Category Archives: Hospital

Recovery of medical staffing firms will lag behind hospitals, analysts say

Posted on by • Posted in Cash, Cash Reserves, Coronavirus, Credit Quality, Credit Ratings, Crisis, Crisis Management, Economic Crisis, Economic Recovery, Economic Stimulus, Elective Procedures, Elective Surgery, Emergency Care, Emergency Room Staffing, Health System, Hospital, Hospital Industry, Linear Path, Liquidity, Market Outlook, Market Uncertainty, Medicare Advance Payments, Private Equity, The CARES Act • Leave a comment

https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/recovery-of-medical-staffing-firms-will-lag-behind-hospitals-analysts-say/580171/

COVID-19 Triggers Cash Need, Lenders Tighten Reins | PYMNTS.com

Dive Brief:

  • Though U.S. hospital staffing companies are slowly beginning to recover from the COVID-19 shutdown and corresponding drop in revenues, that rebound will lag behind hospitals.
  • Recovery of giants like ER staffing firm Envision and AMN Healthcare, which has the largest network of qualified clinicians in the U.S., will be hindered as hospitals prefer to keep their own staff employed over external contractors amid a recession.
  • The “pace of recovery will not be linear,” and depends on the mix of service lines and geography, S&P Global analysts said in a Thursday note. Analysts also expect hospitals to aggressively renegotiate rates and terms with staffing companies later in the year, which could depress margins even more in the long-term.

Dive Insight:

The collapse in patient volume following stay-at-home guidelines implemented earlier this year has had a well-documented effect on provider finances. Hospitals and doctor’s offices prepared for an influx of COVID-19 patients as lucrative elective procedures declined and revenues imploded.

At the nadir in April, anesthesiology services were down 70%, radiology down 60% and ER visits down 40%, S&P said. Analysts expect tentative recovery in May and June, but no return to pre-pandemic volume until mid-2021.

The dramatic reduction slashed the revenues and cash flows of staffing companies, though the worst is likely over. At the beginning of the pandemic, staffing companies and hospitals alike took preventive measures like furloughing nonessential and back-office workers, extending vendor payment terms, aggressively collecting old receivables and onboarding doctors to telehealth. Many have kept up adequate frontline capacity too, despite uncertain demand.

The economy saw some small gains in May as furloughed employees began to trickle back to work. But the increase in health services employment that month came largely in dental health workers and physician offices. Hospitals shed another 27,000 jobs.

Hospitals will likely fill staffing needs internally, bringing back furloughed or laid off employees first as operations slowly improve, before turning once again to medical contractors.

“Given the extended disruption, a looming recession, and possible lasting changes to health care providers, credit metrics will be much weaker than what we had previously expected for nearly all staffing companies,” analysts wrote. “Some staffing companies, particularly those that are highly leveraged, may face very significant liquidity pressures for several months. It is possible not all will be able to withstand the sharp decline.”

S&P Global has taken a number of negative rating actions on staffing companies since late March.

Envision and anesthesiology firm ASP Napa, both rated ‘CCC’ with a negative outlook, have the greatest potential for a default. Envision, owned by private equity firm KKR and one of the largest U.S. physician staffing firms, is reportedly considering a bankruptcy filing as it struggles with $7 billion in debt.

Knoxville, Tenn.-based Team Health and clinical practice management firm SCP Health have enough liquidity to chug along for several more months of lower-than-normal volumes, while AMN and Utah-based CHG Healthcare Services are both in more solid positions to weather the pandemic, S&P said.

But professional outsourced staffing businesses, like anesthesiology and radiology, should recover more quickly, and many firms have gotten financial support from lenders and private equity backers. Team Health, for example, approved a senior secured term loan from its PE sponsor, Blackstone, which covers interest payments in April through mid-May.

Liquidity was also helped by the passage of the $2.2 trillion CARES relief legislation late March.

Several staffing companies have reportedly received grants from the $100 billion allocated by the legislation for providers, along with no-interest loans from accelerated Medicare payments, sparking questions over whether companies backed by cash-rich private equity firms need the funds.

