• Kaiser Permanente, Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins and Others Form ‘Advanced Care at Home Coalition’ (Home Health Care News)

• Characterizing Patient Flow After an Academic Hospital Merger and Acquisition (AJMC)

• Walgreens invests $330M in CareCentrix in post-acute care bet (HealthcareDive)

• Best Buy’s Current Health acquisition signals it’s elbowing into mainstream healthcare (InsiderIntel)

• Scrutiny of risk adjustment practices looms over Medicare Advantage as open enrollment starts (Fierce Health)

• 4 charts showing how health care spending has changed (BenefitsPro)

• Healthcare organizations are considering major changes to physician compensation and staffing if Congress does not prevent several planned Medicare payment cuts (RevCycle)

• Anesthesiologists ask for investigation on alleged UnitedHealth anti-competitive actions (Beckers)

• Insurance Focused on Virtual Visits? The Pros and Cons of a New Twist in Health Plans (Medcape/KHN)

• COVID-19 led to a telehealth boom - now investors are betting it's here to stay (Business Insider)
• Telemedicine is here to stay, but how much you pay for a visit could change (Union Democrat)
• Telehealth Reimbursement Needed to Address Demand, Staffing Issues (RevCycle)
• 'A quiet suffering': Primary care struggles with COVID-19 strain, telemedicine rollbacks (HealthcareDive)
• It's Time to Cement the Expansion of Telehealth (Medpage Today)

• A new partnership will provide CDC with de-identified health data for long-term and post-acute care facility residents to support of public health (HITInfrastructure)

• Surprise billing rule has providers fuming over insurer-friendly policies (Atlanta Business Journal)

• CMS unveils another surprise-billing rule: 12 things to know (Beckers)

• Maryland health care payment model reduces costs and complications, study shows (Houston Magazine)

• Study: Assessment of Costs and Care Quality Associated With Major Surgical Procedures After Implementation of Maryland’s Capitated Budget Model

• Survey Shows Staffing shortages at critical levels for long-term care facilities, according to survey (Herald Dispatch)

• AHCAA & NCAL Survey Resutls Summary (PDF)

• AMA Publishes New Study Monitoring Competition In U.S. Health Insurance (Insurancenet)

•  Competition in Health Insurance: A Comprehensive Study of U.S. Markets (PDF)

• Messy, incomplete U.S. data hobbles pandemic response (Washington Post)

• Study maps hotspots of low-value care use at individual health systems (News-Medical)

• Study:Low-Value Care at the Actionable Level of Individual Health Systems (JAMA Network)

• U.S. COVID cases falling, but hospitals brace for next wave (U.S.News)

• MDs Doing Wrong-Site Surgery: Why Is It Still Happening? (Medscape)

• Mississippi Certificate of Need Committee recommends loosening regulations on rehabilitation centers (Delta Democrat Times)

• The U.S. Health Care System Isn’t Built for Primary Care (Harvard Business Review)

• Rates of the most common form of liver cancer are rising in rural areas (MedicalXpress)

• Comparing the Cost-Effectiveness of Innovative Colorectal Cancer Screening Tests (Medscape)

• Humana's reported rise in hospitalizations among seniors is a trend worth watching (HealthCareDive)

• Trends in the Concentration and Distribution of Health Care Expenditures in the US, 2001-2018 (JAMA Network)

• How one of the largest nursing home chains in Florida could avoid nearly all of $256 million fraud judgment (WP/MSN)

• Long-term care needs among retirees varies widely, new research shows (CNBC)

• Report Brief: What Level of Long-Term Services and Supports Do Retirees Need? (Boston College CRR)

• Study: 15M people could lose Medicaid coverage after COVID-19 emergency ends (FierceHealth)

• Use of Medicare’s New Reimbursement Codes for Cognitive Assessment and Care Planning, 2017-2018 (JAMA Network)

• North Carolina changes certificate-of-need law (Beckers)

• Hospitals lose legal challenge over changes to DSH payments (HealthCareDive)

• New tool can predict risk of death, hospitalization for patients awaiting cardiac surgery (MedicalExpress)

• Staying home, having access to primary care, and limiting contagion hubs may curb COVID-19 deaths (Eureka)

• Comorbid Insomnia Exacerbates Health Care Utilization, Cost Burden in Patients With Alzheimer Disease (AJMC)

• OIG: Medicare paid new hospitals 3 times more than older facilities for capital costs (FierceHealth)

• Hospitals, needing beds, decry Medicare Advantage practices (MSN)

• Private equity in the crosshairs (McKnights LTC News)

• Lawsuit alleges Mission Health HCA monopoly (MountainXpress)

In the News

Blogs We Follow

Popular Site Destinations

Job Bank

No current postings at AHPA

Federal Agency Blogs

COVID-19 Information

Starting Points:

• U. S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

• Cases, Data & Surveillance
• Covide Science Updates (Weekly)

• State Health Departments
• NACCHO Directory Local Health Departments
• CMS Nursing Home Covid Data (1st report 5/24/2020)

• Related GAO Report: Infection Control Deficiencies Were Widespread and Persistent in Nursing Homes Prior to COVID-19 Pandemic

Guides & Resources for Reopening Workspaces:

• Kaiser Permanente Releases COVID-19 Playbook: Planning For The Next Normal At Work
• CDC Interim Guidance for Businesses and Employers Responding to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

• CDC Workplace Decision Tree
• Summary of CDC guidelines on reopening businesses after the pandemic (Tech Republic)

Additional Resources:

• Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform (CHQPR) Report Summary on Pandemic and Rural Hospital Closure Risk
• Four COVID Vaccines Compared (Medscape)
• CDC’s COVID-19 Vaccination Program Interim Playbook for Jurisdiction Operations
• The Costs of Coronavirus (JAMA Network)
• Largest COVID-19 contact tracing study to date finds children key to spread, evidence of superspreaders (Princeton)
• Evidence-Based Practice for Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response (National Acadamies 2020)
• National Insitutes of Health
• John Hopkins ABX Guide: Coronavirus COVID-19
• The Covid Tracking Project:
• Oxford Martin School’s Our World Data -Covid 19
• University Of Minnesotta CIDRAP Covid Resources
• JAMA Sponsored Live Stream Q & A with CDC
• Kaiser Family Foundation COVID-19 News and Reports
• NEJM : A collection of articles and other resources on the Coronavirus (Covid-19)
• Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME): COVID-19 Resources
• Penn Center for Research on Coronavirus and Other Emerging Pathogens Webinars (You Tube Channel)

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