Literature Review

RN pay for all 50 states adjusted by cost of living | 2024 Becker's Hospital Review; by Mackenzie Bean; 6/13/24 California has the highest hourly mean wage for registered nurses, even after adjusted for cost of living, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. [Following] are the mean hourly wages for nurses in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., adjusted for cost of living. Becker's calculated these figures using May 2023 salary data from BLS and 2024 cost of living index data from the World Population Review. (Click on this title's link for each state's (1) RN hourly mean wage, (2) Cost of living index, and (3) RN hourly mean wage, adjusted by cost of living.

Advocates rally in DC for the future of hospice: NHPCO and HAN amplify provider voices on Capitol Hill NHPCO; Press Release; 6/13/24 More than 100 hospice and palliative care advocates from across the country met with over 150 congressional offices this week to discuss key legislative and regulatory priorities for ensuring and expanding access to hospice and palliative care. The meetings were part of Hospice Action Week, hosted in Washington, DC by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) and its advocacy affiliate, the Hospice Action Network (HAN). “The cornerstone of effective advocacy is storytelling. It’s about sharing why hospice holds personal significance and why serious illness and end-of-life care policy should resonate with our lawmakers,” said Logan Hoover, NHPCO’s VP of Policy & Government Relations. “From Hawaii to Rhode Island, advocates from 35 diverse states came to DC this year. The relationships they’re building with Members of Congress hold the potential to shape the future of the healthcare landscape.” 

Hawaiʻi is the first state to provide palliative care coverage EIN Presswire; by Governor JOsh Green, MD; 4/4/24 Governor Josh Green, M.D., and the Department of Human Services (DHS) Med-QUEST Division are pleased to announce that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved a new State Plan Amendment (SPA) to cover community palliative care services through Medicaid, making Hawaiʻi the first state in the nation to do so.  ... “After several years of hard work and collaboration with many community members and experts in the field, I am proud to announce that Med-QUEST is the first Medicaid program in the country to get this benefit approved,” said Governor Green. “This will greatly improve the quality of life and health outcomes for thousands of people who face serious medical conditions in our state. Hawaiʻi continues to lead the nation in innovations in health and health care.”  

The real cost of cancer: 49% of patients carry $5K+ in medical debt Becker's Hospital Review; by Ashleigh Hollowell; 5/28/24 ... Now, 47% of cancer patients accumulate debt as a result of their medical needs, The Wall Street Journal reported May 28. ... Some Americans are facing $38,000 or even more in medical debt, the Journal found. Additionally, more cancer patients are filing for bankruptcy, which one study linked to an 80% increased risk of dying. ... A 2024 survey of 1,284 cancer patients and survivors led by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network also found that: ...

Transformative peer connections: Early experiences from the ASCO Palliative Care Community of Practice American Society of Clinical Oncology; by Mazie Tsang, Cristiane Bergerot, Natasha Dhawan, Rushil Patel, Darcy Burbage, Tingting Zhang, Jafar Al-Mondhiry, Joseph McCollom, Ramy Sedhom; 5/22/24 online ahead of print in June 2024  ... there are barriers to implementing palliative oncology at many institutions for myriad reasons. ... In this article, we discuss an innovative strategy that ASCO implemented called the Communities of Practice (CoP). We share our experiences as the Palliative Care CoP and how our group seeks to develop processes and structures to collectively promote systemic change and enhance palliative care delivery for people with cancer. Our Palliative Care CoP engages with senior leaders, administrators, and those in power to achieve a shared vision of delivering holistic health care for people with serious illness. ... [We address] eight main domains:

How value-based models can aid palliative care team recruitment Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 5/22/24 A transition from fee-for-service to value-based payment models could help palliative care providers boost recruitment and retention. Providers walk a tightrope when it comes to ensuring that their palliative care services are financially sustainable, including the ability to attract and compensate staff at competitive rates. In today’s predominant reimbursement structure, palliative care programs are often loss leaders. But moving away from fee-for-service towards value-based payment could make a difference when it comes to hiring and retention, according to Dr. Jennifer Blechman, palliative care medical director at the Oregon-based nonprofit Partners in Care. ...

