March 5, 2020 | VA long-term care spending to double
INDUSTRY NEWS
SCOTUS agrees to hear ACA appeal
Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal that could determine the fate of the Affordable Care Act. This will be the third time SCOTUS will hear an ACA case. A Democratic coalition, led by California, is trying to overturn an appeals court ruling that the individual mandate was no longer constitutional because Congress eliminated the tax penalty for failure to have coverage. The court will likely hear arguments during the fall and render a decision in the spring or summer of 2021. (National Law Journal; New York Times)
CMS sets sights on accreditors
Accrediting firms can expect more scrutiny. CMS Administrator Seema Verma strongly criticized them for accrediting hospitals that later committed safety violations. She also blasted those organizations that set up consulting arms of accreditation organizations that help a facility pass the organization’s survey. “We think philosophically that it is important that whoever is doing an accreditation review does not have any type of financial relationship with who they are reviewing,” Verma told reporters after her speech. (FierceHealthcare)
INNOVATION & TRANSFORMATION
Genomic tests will speed diagnosis, treatment of infections
Rapid genomic tests could revolutionize the way doctors diagnose and treat infections. Many produce results in hours; traditional cultures can take days or weeks—or may not work at all. In light of the coronavirus epidemic, such speed is crucial. These tests could also ameliorate the growing crisis of drug-resistant infections: Pinpointing infections quickly would show doctors which antibiotic to use. However, as much promise as genomic tests hold, cost may limit widespread use. (New York Times)
CONSUMERS & PROVIDERS
Dementia screening not recommended for unimpaired
Current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening for cognitive impairment in older adults who don’t already show signs of impairment, according to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. “The question, from a population health societal perspective, is not whether or not there should be screening, but what population should be screened," Howard Fillit, MD, executive director and chief science officer at the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation, tells MedPage Today. (MedPage Today; JAMA)
GAO: VA long-term care spending to double
The VA will double its spending on long-term care for military veterans by 2037, according to a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The number of veterans receiving long-term care increased 14% from 2014 to 2018, according to the report. The VA faces three key challenges to meeting long-term care needs: finding enough workers, providing care where geographically needed and providing specialty care. (GAO report; Modern Healthcare)
Street medicine practitioners care for the unsheltered homeless where they live—on the street, beneath overpasses, behind supermarkets, etc. JAMA takes a look at these providers. “People [living on the street] die from heart disease and cancer and kidney disease like the rest of us, only at an accelerated rate,” says Patrick Perri, MD, medical director of the Center for Inclusion Health at Allegheny Health Network in Pittsburgh and treasurer of the Street Medicine Institute. Physicians also regularly encounter people with conditions not seen in those who have homes—for instance, late-stage syphilis and gangrenous toes. (JAMA)
NEW & NOTED
More shared savings? The National Association of Accountable Care Organizations is asking CMS to make changes to its primary care direct contracting payment model, including an increase to the shared savings rate from 50% to 75%. (Healthcare Dive)
Free coronavirus webinar: Learn how your nonprofit can best prepare for the coronavirus at a webinar sponsored by NonProfit WebAdvisor. It will take place March 18 at 1 p.m. EDT. Nonprofit attorney Zachary Kester will collect and synthesize the latest guidance from WHO, the CDC, OSHA and others. (details and registration)
Locums, shortages and turnover: Eighty-five percent of health care facilities have used locum tenens in the past year to fill gaps caused by a shortage of physicians and the growing turnover among employed doctors, according to a Staff Care survey of health care facility managers. (Medscape Medical News; survey)
MULTI-MEDIA
Scope of practice vs. innovation
Many health care organizations are experimenting with innovative ways to configure their workforces. Such innovation is limited, however, by restrictions on health professionals’ scope of practice. In this audio from the New England Journal of Medicine, Bianca K. Frogner, PhD, and colleagues discuss scope-of-practice regulations and how they can be redesigned to better serve the needs of patients. (NEJM)
MARKETVOICES...QUOTES WORTH READING
“We’re still using 19th-century technology for most microbiology diagnostics and they just don’t work well for many patients.”—Kevin Outterson, a professor of health law at Boston University and the executive director of CARB-X, a nonprofit focused on combating antimicrobial resistance, in The New York Times