 

 

 

 

Moody’s: US healthcare system rebounds from COVID-19 in May, but a bumpy road lies ahead

Posted on by • Posted in 2020 Election Issues, Cash, Cash Reserves, Coronavirus, Credit Quality, Credit Ratings, Economic Crisis, Economic Recovery, Economy, Economy Reopening, Elective Procedures, Elective Surgery, Emergency Care, Health Insurance Coverage Adequacy, Health System, High Deductible Health Plans, High Drug Prices, High Prices, Hospital, Hospital Industry, Linear Path, Liquidity, Market Outlook, Market Uncertainty, Medical Device, Out of Pocket Expenses, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Robot-Assisted Surgery, Robotic Process Automation, Supply Chain • Leave a comment

https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/moodys-us-healthcare-system-rebounds-from-covid-19-in-may-but-a-bumpy-ro/580152/

Banks rating downgrade: Moody's changes outlook on Indian banks to ...

Dive Brief:

  • A Moody’s Investors Service report on Thursday suggests that the U.S. healthcare industry is on the rebound from COVID-19, but recovery will likely to slow and uneven. Moreover, the report expressed concerns that regional flareups of coronavirus could majorly set back the return to normal volumes.
  • Investment firm Jefferies affirmed those worries in hospital traffic data shared Friday, noting “a sharp reversal” in hotspot state Arizona. Analysts tracked “record lows” in Arizona’s hospital traffic last week, down from what was thought to be the trough in April and sagging below May recovery amid a significant uptick in COVID-19 cases and protests.
  • “Whether states can continue their recovery even as cases increase, as we’ve seen in [Texas] and others, or if the recent reversals in [Arizona, Illinois,] etc. become more widespread is a trend to watch in coming weeks,” Jefferies analysts wrote.

Dive Insight:

Large sections of the healthcare sector all but shut down during the spring as the coronavirus led to nationwide shelter-in-place orders. However, as states and municipalities slowly reopen, so are the doors for hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, clinics and other integral components of healthcare delivery.

As a result, Moody’s reported “considerable sequential improvement” during May. For example, while for-profit hospitals saw surgery volumes drop as much as 70% in April compared to the same period in 2019, May volumes were down about 20% to 40% compared to last year’s. Hospital-operated ambulatory surgical centers saw an 80% to 90% drop in April volumes, but only a 30% to 40% drop in May.

However, Moody’s noted that the “path to normalized volumes are not linear.” It also pointed out that emergency room care volumes, which dropped as much as 60% in April, have yet to really rebound, as they still appeared depressed as much as 50% in May.

“This could reflect the prevalence of working-from-home arrangements and people generally staying home, which is leading to a decrease in automobile and other accidents outside the home. Weak ER volumes also suggest that many people remain apprehensive to enter a hospital, particularly for lower acuity care,” the Moody’s report said.

The firm also noted that “the shape of recovery will vary by state, region and service line, reinforcing the importance of diversification for credit quality among healthcare service providers.”

However, Moody’s believes that the darkest days of March and April are behind much of the healthcare sector. It noted that most providers have stockpiled appropriate personal protective equipment and have reconfigured their offices, waiting rooms and other infrastructure to protect the health of both patients and employees.

Traffic data from 3,300 U.S. hospitals, tracked by Jefferies via mobile device pings, indicates that compared to January 2019 levels, national traffic lows of 43.7% in mid-April improved to 63.3% by early June.

But state-by-state analysis reveals some parts of the country are trending backwards. Arizona fell to a new low of 28.5% last week after hitting 51.5% on May 20. The analysts also reported Illinois hit its own new low on June 7.

While Moody’s did express some concern about regional outbreaks, it concluded that the precautions already taken “make it less likely that the U.S. would once again shut down all non-elective care across the nation if there is a second wave of coronavirus infections.”

Moody’s did express some concerns about hospital finances, but noted that for-profit hospitals “have unusually strong liquidity” due to payouts from the CARES Act and other government-sponsored financial relief programs.

Medical device firms should be prepared for a long and uneven recovery, according to Moody’s. The dental and orthopaedic sectors “will see a greater than average impact from consumers’ inability to pay for procedures or their unwillingness to engage with the healthcare system.” Moody’s forecast “a gradual, uneven pace of recovery,” with pre-tax earnings to decline as much as 30% in 2020 compared to 2019, while revenues will shrink around 10%. It expects that earnings will rebound in 2021 to 2019 levels.

Companies that operate in discretionary sectors will be hit harder as they rely on patients able to meet large deductibles or co-payments or to pay for related procedures entirely on their own. Moody’s noted that a large number of these procedures are performed in acute care hospitals with the assistance of robotics, but hospitals may be more conservative in their robotics investments given new budget constraints.

