area urgent cares centers and hospitals -- and some are just giving up. But if you plan ahead, there are some things you can do to save time. (Hayba, 12/2)

UMass Memorial Medical Center was near a breaking point. On many weekdays in the past year, the Worcester hospital’s occupancy rate hit 100 percent or more. Admitted patients sat in the emergency department for an average of 17 hours waiting for a bed. (Bartlett, 12/5)

Madison, W.Va.-based Boone Memorial Hospital was evacuated following a bomb threat on the evening of Dec. 4. Staff received the threat via telephone at 9:04 p.m., according to a news release shared on Boone Memorial Health's Facebook page. Law enforcement was contacted and the hospital was evacuated using its "Bomb Threat Emergency Preparedness Procedures."  (Kayser, 12/5)

Prosecutors in northern Mexico blamed private hospitals Monday for contaminated anesthetics that caused a meningitis outbreak that has killed 22 people and sickened at least 71. Prosecutors in northern Durango state said they have issued seven arrest warrants against the owners or directors of four private hospitals where the outbreak occurred starting in November. (12/5)

The nonprofit insurer will lay off 373 employees across several sites by Jan. 25, according to a notice Blue Shield filed with the California Employment Development Department last month. The majority will occur at Blue Shield’s Sacramento-area offices, although the company is also cutting 62 employees from its Oakland headquarters. The layoffs represent a small portion of Blue Shield’s total workforce of 7,800. (Tepper, 12/5)

Kaiser Permanente and more than 21,000 nurses across Northern California represented by the California Nurses Association ratified a new contract Monday, averting a looming strike. (Kacik, 12/5)

The journal Cell is opening its own review of research co-authored by Stanford University president Marc Tessier-Lavigne, following new allegations about an altered image in a 1999 paper. (Molteni, 12/5)

In May, a New York resident filed a class-action complaint, accusing CVS of deceptive fundraising in a campaign it held for the American Diabetes Association. Prior to each customer’s transaction, a checkout screen prompts the customer with several options for pre-selected dollar amounts, as well as an opt-out option, allowing donations to the diabetes association. Yet, the plaintiff alleges, CVS did not forward donations to the diabetes association, but instead applied the donations toward a legally binding $10 million obligation CVS made to the diabetes association. (Gagosz, 12/5)

KHN: Employers Use Patient Assistance Programs To Offset Their Own Costs 

Anna Sutton was shocked when she received a letter from her husband’s job-based health plan stating that Humira, an expensive drug used to treat her daughter’s juvenile arthritis, was now on a long list of medications considered “nonessential benefits.” The July 2021 letter said the family could either participate in a new effort overseen by a company called SaveOnSP and get the drug free of charge or be saddled with a monthly copayment that could top $1,000. (Appleby, 12/6)