April 16, 2020 | Designed for this
INDUSTRY NEWS
Stimulus money to be distributed based on Medicare, not COVID
Hospitals and doctors will receive stimulus money based on their historical share of revenue from the Medicare program for seniors—not their coronavirus burden, the Department of Health and Human Services said Friday. States such as Minnesota, Nebraska and Montana, with a relatively light coronavirus burden, could end up receiving more than $300,000 per reported COVID-19 case in the $30 billion, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis. In contrast, New York, the worst-hit state, would receive only $12,000 per case. (Kaiser Health News)
ACOs rethink risk in light of COVID-19
Most ACOs that currently take on downside risk in the Medicare Shared Savings Program are considering dropping out, according to a new survey from the National Association of ACOs. The reason? Concerns they will suffer financial losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fifty-six percent of risk-bearing ACOs surveyed indicated they were very or somewhat likely to drop out of the Medicare program by May. (Modern Healthcare; survey)
INNOVATION & TRANSFORMATION
Rush University Medical Center in Chicago was designed and built to handle catastrophes. As the Windy City approaches its coronavirus peak, Rush faces its first major test. Rush is housed in a 14-story, 830,000-square-foot building built specifically for a deadly pandemic. It was designed to be able to quickly handle waves of patients, expand its bed capacity to 133% and control airflow to entire sections of the structure to prevent cross-contamination. (Washington Post)
CONSUMERS & PROVIDERS
Specialties agree: Equip doctors
Stories of physicians and other health care workers lacking protective equipment—and being punished when they complain—are becoming increasingly common, and various medical societies have been speaking out. Now, Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS) has released its own statement on behalf of all of its 45 member organizations, representing 800,000 physicians. Among other things, it supports a recent Joint Commission statement that allows health care workers to use their own PPE and reminds institutions of their responsibility to provide protection for their workers. (Medscape; CMSS statement)
CMS expands scopes of practice
CMS will allow doctors to treat patients at rural hospitals via telehealth, even if they’re out-of-state. The agency announced last week it has temporarily suspended several regulations in an effort to enhance workforce flexibility and allow providers to “perform work to the fullest extent of their licenses.” Under these temporary changes, nurse practitioners will be allowed to perform certain exams for Medicare patients in skilled nursing facilities, and occupational therapists who work for home health agencies will be able to do initial assessments for homebound patients. (CMS announcement; Healthcare IT News)
Job losses will mean loss of health coverage
The COVID-19 crisis “exposes the imprudence of tying health insurance to employment, and the need for more thoroughgoing reform,” according to an opinion piece in the Annals of Internal Medicine. As job losses grow, more people will lose access to health coverage-—1.553 million newly unemployed persons will lose health coverage, according to the author’s analysis. “A trickle of families facing the dual disaster of job loss and health insurance loss can remain under Washington’s radar. However, the current tsunami of job and coverage losses along with a heightened risk for severe illness demands action.” (AIM)
NEW & NOTED
No surprises: Before accepting money from the stimulus bill, hospitals must agree not to send surprise medical bills to patients treated for COVID-19, the White House said last week. Earlier this year lawmakers on both sides of the aisle supported legislation to curtail the practice, but prospects for such legislation are dimming. (AP)
Webinar + resources: Alliance for Health Policy has produced a series of COVID-19 webinars to provide cohesive insight into the status of the response to the pandemic. Its webinar miniseries page includes links to each webinar and to a list of resources from across the health care spectrum. (Alliance for Health Policy)
Top killer: COVID-19 is now the deadliest disease in the U.S., causing more deaths per day than cancer or heart disease. A new graph published last week by Dr. Maria Danilychev showed COVID-19 is the cause of 1,970 deaths in the U.S. per day. (Newsweek)
MULTI-MEDIA
Each afternoon, NPR’s daily news podcast, Coronavirus Daily, offers an overview of the day’s pandemic news, covering all dimensions of the story from science to economics and politics as well as society and culture. Each episode lasts roughly 10-15 minutes (Corona Virus Daily)
MARKETVOICES...QUOTES WORTH READING
“You wouldn't send a soldier into battle wearing a bathing suit. We’re asking for the same thing.”—Laurence Wellikson, MD, the CEO of the CMSS member group Society of Hospital Medicine, in Medscape