 

 

 

3 New Jersey health systems tap Chris Christie for lobbying

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Lobbyist transparency bill headed to House floor - New Mexico In Depth

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who registered as a lobbyist earlier this month, has three new health system clients: Atlantic Health System, Hackensack Meridian Health and RWJBarnabas Health. 

The three New Jersey health systems hired Mr. Christie to lobby the federal government on Medicare reimbursement and federal relief funding, according to lobbying disclosure documents submitted June 17.

Mr. Christie is registered to lobby through his firm, Christie 55 Solutions. He works with his former chief of staff Rich Bagger.

Atlantic Health System is based in Morristown, Hackensack Meridian is in Hackensack, and RWJBarnabas is in West Orange. 

 

 

 

 

LA healthcare leaders urge reopening coronavirus surge hospital

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LA healthcare leaders urge reopening coronavirus surge hospital

LA healthcare leaders urge reopening coronavirus surge hospital ...

With recent flare-up in neighboring counties, L.A.-area hospital leaders want the county to work with the state to keep surge hospitals open.

Healthcare officials on Tuesday called for Los Angeles County leaders to work with the state to reopen its “surge” hospital and recommended that another in Long Beach swing open its doors, citing the need to fully reopen medical centers while also dealing with an expected surge in coronavirus cases.

The state-funded Los Angeles Surge Hospital, which opened on April 13 at the former site of the St. Vincent Medical Center amid heightened concern about having enough beds to deal with Covid-19 patients, has closed.

But Dr. Hector Flores, an Adventist Health White Memorial physician, told the county’s Board of Supervisors and his fellow members on the county’s Economic Resiliency Task Force that county officials should work to bring it back online. He also recommended that Long Beach Community Hospital — which has long been on the cusp of reopening — become a surge hospital.

The context in June is different, however, than it was in March and April, when public health officials were intensely concerned that the county’s hospital capacity would be overwhelmed by a never-before-seen virus that was spreading and killing exponentially.

Along with many other businesses, hospitals, too, shut down many services in an effort to grow bed capacity for COVID-19 patients. But those services were essential for many hospitals’ bottom line — everything from elective procedures to vital surgeries. Couple that with patients who were delaying or outright canceling vital non-coronavirus visits, and in the first 90 days of the pandemic in L.A. County, hospitals — typically among the largest employers — were shedding jobs and occupancy (which fell to about 40% collectively, according to Flores).

“Hospitals are like hotels. If they are not fully occupied they are losing money,” said Flores, who heads a working group on the county’s task force.

Ultimately, the industry took an estimated $15 billion hit, he said, and only now, in the past two weeks is it starting to recover as health orders are eased and 15,000 doctors and medical support staffs make their way back to their once-shuttered practices.

Flores, and his committee of healthcare leaders have been devising a framework for recovery in the healthcare sector of the county’s economy. They want to maintain those jobs in the $100-billion-a-year healthcare industry.

It’s a larger goal among county leaders, who started the resiliency task force to figure out how several of the region’s economic sectors can recover after being shut down for months.

But there’s a looming concern: A second wave of the virus.

Flores said recent coronavirus spikes in Orange and Ventura counties — which saw large crowds gathering at beaches over the Memorial Day holiday — are giving him pause.

And that’s prompted Flores and others to call for the county to work with state officials to reopen and keep surge hospitals open. The move would help regular hospitals keep their non-COVID business going but allow for more capacity, if needed.

As it stands, non-COVID patients are coming back. Hospitals over the last two to three weeks have gone from 40% to 85% occupancy rates.

“What that tells us is that if there is a surge there won’t be the same capacity that we had for the first 90 days (of the pandemic),” he said. “We’re concerned about the uptick we see in Ventura and Orange County, since on Memorial Day weekend they opened beaches, hiking trails and parks. Sadly, many people took advantage of that open environment without protection of masks and often congregating in clusters. We’re also waiting to see the impact of the protests in two weeks.”

State and local officials have repeatedly said that public health data will guide local decisions, and have held out the possibility that public health orders could be re-tightened.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Supervisor Sheila Kuehl questioned whether Flores meant the county should keep surge hospitals “available” or actually open them.

