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More than 4 months after a Trump administration directive to impose a $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications, healthcare workers are yet to receive an exemption from the fee, and concerns remain about its impact on filling critical positions. Organizations including the Association of American Medical Colleges, the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, and others have petitioned the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to give healthcare workers in the H-1B visa program -- which allows U.S. employers to hire workers outside the country to work in specialty occupations -- an exemption from the fee. (Henderson, 2/3)

Roughly one in three nurses in Michigan has student loan debt, according to a cross-sectional survey -- a finding that may have significant implications for recently proposed federal loan limits. (Firth, 2/3)

The legal battle between Duke Health and WakeMed over a cancer-fighting linear accelerator has a David vs. Goliath flavor. (Blythe, 2/4)

An HCA Healthcare company has added more than a dozen urgent care centers in Texas to its network. Medical City Healthcare, a 22-hospital subsidiary of HCA Healthcare, has purchased 13 CommunityMed urgent care centers, according to a Monday news release. Financial terms were not disclosed. (DeSilva, 2/3)

For decades, hospitals have relied on desflurane, a popular anesthetic, to put patients to sleep on the operating table. But the chemical is a potent greenhouse gas, so regulators, health systems and hospitals around the world are moving to phase it out. Starting this year, the EU will largely get rid of desflurane except in cases of medical necessity, following a 2023 ban by Scotland’s public health-care system. Hospitals in Singapore and Australia are also moving away from desflurane, and Chinese clinicians are discussing taking similar measures. (Court, 2/3)

Hospitals and heart systems are zeroing in on the No. 1 cause of death in the U.S., making investments in technology and facilities to expand and improve the treatment of heart disease. Greater demand for this specialized care is a result of numerous factors, including poor diet, chronic conditions such as Type 2 diabetes and obesity and the fact that people are living longer. Financial challenges facing the healthcare industry mean every dollar counts, and devoting more resources to caring for heart patients is viewed as an area that will generate a good return on investment. (DeSilva, 2/3)

Patients with duplicate medical records had higher odds of adverse outcomes and longer hospital stays, a retrospective analysis from a large U.S. health system showed. Compared to patients with single, accurate records, those with duplicate medical records had significantly higher odds of in-­hospital mortality ... reported Hillary Western, MD, of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, and colleagues. (Robertson, 2/3)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: When The Doctor Needs A Checkup

He was a surgical oncologist at a hospital in a Southern city, a 78-year-old whose colleagues had begun noticing troubling behavior in the operating room. During procedures, he seemed “hesitant, not sure of how to go on to the next step without being prompted” by assistants, said Mark Katlic, director of the Aging Surgeon Program at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. The chief of surgery, concerned about the doctor’s cognition, “would not sign off on his credentials to practice surgery unless he went through an evaluation,” Katlic said. (Span, 2/4)