Senate ramps up push to reform doctors' Medicare pay Modern Healthcare; by Michael Mcauliff; 5/20/24Declining doctors' pay in Medicare is getting its most serious look in nearly a decade in the Senate, with a bipartisan push launched Friday by the Senate Finance Committee. Doctors have grown especially vocal in recent years about falling Medicare reimbursement. Groups including the American Medical Association have estimated doctors were effectively getting paid 26% less in 2023 than in 2001 because the physician fee schedule set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is not adjusted for inflation. Physicians have also called for more flexibility within the pay system.

California to redirect more than $7B in healthcare funding Becker's Hospital CFO Report; by Mackenzie Bean; 5/13/24 California is seeking to divert more than $7 billion in funding from the healthcare sector to address a major funding deficit, according to a revised budget proposal released May 10. Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed reallocating $6.7 billion from Medi-Cal provider rate increases planned for Jan. 1, 2025, to balance the state budget. This funding was generated by the managed care organization tax created last year. ... The proposed budget would also cut funding for healthcare workforce initiatives by $854.6 million through 2028. Funding for public health and various behavioral health programs would also be reduced. 

Treasury extends Medicare insolvency date, citing savings from home health McKnights Home Care; by Adam Healy; 5/13/24 Medicare insolvency received a five-year extension — and part of the reprieve can be attributed to the cost of home health. Myriad factors, including job growth and low unemployment rate, contributed to the extension. The projections were also partly influenced by home health spending which has been “significantly lower than estimated prior to the pandemic,” according to the Social Security and Medicare Trustees report. “As a result of the recent home health staffing shortages, the trustees continue to consider the spending level for this service to be suppressed,” they said in the report. “Thus, they have increased their home health spending growth factor by 2.9 percentage points in each of the next 3 years.”

Medicaid disenrollments higher than expected: Report Becker's Payer Issues; by Rylee Wilson; 5/2/24 The number of people disenrolled from Medicaid through the redeterminations process has surpassed original estimates from the Urban Institute and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. According to a May 2 report, as of November 2023, nearly 9 million people had been disenrolled from Medicaid. The figure came out to 60.5% of the foundation's original estimate of 14.8 million people losing coverage, with several months remaining in the redetermination process. 

MultiPlan, insurance giants sued over out-of-network rates Modern Healthcare; by Nona Tepper; 4/29/24 A rural health system sued technology company MultiPlan and eight of the country's largest insurance companies over alleged schemes to strongarm providers into accepting low out-of-network rates. At issue in the proposed class-action suit are MultiPlan's repricing tools, which allegedly rely on insurers' data to deflate their out-of-network reimbursement payments. 

Minnesota’s new labor board votes for nearly $23.50 an hour minimum wage for nursing home workers Minnesota Reformer; by Max Nesterak; 4/29/24 'Today has been a long time coming,’ said nursing home worker Nessa Higgins at a news conference after Minnesota’s first labor standards board voted on April 29, 2024, to raise the minimum wage for nursing home workers to $20.50 per hour by 2027. Minnesota’s new workforce standards board took its first significant vote on Monday, agreeing to raise the pay floor to $23.49 per hour on average in 2027 for nursing home workers, while guaranteeing 11 paid holidays. The worker and government representatives on the board approved the minimum wages without the support of the board’s nursing home industry representatives, who abstained.

How to overcome the disruptive forces that can impede high-value innovation Healthcare Financial Management Association (hfma.org); by Liz DeForest; 4/28/24 ... Healthcare is full of what we call “missing innovations” — good ideas that never go beyond promising pilot tests or, like EHRs, are adopted so slowly that their progress is measured in decades, even though other industries were adopting digital solutions very rapidly. Switchover disruptions are among the reasons for these missing innovations. ... [The author interviewed authors of Why not better and cheaper? (Oxford University Press, June 2023), written by industry analysts and twin brothers James B. and Robert S. Rebitzer about their observations of health system action and inaction. James Rebitzer is the Peter and Deborah Wexler Professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. Robert Rebitzer is a national adviser at the consulting firm Manatt Health.]