Flores said as hospitals reopen and perform essential surgeries, they need “safe units” where patients can recover from an operation without the threat of being infected by the virus. And to do that, they need more space, he said.

“As we see a smaller number of beds available in hospitals, we are eventually going to rely on surge hospitals … because we anticipate there is quite likely going to be another surge if the patterns we see in Ventura and Orange counties come to play in Los Angeles,” Flores said.

The shuttered St. Vincent’s hospital, on a 10-acre campus in the Westlake District near Downtown Los Angeles, seemed essential when it was pressed into duty on April 13 after being closed in January. It quickly became part of the state’s plan to outfit roughly 50,000 more hospital beds to handle a surge of infected patients.

Ultimately, though, that surge never came. The hospital treated 65 people at a cost to taxpayers of nearly $15 million, the Southern California News Group reported.

It may very well stay that way. A spokesperson for the hospital said Tuesday that the hospital is “officially closed at the present time, there are no plans to reopen.”

Long Beach Community Hospital, too, was eyed. City leaders and officials from Molina, Wu, Network, Inc. — the hospital’s new operator — scurried to reopen it in the early COVID-19 days.

MWN said in late March that the facility was “days away” from opening, as Long Beach looked for capacity.  That never came. Plus, the U.S. Navy hospital ship Mercy, which arrived in Los Angeles in late March to help treat non-coronavirus patients, returned to San Diego after treating just 77 patients.

Meanwhile, regular hospitals were scambling to find room for the expected surge of COVID patients. But between that and the March “Safer-at-Home” order, hospitals suffered the unintended consequence of furlough and layoffs related to a shortage of “non-essential” medical work.

The county’s Department of Health Services says the decision to reopen the St. Vincent’s property lies with the state, which in consultation with Dignity Health and Kaiser, closed down operations as its contract was due to run out by the end of June.

Could it come back online?

“The opinion of the County is that a) currently we project having sufficient overall beds in the county to meet demand (with the exception of ICU which can be resolved by flexing bed types within existing hospitals) and b) surging our existing hospitals,” according to a statement.

Officials say adding beds at existing hospitals is a “better approach” because it makes use of the existing infrastructure. County health services officials add that all hospitals have the ability “to surge patients at least 20% above their normal capacity.”

As for Long Beach Community Hospital, health officials noted that it has not yet been approved to operate by licensing through the state.

“We would welcome LBCH coming on line as an additional acute care hospital, but need for them to meet state licensing criteria,” according to the statement.

L.A. County Public Health officials predict that with no change in the transmission rate of the disease, the demand for hospital beds will remain relatively stable, with some slight “up-trending” because of the easing of health-order restrictions.

If transmission increases by half above current levels, a June 10 county Department of Health Services projection concluded that nearly 70% of the county’s population will catch the virus by Dec. 1.

Hospitalizations across the county were down to 1,285 as of Monday from a peak of nearly 2,000 in late April. While the numbers have been down considerably, some hospitals have experienced a slight uptick in recent days. Whether that increase is the result of an oncoming surge has yet to be seen, according to Molly Lawson, spokeswoman for Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood.

“It’s really too early to tell,” Lawson said. “This week we had anticipated seeing the community impact of some of the protests and marches and all the activities happening of late.”

Centinela Hospital, which according to Lawson had one of the higher levels of hospitalization rates, treated about 70 COVID-19 patients in late April and early May. Patients occupied two full units, Lawson said. As of Tuesday, the hospital had 17 patients, just half a unit.

At Torrance Memorial Medical Center, which saw a peak of about 55 patients just as “Safer-at-Home” orders went into effect in late March, the hospital has been treating 15 to 21 patients for the past several weeks, according to spokeswoman Sandy Rodriguez. The lowest number of COVID-19 patients the hospital had admitted was 11.

“We have seen some intermittent increases, but no surge,” Rodriguez said.

 

 

 

11 hospital, health system projects costing $300M or more

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https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/capital/11-hospital-health-system-projects-costing-300m-or-more.html?utm_medium=email

2019 Hospital Construction Survey | Health Facilities Management

Eleven hospitals and health systems since Feb. 18 have advanced, completed or begun facility expansions and renovations with price tags of $300 million or more.

1. Moffitt Cancer Center’s $400M hospital construction to start in July
Tampa, Fla.-based Moffitt Cancer Center will begin construction of its 10-story, $400 million hospital in July.

