Who Polices Hospitals Merging Across Markets? States Give Different Answers
By Samantha Liss
Increasingly, hospitals are merging across separate markets within states. It’s a move that health economists and the Federal Trade Commission have been closely watching, as evidence shows such mergers raise prices for patients with no improvement in care.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': More Medicaid Messiness
At least 30 states are reinstating coverage for children wrongly removed from the rolls under Medicaid redetermination, the federal government reported. It’s just the latest hiccup in the massive effort to review the eligibility of Medicaid beneficiaries now that the program’s pandemic-era expansion has expired. And federal oversight of the so-called unwinding would be further complicated by an impending government shutdown. Rachel Roubein of The Washington Post, Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of Pink Sheet join KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Samantha Liss, who reported and wrote the latest KFF Health News-NPR “Bill of the Month” feature, about a hospital bill that followed a deceased patient’s family for more than a year.
As Covid Infections Rise, Nursing Homes Are Still Waiting for Vaccines
By Jordan Rau and Tony Leys
“People want covid-19 to be in the rearview mirror,” one nursing home official says. Faced with a slow rollout of the updated covid vaccines, and without state mandates for workers to get vaccinated, most skilled nursing facilities are relying on persuasion to boost vaccination rates among staff and residents.
Daily Edition for Wednesday, September 27, 2023
LAUSD Ends Covid Vaccine Mandate For Staff: The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education voted 6 to 1 on Tuesday to rescind its two-year-old COVID-19 vaccine mandate for staff, saying it is no longer needed to assure safe in-person learning. Read more from the Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Daily News.
What Happens to Health Programs if the Federal Government Shuts Down?
By Julie Rovner
Medicare and Medicaid shouldn’t be affected, but confusion can be expected.
New Medicare Advantage Plans Tailor Offerings to Asian Americans, Latinos, and LGBTQ+
By Stephanie Stephens
As more seniors opt for Medicare Advantage, a few small insurers have begun offering plans that provide culturally targeted benefits for cohorts including Asian Americans, Latinos, and LGBTQ+ people. The approach, policy researchers say, has potential and perils.
Florida Foster Kids Are Given Powerful Medications, but Feds Find State Oversight Lacking
By Christopher O’Donnell, Tampa Bay Times
A report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services raises troubling questions about the use of powerful medications within Florida’s child welfare system and the risk of overdoses or dangerous side effects if children are given the wrong combination of drugs.
Nuevos planes de Medicare Advantage adaptan ofertas para asiáticos, latinos y LGTBQ+
By Stephanie Stephens
A medida que Medicare Advantage gana popularidad entre los adultos mayores, tres compañías del sur de California están lanzando nuevos planes que se enfocan en comunidades culturales y étnicas, con ofertas especiales y profesionales que hablan su idioma nativo.
Daily Edition for Tuesday, September 26, 2023
LA County Seeks To Settle Lawsuit: Los Angeles County and the plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking more homeless services have proposed a settlement that appears to meet the demands of a federal judge who twice rejected earlier agreements. In the new proposal, filed in federal court Monday, the county pledges to provide an additional 3,000 beds for mental health and substance use treatment by the end of 2026. The initial attempt to settle last October provided for only 300 additional beds. Read more from the Los Angeles Times.
Epidemic: The Tata Way
Episode 5 of the “Eradicating Smallpox” podcast explores how a partnership between public health institutions and a huge, influential private company was key in the campaign to eliminate smallpox.
