When the new corporate owners of two rural hospitals in Mexico, Missouri, suddenly announced they would stop admitting patients one Friday in March, Kayla Schudel, a nurse, stood resolute in the nearly empty lobby of Audrain Community Hospital: “You’ll be seen; the ER is open.” The hospital — with 40 beds and five clinics — typically saw 24 to 50 […]

With a number of home health regulatory changes coming once the calendar flips to 2023, agencies are focusing on getting a head start adjusting their staff to changes. Many leaders consider major regulatory shifts as an issue that needs to be dealt with from the top, down. But that’s not necessarily the case. The Home Health Value-Based Purchasing (HHVBP) Model, […]

Tonight, Beyoncé is dropping her first single in two years. It’s called “Break My Soul.” Are you ready?  As COVID vaccines for infants, toddlers and preschoolers start rolling out, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) picked a fight with the White House by not pre-ordering doses ahead of time. We’ll look at some of the implications. Welcome to Overnight Health Care, where we’re […]

Shareholders have hit digital health companies with a spate of securities fraud lawsuits this year as once high-flying companies see share prices drop, and more could be on the horizon. It’s common to see a rise in such complaints, across industries, when the stock market is down. But healthcare and life sciences companies may be more susceptible to litigation. “In […]

Dr. Alex Jahangir, executive medical director of the Trauma Patient Care Center and vice president for business development at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, joined The Check Up to discuss his leadership during the COVID-19 response. Specifically, how Nashville’s health systems banded together to protect the city’s most vulnerable populations.

State health officials in Missouri and Indiana reported their first probable cases of monkeypox on Saturday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had reported monkeypox cases in 20 other states and Washington, D.C., as of Friday, although health officials continue to stress that the risk to the public remains low. Both states sent samples to the CDC for […]

The U.S. on Saturday opened COVID-19 vaccines to infants, toddlers and preschoolers. The shots will become available this week, expanding the nation’s vaccination campaign to children as young as 6 months. Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the vaccines for the littlest children, and the final signoff came hours later from Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the agency’s […]

White House COVID-⁠19 response coordinator Ashish Jha on Monday heralded the recent authorization of COVID-19 vaccines for kids under the age of 5, saying it gives parents “two good choices.” Last week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized Moderna’s and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines for children under age 5, the last group of people in the U.S. to be permitted […]

The health insurance industry has historically struggled with low rates of customer satisfaction and loyalty. A new report suggests health plans are doing little to improve their standing with consumers, and this is based on insurance executives’ own admissions of their failure.  The report, released Wednesday by customer engagement firm Smart Communications, surveyed 119 health insurance executives during February and March. […]

In 2019, M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina, Minn., began planning an expansion of its Edina healthcare campus. The project would add 52 private patient rooms. In its design for the addition, Perkins&Will (Minneapolis) bridged the design language of two earlier buildings on campus. Those are an eight-story bed tower built in 1964 and a two-story emergency department (ED) […]