CMS Enforces Hospital Price Transparency Rule with Fines

CMS is cracking down on hospital price transparency compliance -- or lack thereof. The federal agency announced updated enforcement procedures, including earlier and automatic civil monetary penalties, or CMPs.

(Source: RevCycle Intelligence, 2023-04-27)

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OIG Publishes Toolkit for Examining Telehealth Claims for Fraud

A new written toolkit offers insights about how federal regulators examine telehealth claims for fraud. "Toolkit: Analyzing Telehealth Claims to Assess Program Integrity Risks" was published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General.

(Source: Medical Economics, 2023-04-28)

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Young Doctors Organizing Unions at Increasing Rate

Young doctors just out of medical school, working as resident physicians, fellows, and interns at major U.S. hospitals are organizing unions at an increasing rate. They cite long-running problems highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic and a need to rethink the struggles young doctors face in the profession. The Committee of Interns and Residents, an affiliate of SEIU, added five unionized sites in 2022 compared with about one a year before the pandemic and the surge has continued in 2023 with multiple union election filings.

(Source: The Guardian, 2023-04-27)

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Survey Finds 30% of Nurses Considering Leaving Careers in 2023

Almost a third of the nurses in the United States are considering leaving their profession after the COVID-19 pandemic left them overwhelmed and fatigued, according to a survey. The survey of over 18,000 nurses, conducted by AMN Healthcare Services in January, showed that 30 percent of the participants are looking to quit their career. This is up seven percentage points over 2021, when the pandemic-triggered wave of resignations began.

(Source: Reuters, 2023-05-01)

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Venture Capital in Digital Health Space Could Be Waning

After pouring billions of dollars into digital health throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, venture capital is in for a painful correction in part driven by higher interest rates, ACME Capital's general partner Aike Ho said. "We're not sure that venture capital is an asset class that will endure," Ho said.

(Source: FierceHealthcare, 2023-05-01)

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Senate Considering Bipartisan Rural Hospital Support Act

The Rural Hospital Support Act is a bipartisan bill currently under consideration by the U.S. Senate. It would direct additional Medicare payments to rural hospitals by extending or enhancing certain reimbursement programs on a permanent basis. The bill's sponsors have expressed concern that rural hospitals are more financially vulnerable than their non-rural counterparts.

(Source: Medical Economics, 2023-04-27)

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At-Home Hospital Care Beginning to Take Off Post-Pandemic

At-home hospital care is fast becoming an option for acute care for many conditions, even for treatment of cancer, or for patients recovering from complex procedures. Such shifts could potentially reshape the future of hospital care, affecting many more patients.

(Source: NPR, 2023-04-29)

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Rural Hospitals Finding Themselves Big Targets of Cyberattacks

Rural hospitals are just as much a target of cybersecurity attacks as larger and more urban health systems, according to Kate Pierce, Fortified Health Security's senior virtual information security officer and executive director of Subsidy. Rural and smaller hospitals saw an increase in cybersecurity attacks in 2022, as hackers see these providers as the path of least resistance.

(Source: Healthcare Finance News, 2023-04-28)

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Study Finds ChatGPT Outperformed Docs on Responses, Empathy

The artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT outperformed physicians when answering patient questions, based on quality of response and empathy, according to a cross-sectional study. Of 195 exchanges, evaluators preferred ChatGPT responses to physician responses in 78.6 percent (95 percent CI 75.0-81.8) of the 585 evaluations, reported John Ayers, PhD, MA, of the Qualcomm Institute at the University of California San Diego in La Jolla, and co-authors.

(Source: MedPage Today, 2023-04-28)

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Senators Reintroduce Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act

A bipartisan group of influential senators have reintroduced a bill increasing the number of Medicare-supported residency positions in a bid to stem the country's looming workforce shortage. The Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act was brought by Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and co-sponsored by Sens. John Boozman (R-Ark.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). It would add an average 2,000 Medicare-funded graduate medical education slots per year from 2025 to 2031, for a total of 14,000.

(Source: FierceHealthcare, 2023-04-28)

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