Friday, September 3, 2021: D.C. News

Senator Joe Manchin said Democrats should “hit the pause button” on their $3.5 trillion spending proposal. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Manchin stated that rising inflation and a soaring national debt necessitate a go-slow approach and a “significantly” smaller...

Thursday, September 2, 2021: Providers

A judge ruled against dozens of hospitals that sued HHS over changes for disproportionate share hospital payments. The federal judge sided with HHS, stating that the hospitals’ desire to recalculate those payments was outside of her review per the Medicare Act....

Thursday, September 2, 2021: Payers

A new report from the HHS Office of the Inspector General found that Medicare beneficiaries who were hospitalized with COVID-19 experienced a number of comorbidities. According to the report, nearly all beneficiaries studied, about 55,000 across six cities, were...

Thursday, September 2, 2021: Life Sciences

CDC data indicates that the U.S. has discarded at least 15.1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since March 1. Health departments in four states — Texas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Oklahoma — each reported more than 200,000 wasted doses. Walgreens reportedly...

Thursday, September 2, 2021: Health IT

Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health announced the health system has deployed Google’s Workspace platform to improve patient and employee collaborations across its 140 hospitals in 21 states. By deploying the platform, the health system has been able to better...