PHARMACIES, PEDIATRICIANS ROLLOUT COVID-19 SHOTS FOR YOUNGER CHILDREN: Rana-Reagan Pharmacy in Bloomingdale got its first 100 doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for children aged 6 months to five years old at 10:45 a.m. Monday morning.
"We were one of the first to get it, and we already had people waiting in line," pharmacy owner Bhavna Modi said Tuesday morning. "By the end of the day Monday we'd given the vaccine out to 95 children and the rest Tuesday morning; now we're hoping for about 500 doses, both Moderna and Pfizer."
The pharmacy is only providing the vaccines to children ages 3 and older, per Centers for Disease Control & Prevention guidelines. Pediatrician's offices may administer the vaccines to children younger than three.
Modi said the pharmacy opened in Bloomingdale just before the COVID-19 pandemic, and since then they've provided some 38,000 vaccinations on-site, at camps in the community and even at local businesses to vaccinate employees during the night shift.
In downtown, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago has Moderna vaccines on-hand and will begin taking vaccine appointments today at its outpatient center in Lincoln Park, according to a spokesperson. Lurie is planning a vaccination clinic at the Streeterville hospital location beginning on Saturday. The children's hospital is encouraging vaccination for all eligible children through social media channels and media outreach and is taking vaccine appointments on its website.
Advocate Aurora Health's pediatric primary care offices are now offering Pfizer vaccines to children 6 months and older, according to an emailed statement. Children do not need to be Advocate Aurora patients, the statement said. Advocate is asking parents to call its hotline at 866-443-2584. By Thursday, the health system will be making online appointments at aah.org/vaccine or through Advocate Aurora Health’s mobile LiveWell app.
NorthShore University Health System has begun administering limited supplies of Pfizer vaccines and plans to offer pediatric Moderna doses in the near future, the health system said in a statement. Vaccines are offered by appointment only at NorthShore's COVID-19 vaccine clinics and walk-ins are welcome at Swedish Hospital's Anderson Pavilion.
IN A POST-ROE WORLD, WHO WILL TRAIN OB-GYN'S ON ABORTION? If the landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade is struck down this summer, Illinois could serve as a massive training ground for early-career OB-GYNs who must learn to perform abortions.
Hospitals or clinics that offer residency programs in obstetrics and gynecology are required to provide physicians with direct procedural training in abortion—or “access” to abortion training if the institution itself has moral or religious objections. That standard, established by the national accrediting agency for graduate medical education, isn’t expected to change, even as the U.S. Supreme Court moves closer to overturning the federal right to abortion.
But with as many as 26 states poised to ban or severely limit abortion after Roe falls, scores of OB-GYN residency programs around the country will have to secure training elsewhere. As a result, programs in states like Illinois, where abortion access remains protected, are already seeing a surge in training requests from outside institutions. Programs here will be especially burdened because Illinois is the only state in the region that guarantees the right to elective abortions, making it a logical choice for neighboring programs to send their residents.
The situation creates logistical, financial and ethical challenges for Illinois residency sites, which must train their own doctors before extending resources to others. External residents can train at Illinois hospitals through temporary rotations that last several weeks, but there won’t be enough room for everyone. Those who don’t come in person could potentially receive remote training. READ MORE.
“There are multiple times where I have been called in the middle of the night because someone needs an emergency, second-trimester abortion procedure because they're dying.” Can IL hospitals fill this critical training gap if Roe falls? https://t.co/9AJhinQ46a via @crainschicago
TELEHEALTH LIKELY TO CHANGE ON ROW V. WADE RULING: As the fate of Roe v. Wade hangs in the balance, telehealth providers of abortions—regardless of how they interact with patients—are bracing for widespread changes in how care is delivered.
“If that patient is looking to go to a brick-and-mortar clinic, or they’re looking to have pills mailed to them from somewhere else, that is still an abortion,” said Jenny Sheehan, the telehealth program director of the National Abortion Federation. “(The procedure) is going to be restricted in the same way by the same laws.”
The federation, a not-for-profit professional organization for abortion providers, is set to launch a software platform in the coming months that will make it easier for abortion providers to offer virtual services, she said. READ MORE.
JAMA EDITORIAL REPEATS THAT PESKY ADVICE THAT 'DIET AND EXERCISE' WORK: Saying there's no magic bullet in a vitamin or dietary supplement to make us healthy, Northwestern Medicine scientists support an independent panel’s new guidelines that state there is “insufficient evidence” that taking multivitamins, paired supplements or single supplements can help prevent cardiovascular disease and cancer in otherwise healthy, non-pregnant adults.
The scientists, in a JAMA editorial published Tuesday, said the nearly $50 billion spent in the U.S. on vitamins and supplements in 2021 is not money that's well-spent.
“Patients ask all the time, ‘What supplements should I be taking?’ They’re wasting money and focus thinking there has to be a magic set of pills that will keep them healthy when we should all be following the evidence-based practices of eating healthy and exercising,” one of the editorial's authors Dr. Jeffrey Linder, chief of general internal medicine in the department of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine said in a statement. READ MORE.
AHA CALLS MEDICARE PAY PROPOSAL 'WOEFULLY INADEQUATE': The proposed Medicare payment update for inpatient services is nowhere close to covering hospitals' rising costs, industry groups warn the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in comment letters.