2. UCSF’s plans 1.5M-square-foot hospital
The University of California San Francisco plans to build a 1.5 million-square-foot hospital and research facility in the city. The first phase of the construction included a $500 million pledge from the Helen Diller Foundation, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. 

3. City of Hope buys site for $1B cancer hospital, research center
Duarte, Calif.-based City of Hope has purchased a 190,000-square-foot building and 11 acres of land as part of a $1 billion investment in a new hospital and cancer research center in Irvine, Calif.

4. Texas Children’s to build $450M hospital in Austin
Texas Children’s Hospital plans to build a $450 million freestanding women and children’s hospital in Austin, the organization said May 20.

5. Dell Children’s to invest $700M in new hospital, expansion
Austin, Texas-based Dell Children’s Medical Center plans to invest $700 million in the next three years to expand in the state

6. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia pumps $3.4B into expansion
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is planning to build a new 22-story patient tower.

7. Valleywise Health breaks ground on $900M Phoenix medical center
Phoenix-based Valleywise Health broke ground late February on its $900 million medical center in Phoenix. The health system told Becker’s Hospital Review May 13 that the project is “on track for completion in late 2023, and so far, no significant delays.”

8. UC Davis Medical Center details $1.9B expansion
UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, Calif., plans to invest $1.9 billion in expansion and renovation projects over the next 10 years.

9. MUSC opens $389M Charleston children’s hospital
The Medical University of South Carolina opened its $389 million children’s hospital to patients Feb. 22.

10. Pennsylvania hospital’s $327M modernization project OK’d
Media, Pa.-based Riddle Hospital’s $327 million upgrade and expansion project received the green light from the Middle Township board and its parent organization, Main Line Health.

11. Texas A&M plans to build $550M complex in Texas Medical Center
College Station-based Texas A&M University plans to build a $550 million complex in the Texas Medical Center, a sprawling Houston hub of healthcare institutions.

 

 

 

Judge refuses to approve pension plan deal requiring Dignity to pay up to $747M

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Dignity Health Poised to Settle ERISA Lawsuit for $100 Million

A California federal judge again refused to approve a deal requiring Dignity Health to pay as much as $747 million to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing the San Francisco-based health system of underfunding its pension plan, according to Law360.

The lawsuit, filed by former Dignity Health workers, alleges the health system used a religious Employee Income Retirement Security Act exemption to underfund its pension plan by $1.8 billion. In October, a federal judge in the Northern District of California refused to sign off on a proposed settlement because it contained a “kicker” clause. The clause would allow Dignity to keep the difference between the amount of attorneys’ fees awarded by the court and the more than $6 million in fees authorized by the settlement.

“Although the fact is not explicitly stated in the settlement, if the court awards less than $6.15 million in fees, defendants keep the amount of the difference and those funds are not distributed to the class,” Judge Jon S. Tigar said, according to Bloomberg Law. “The Court concludes that this arrangement, which potentially denies the class money that defendants were willing to pay in settlement — with no apparent countervailing benefit to the class — renders the settlement unreasonable.”

Both sides agreed to eliminate the kicker clause and resolved other issues the court outlined when it denied preliminary approval and class certification in October. In November, the workers filed a renewed unopposed motion, which the court denied June 12.

To certify a class for the purpose of settlement, the court must find that the plaintiffs named in the lawsuit and their lawyer were negotiating on behalf of the entire class. In Dignity’s case, there’s a “fundamental conflict of interest between the vesting subgroup and the rest of the class that must be addressed by subclass certification,” Mr. Tigar wrote in the order denying the motion. “Because the court cannot certify the class, it cannot grant preliminary approval of the settlement.”

Mr. Tigar wrote that he made the finding reluctantly because of the extensive litigation that has already occurred and the age of the case. However, he said Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure requires it. 

