Hospitals coast to coast are demanding their employees get vaccinated against covid as the highly contagious delta variant tears through populations with low vaccination rates. Nearly 1,500 hospitals — roughly a quarter of all hospitals in the U.S. —now require staffers to get a covid vaccine, said Colin Milligan, a spokesperson for the American Hospital […]
Ravages of COVID Surge Evident Inside Missouri Hospital
Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. Billie Barker with her son Brody, 6, uses her cellphone to speak with her husband, Daryl, who is on the other side of the window inside his room at Lake Regional Hospital in Osage Beach, MO. OSAGE BEACH, MO. (AP) — […]
White Bagging: Insurer Shift on Drugs Raises Alarm
A big change in drug treatment for cancer is arriving in Georgia. It’s not a new medication. What’s coming is something known as “white bagging,” an insurer tactic involving expensive infusion or injection drugs. And at Crisp Regional Health Services in Cordele, Jennifer Taylor, an oncology nurse practitioner, is concerned about the ultimate effect on patient […]
FDA: Time to Move Away From Using Decontaminated Respirators
Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today recommended that healthcare facilities cut back on the use of strategies for conserving capacity that have been in effect during the COVID-19 crisis, such as decontaminating disposable respirators for reuse. The National Institute […]
Charitable care provided by hospitals doesn’t measure up to their tax exemptions
The amount of charity care provided by government and nonprofit hospitals falls short of the obligation implied by their favorable tax treatment, according to a new study published in the April issue of Health Affairs by researchers at Johns Hopkins University’s Carey Business School and Bloomberg School of Public Health. Using Medicare data from 2018, […]
Las Vegas Hospital Told to Pay $23M in Medicare Overpayments
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A hospital in Las Vegas has been asked to refund more than $23 million in services after a federal audit concluded it received millions in overpayments from Medicare. The Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services conducted a routine audit of Sunrise Hospital and […]
France Will Not Force Hospitals to Choose Which Patients to Treat in COVID Crisis
PARIS (Reuters) – France will not let hospitals be in a situation where they have to choose which patients to treat, amid a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, Health Minister Olivier Veran told parliament on Tuesday. “We will not let doctors be in a situation where they have to choose among patients,” Veran said. […]
Community Oncologists Balk at Home Chemo’s Financial Effects
This is the third in a series of articles on delivering cancer treatment at home. If providing cancer therapies at home means handing off patients to a home-infusion company, Tennessee Oncology wants no part of it. The Nashville-based practice, one of the largest community-based practices in the country, is built on a business model that […]
Vaccine Withheld From Hospital That Gave Trump Tower Shots
Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. The city of Chicago on Thursday decided to withhold first doses of COVID-19 vaccines from a hospital that improperly administered vaccinations to Trump Tower workers. The withholding of vaccines comes as the city conducts a review of actions by Loretto Hospital, […]
Roche Says Actemra-Remdesivir Trial Fails to Cut Hospital Stays
ZURICH (Reuters) – Swiss drugmaker Roche said on Thursday adding its drug Actemra to Gilead Sciences’ Veklury medication, also called remdesivir, did not reduce hospital stays for patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia. Roche’s anti-inflammatory Actemra combined with Veklury, Gilead’s antiviral drug, failed to reduce hospitalisation durations in the REMDACTA trial, which compared the cocktail with […]