Hospitals are calling on CMS to make further upward adjustments to the fiscal 2023 inpatient prospective payment system rule to compensate for underpredictions from this fiscal year's rule and to eliminate a separate negative adjustment for the coming year, Crain's sister publication Modern Healthcare reports.
"The current inflationary economy combined with the COVID-19 crisis has put unprecedented pressure on America's hospitals and health systems," the American Hospital Association wrote. "These shifts in the health care environment are putting enormous strain on hospitals and health systems, which will continue in FY 2023 and beyond."
CMS proposed a 3.2% increase in Medicare inpatient payments for fiscal 2023, including a 3.1% market basket update, in a draft regulation issued in April. The market basket predicts future hospital costs using data from prior years. CMS incorporated data through the third quarter of 2021 but may use more recent information in the final rule, according to the draft regulation.
ADVOCATE IN HAZEL CREST ENDS BIRTHING SERVICES: Advocate South Suburban Hospital in Hazel Crest is planning to end obstetrics and birthing services amid declining demand, joining a group of other hospitals in the Chicago area that have discontinued obstetrics services for similar reasons.
The hospital, part of the Advocate Aurora Health network, submitted paperwork with the Illinois Health Facilities & Services Review Board to discontinue its 16-bed obstetrics inpatient unit at the hospital later this summer. In the application, the 233-bed hospital said it anticipates closing the unit in August or immediately following approval from the board. Advocate South Suburban says that obstetrics cases dropped from 1,228 admissions in 2020 to 899 in 2021.
Though the inpatient unit will be discontinued, Advocate South Suburban says it will still offer outpatient gynecologic and obstetrics services. If a patient needs care not available at the hospital, it will divert them to a nearby Advocate Aurora hospital with an active labor and delivery program. READ MORE.
HEALTHGRADES GIVES PATIENT EXPERIENCE AWARDS: Healthgrades has released its list of outstanding patient experience awardees nationwide. The hospital grading organization evaluated hospitals' patient experience based on 10 measures from data collected from surveys of the hospital’s own patients, Healthgrades said in a statement.
Hospitals that were in the top 15% received awards, the statement said.
Among the 18 Illinois hospitals to receive awards, Chicago-area hospitals included Advocate Sherman in Elgin, Edward Hospital in Naperville, Elmhurst Hospital, Silver Cross Hospital, the Rush system's Rush University Medical Center, Rush Copley and Rush Oak Park and Northwestern Medicine's Northwestern Memorial Hospital and its Delnor, Central DuPage, Kishwaukee McHenry and Lake Forest hospitals.
WALGREENS HEALTH OPENING IN THIRD STATE: Walgreens Health, a division of Walgreens Boots Alliance, is opening in its third state, Ohio, in a collaboration with managed care company Buckeye Health Plan.
Walgreens Health Corner locations will offer access to an integrated health care led by health advisors, pharmacists or registered nurses, who will provide a range of health and clinical services that supplement care received from primary care physicians and specialists, the statement said. The new health option is also underway in California and New Jersey, with plans to expand, by the end of 2022, from 55 to about 100 locations.
Services from Walgreens Health Corner locations include health screenings, such as blood pressure checks, BMI assessments and HbA1c tests, providing test kits for colorectal cancer and diabetic urine screenings, counsel from health advisors on general health questions and medications and assistance with technology needs, like digital health applications and monitoring devices, the statement said.
LINDEN CAPITAL TO INVEST IN ASPIRION: Linden Capital Partners, a Chicago-based private-equity firm focused exclusively on health care said in a statement that it has agreed to make a majority investment in revenue cycle management company Aspirion.
Linden said that following the transaction, Aspirion's management team and Aquiline Capital Partners, a private investment firm based in New York and London, will remain investors in the company.
Aspirion offers technology-driven solutions for revenue cycle challenges faced by hospital systems and health care providers, the statement said.
Kam Shah, partner at Linden, said in the statement that Aspirion, headquartered in Columbus, Ga., has become a “highly regarded provider of specialized RCM solutions whose differentiated capabilities help hospital systems and providers navigate a difficult operating environment characterized by increasing denial rates and growing complexity in patient clinical records. We look forward to supporting Aspirion and positioning the Company for continued growth, particularly through strategic investments in technology, product, and M&A."
DERMATOLOGY SUPPORT COMPANIES MERGE: Health care services investor Sun Capital Partners and Sterling Partners, a diversified investment management platform, said that Sun Capital's portfolio company West Dermatology and Sterling’s Platinum Dermatology Partners are merging. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
WestDerm provides business support services to over 300 dermatology providers in the Western United States and Platinum has a strong presence in the Texas and Arizona markets, the statement said.
“It has been a privilege to be involved in Platinum’s growth story,” said Steven Taslitz, co-founder and chairman at Chicago-based Sterling Partners. “We’re thrilled to have Platinum partner with WestDerm, and together continue their proven track records of excellence in this industry. We look forward to seeing the company’s continued growth and future successes.”
Dr. Wayne J. Sebastianelli has been confirmed as the 135th president of the American Orthopaedic Association.
Sebastianelli is the associate chief medical officer for Penn State Health and chief of staff at both Mount Nittany Medical Center and Mount Nittany Surgical Center.
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