 

 

 

 

Industry Voices—Healthcare has a plus-size problem from consolidation. Here are 9 ways to respond

Posted on by • Posted in Clinical Flow, Communication, Consumer Confidence, Consumerism, Deferred Healthcare, Health System, High Risk Patients, Hospital, Hospital Industry, Low Density Care Settings, Market Consolidation, Patient Density, Physical Access, Population Health, Pre-Appointment Discussions, Staff Density, Vulnerable Populations, Wearable Devices • Leave a comment

https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/hospitals/industry-voices-healthcare-has-a-plus-size-problem-from-consolidation-here-are-9-ways-to?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWlRJMk9UYzVZVFl4Tm1VMSIsInQiOiJ0aElzSllzTkpISWNIcU13ZXErNVdPSzU3K05cLzRVY2FEWFMycDNHZTZcLzlTYUo3UVNNQXd3ZjlwZXlFbVA3c3NQTHI0NFhqcjhFNk1VUXc4aVlnYW9aSnFVOVIydEFqWG5weWdEc2Viall1elwvK0RIRWtEajhPWGw3TEFTNDlkUCJ9&mrkid=959610

Industry Voices—Healthcare has a plus-size problem from ...

For two decades, healthcare consolidation has been a strong industry trend. But in the COVID-19 era, big healthcare is proving to be a big problem.

Once the community spread of COVID-19 became apparent, large systems turned off the spigot of specialty and nonessential services almost immediately. Now, as these organizations try to entice patients back into services, they face consumers who have good reason to fear the large, populated spaces these systems are built on.

As patients return for care and treatments, large hospitals and health providers need targeted approaches to overcome risk and obstacles. Here are nine strategies to consider for restarting patients:

1. Identify patients and instances with care disruption and high risks associated with care deferral. Knowing which patients are at high risk due to missed appointments plus other risk and time-based analytics will be useful in targeting efforts to bring patients back. Use various technologies to identify prior scheduled procedures and diagnostics.

2. Create a clinical flow for patients in each treatment or appointment category so communication to patients is clear as they are recruited back into the system. The clinical flows should determine which patients will receive telehealth services and who will need physical exams, along with how imaging or laboratory services will be handled to safely address patient time and access to services.

3. Use population health technology to target patients by risk level for services and deferral reasons. Patients who were infected with COVID-19 should be indicated and targeted for services, since this calls for additional surveillance of new risk factors associated with the disease.

4. Contact patients for pre-appointment discussions prior to actual telehealth or personal visits and services. Identify data to collect from patients on symptoms, social determinants and concerns about healthcare or COVID-19 infection so patients can vet their concerns and upcoming discussions with physicians can be more informative.

5. Reimagine the role and functions of some specialists. Because specialty practices are often located in close proximity to many diagnostic services, primary care physicians, who tend to be off campus, can provide initial services in a low-density setting and leave the procedures to specialists.

6. Consider aligning with smaller or more localized services for diagnostics, or provide wearable devices that capture needed clinical data.

7. If feasible, consider whether physical access to some care locations should be redetermined in the short or midterm for patient ease of access.

8. For physical visits or treatments, adjust scheduling to accommodate patient and staff density in clinical or waiting areas.

9. Involve specialists in care and space redesign as well as designing risk criteria. Every specialty will have unique issues that should be accommodated in the design of restarting services.

Planning to improve and strengthen connections to patients in larger healthcare operations will go far toward helping them gain confidence to return during this phase of the pandemic. Now more than ever, we can’t afford a systemwide hit or miss.

 

 

 

 

Gladwell: COVID-19 should push healthcare to consider its ‘weak links’

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https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payer/malcolm-gladwell-covid-19-should-push-healthcare-to-consider-its-weak-links?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWlRJMk9UYzVZVFl4Tm1VMSIsInQiOiJ0aElzSllzTkpISWNIcU13ZXErNVdPSzU3K05cLzRVY2FEWFMycDNHZTZcLzlTYUo3UVNNQXd3ZjlwZXlFbVA3c3NQTHI0NFhqcjhFNk1VUXc4aVlnYW9aSnFVOVIydEFqWG5weWdEc2Viall1elwvK0RIRWtEajhPWGw3TEFTNDlkUCJ9&mrkid=959610

Gladwell: COVID-19 should push healthcare to consider its 'weak ...

The coronavirus pandemic has shown the healthcare industry that it needs to decide whether it’s playing basketball or soccer, journalist and author Malcolm Gladwell said. 

Gladwell, the opening keynote speaker at America’s Health Insurance Plans’ annual Institute & Expo, said the two sports exemplify the differences in thinking when one tackles problems using a “strong link” approach versus a “weak link” approach.

In basketball, he said, the team is as strong as its strongest, most high-profile players. In soccer, by contrast, the team is only as strong as its weakest players.

