Weekender 1/29/21

Weekly News Recap

• Athenahealth pays $18.25 million to settle federal False Claims Act allegations related to paying kickbacks to increase sales from 2014-2020.
• GetWellNetwork acquires Docent Health.
• Sharecare acquires Doc.ai.
• ECRI lists its top 10 health technology challenges for 2021.
• Symplr acquires Phynd.

Best Reader Comments

My take is that more public pricing will mostly affect hospitals that are undifferentiated and not capital efficient. So your-well branded academic system will still attract those with the ability to pay, your ruthlessly cost conscious commercial chain will actually benefit from the public knowing how much cheaper they are, and your community / rural hospital with decent volume already mostly gets the customer who has no other options. It ain’t fun for inefficient hospitals to close, but it also ain’t fun to be price gouged for medical care. (IANAL)

If you have to be short of something, you want to be short of vaccine. We can get more vaccine. I’m confident of that now. Now the converse: You are short of physicians. How long does it take to train a physician? How much money does it take to train a nurse or pharmacist? What are the hurdles you need to jump to open a new PH Office? It’s all difficult, costly, and there are years-long lead times. According to the Milken Institute, there were 133 experimental therapies as of April 2020. There were 49 in clinical trials. Holy cow! We will be up to our eyeballs in vaccines and treatments very soon. I’m guessing by summer 2021. And all those physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and public health offices will be waiting. They will scale up the vaccine rollout like crazy. (Brian Too) 

Watercooler Talk Tidbits

A Mississippi man complains to the local TV station that a hospital wouldn’t let him in because he refused to wear a mask. He says he can’t breathe through a mask, wears a bandanna instead, and says he has a doctor’s note explaining his situation, but the hospital says he refused to wear any face covering even after they called his doctor, who said he should have no problem wearing a mask.

Stormont Vail Hospital (KS) defends giving its fundraising board members COVID-19 vaccine by saying that “our team members include our boards.”

Former Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush buys the Maine oceanfront home of former environmental lawyer and two-time candidate for governor Eliot Cutler in the most expensive home sale in the state in 2020 at $7.55 million. The 15,455 square foot home features a 5.5 acre oceanfront lot with 650 feet of shore frontage, gymnasium with sauna and steam rooms, heated pool, tennis court, a 4,000-bottle secured wine vault, and a four-bedroom guest house. It was originally listed at $11 million.

Employees of St. Mark’s Hospital (UT) launch a GoFundMe campaign to buy a car for ED environmental services worker and employee of the month Michael Piper, who showed up for his night shift on a freezing New Year’s Day when buses weren’t running after riding his bicycle 37 miles to work.

In Case You Missed It

• News 1/29/21
• EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 1/28/21
• News 1/27/21
• Readers Write: How COVID-19 is Driving Innovation in our Behavioral Health System
• Curbside Consult with Dr. Jayne 1/25/21
• HIStalk Interviews Kevin de la Roza, MD, Anesthesiologist, Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children
• Monday Morning Update 1/25/21
• Katie the Intern 1/22/21

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