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A 10-year analysis of hospitals’ preparedness for pandemics and other mass casualty events in the years prior to COVID-19 is warning that the nation’s health care system may not be adequately prepared for the next one. For the study, a team of researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and University of Maryland Medical Center used a surge index tool called Hospital Medical Surge Preparedness Index (HMSPI) to score data from more than 6,200 hospitals nationwide. The hospitals had partaken in the American Hospital Association annual surveys. The team also used census data to determine population estimates in various cities and geographic service area and combined it with the survey information to calculate the HMSPI score. (Hein, 7/8)

Thirty-two experts from 17 countries published a consensus statement today in JAMA Network Open to guide health leaders through COVID-19 pandemic recovery and prepare for future emergencies. The consensus statement emphasizes the importance of bolstering pandemic preparedness for future pandemics and promoting global solidarity and leadership, all of which were lacking amid the crisis, the authors said. It is also meant to help governments, public health officials, and health systems around the world address health gaps and disparities, along with their structural, societal, political, and economic underpinnings, they added. (Van Beusekom, 7/8)

Big changes in Medicaid payments to providers and managed care plans aren't likely this year as state budgets recover, Medicaid rolls shrink and the U.S. economy sheds its pandemic woes. Medicaid dramatically grew during the pandemic, rising to 80 million enrollees last month. Lost jobs and income last year drove enrollment, which remains high because federal relief funding was contingent on states not kicking beneficiaries off the Medicaid during the public health emergency. "States are in a better position than I think many anticipated at the start of all this," said Rachel Garfield, co-director for the Kaiser Family Foundation's Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured. (Brady, 7/8)

New cumulative data on hospitals, children's hospitals, outpatient surgery departments and ambulatory surgical centers is out from the Leapfrog Group. Here are the five big takeaways: 1. An average of 62% of parents and caregivers gave high marks for feeling equipped on reporting concerns over preventing potential medical errors. Leapfrog Group said caregivers are almost always at their child's bedside, and are apt to notice when something is wrong and should feel empowered to speak freely. This decreases the chances of a medical error. (Gillespie, 7/8)

Hospital merger and acquisition activity is rebounding as systems pursue regional combinations, according to a new report. The total revenue among hospitals that announced deals in the first half of 2021 was $17.2 billion, which was the second-highest tally since 2015, Kaufman Hall data show. There were only 27 transactions announced through the second quarter of this year—down from between 40 to 60 deals over the same span since 2015—signaling that larger health systems aim to join forces. The average size of the smaller hospital involved in the transaction was $638.6 million, which doubled the trailing five-year average. (Kacik, 7/8)

Temple University Hospital Inc. paid $12 million for the buildings, equipment, and supplies of the former Cancer Treatment Centers of American location at 1331 E. Wyoming Ave. in Northeast Philadelphia, Temple executives told bondholders Thursday. “This opens a significant and historic new chapter in our health system’s history — one which speaks to our improving clinical outcomes, operational efficiency, positive financial performance, and long-term strength of our organization,” Michael A. Young, president and chief executive of Temple University Health System, said in a June 29 news release on the completion of the acquisition. (Brubaker, 7/9)

KHN: Effort To Decipher Hospital Prices Yields Key Finding: Don’t Try It At Home 

A federal price transparency rule that took effect this year was supposed to give patients, employers and insurers a clearer picture of the true cost of hospital care. When the Trump administration unveiled the rule in 2019, Seema Verma, then chief of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, promised it would “upend the status quo to empower patients and put them first.” I set out to test that statement by comparing prices in two major California hospital systems. I am sorry to report that, at least for now, that status quo — the tangled web that long has cloaked hospital pricing — is alive and well. (Wolfson, 7/9)

KHN: Federal Speech Rulings May Embolden Health Care Workers To Call Out Safety Issues 

Karen Jo Young wrote a letter to her local newspaper criticizing executives at the hospital where she worked as an activities coordinator, arguing that their actions led to staffing shortages and other patient safety problems. Hours after her letter was published in September 2017, officials at Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth, Maine, fired her, citing a policy that no employee may give information to the news media without the direct involvement of the media office. (Meyer, 7/9)