For healthcare organizations, that means making investments in the “weakest links”—such as harried clinicians who may need more training and low-income communities that cannot afford or access coverage—rather than the stronger links, like building out teaching hospitals and physician specializations.

“In healthcare, this is a chance for us to turn the ship around and say we can benefit far more from making health insurance more plentiful and more affordable,” Gladwell said. 

Gladwell emphasized that healthcare is far from the only industry to largely follow a “strong link” approach to improvement. In higher education, for example, much of the investment and funding goes to Ivy League institutions and other wealthy, top-performing universities.

Meanwhile, the education system could see significant benefits if it invested in the “weak links” like community colleges and bringing down tuition, Gladwell said. 

It’s a similar story in national security—and that “strong link” thinking led to two of the largest security breaches in American history, Gladwell said. Both Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning were relatively low-ranking people within the security apparatus, but they were able to access critical files and release them.

“I would argue that ‘strong link’ paradigm has dominated every part of American society,” Gladwell said. “We have really put our chips down on the ‘strong link’ paradigm.” 

How could a “weak link” approach have impacted the response to the COVID-19 pandemic? Gladwell argues that, for instance, widespread testing is hampered by a lack of supplies like nasal swabs. Investment in the supply chain could have mitigated that challenge, he said.

The virus also disproportionately impacts people with certain conditions, notably diabetes. A broader focus on preventing and treating obesity could have had a large impact on how the pandemic played out, he said. 

“With this particular pandemic, I think we’re having a wake-up call,” Gladwell said.

 

 

 

7 health systems report $1B+ losses in Q1

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The Dollar Total For 1996's Top Verdict Awards Continues On A ...

Health systems across the U.S. saw revenue decline, expenses rise and investment gains dwindle in the first quarter of this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

For the three months ended March 31, some of the biggest nonprofit health systems in the U.S. reported losses. Below are seven health systems that reported net losses of $1 billion or more. 

Ascension (St. Louis)
Revenue: $6.1 billion
Operating loss: $429.4 million
Net loss: $2.7 billion

CommonSpirit Health (Chicago)
Revenue: $7.8 billion
Operating loss: $145 million
Net loss: $1.4 billion

Kaiser Permanente (Oakland, Calif.)
Revenue: $22.6 billion
Operating income: $1.3 billion
Net loss: $1.1 billion

Providence (Renton, Wash.)
Revenue: $6.3 billion
Operating loss: $276 million
Net loss: $1.1 billion

Sutter Health (Sacramento, Calif.)
Revenue: $3.2 billion
Operating loss: $236 million
Net loss: $1.1 billion

Advocate Aurora Health (Downers Grove, Ill., and Milwaukee)
Revenue: $3.1 billion
Operating loss: $85.6 million
Net loss: $1.3 billion

Intermountain Healthcare (Salt Lake City)
Revenue: $2.3 billion
Operating income: $115 million
Net loss: $1 billion

 

 

Beaumont, Advocate Aurora explore merger

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https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-transactions-and-valuation/beaumont-advocate-aurora-explore-merger.html?utm_medium=email

Advocate Aurora Health, Beaumont Health Exploring Partnership ...

Beaumont Health announced it is in partnership talks with Advocate Aurora Health on June 17, less than one month after canceling a plan to merge with Akron, Ohio-based Summa Health. 

Southfield, Mich.-based Beaumont and Advocate Aurora, which has dual headquarters in Downers Grove, Ill., and Milwaukee, said they began partnership discussions in late 2019 but paused talks to allow both organizations to focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. On June 17, the health systems signed a nonbinding letter of intent to create a health system that would span across Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois.

Though talks are still in early stages, the health systems have already agreed to an equal one-third governance representation of any future partnership between Beaumont, Advocate Health Care and Aurora Health Care, which merged in 2018 to create Advocate Aurora Health.

Beaumont President and CEO John Fox said the system is excited to explore the partnership with Advocate Aurora.

“The potential opportunity to leverage the strength and scale of a regional organization while maintaining a local focus and strong presence in Michigan as a leader and major employer is important to us,” Mr. Fox said in a news release.

Advocate Aurora President and CEO Jim Skogsbergh described the potential deal as a “unique opportunity.”

“Beaumont Health has built a strong reputation for clinical excellence, education and research,” Mr. Skogsbergh said in a news release. “This is a unique opportunity to explore a partnership with a like-minded, purpose-driven organization.”