Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Smaller Hospitals Form Groups To Expand Participation In Profitable Drug Trials
Small hospitals need money. Drug companies need patients for tests. Both sides say they’ve found a solution. Regional hospitals across the U.S. are banding together to make it easier for pharmaceutical companies to use their facilities for clinical trials, a strategy that could boost revenue and give drugmakers increased access to patients. (Hopkins, 10/29)
Northside Hospital has lost another round in court in its long-running open records fight. But the case still may have more time to run before a final resolution. The new ruling comes almost a year after the Georgia Supreme Court reversed lower court decisions that barred access to Northside’s financial records, and sent the case back to the original trial court. (Miller, 10/29)
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts will announce Tuesday that it is developing a program to pay hospitals not for every patient they admit and every procedure they do, but for how well they control costs while helping to keep patients healthy. Hospitals would be rewarded when they collaborate with physician groups — even physicians affiliated with a different hospital — to manage costs and improve patient outcomes. (Dayal McCluskey, 10/29)
As suicide rates among veterans remain high, the Wounded Warrior Project has committed to expanding its mental health care services to reach about 5,000 additional veterans across the nation over the next five years. ...The network, which was launched in 2016, sponsors veterans through an intensive, two- to three-week program to help them cope with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury at one of four academic medical centers: UCLA Health in California, Emory Healthcare in Georgia, Rush University Medical Center in Illinois and Massachusetts General Hospital. (Balch, 10/29)
Less than a week after NBC host Megyn Kelly was fired for defending blackface on her morning show, a photo of a Kansas City couple in blackface started circulating on Facebook. A user took a screenshot of Shelbi Elliott-Heenan's Facebook post — a photo of herself and a man in blackface, dressed as Beyonce and Jay-Z. Elliott-Heenan is a registered nurse at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City. (Tudhope, 10/29)
