03.01.2021

Hospital Funding, Vaccine Distribution, and more ...

Hospitals Expected to Suffer Financially in 2021 Due to Pandemic

Last week, President Joseph Biden extended the declaration of a national emergency that was first declared on March 1, 2020. The extended order allows a number of regulatory flexibilities to continue to assist in fighting the pandemic. It also serves as a reminder of the stresses hospitals continue to face as they lead the effort against the public health crisis.
  
A new study from the consulting group Kaufman Hall notes that even under the best of circumstances in 2021 – a return of patient volumes to hospitals, good vaccine progress, and sustained ramp-down of COVID cases – hospitals can expect to lose $53 billion in revenue during the year. A worst-case scenario involving patients staying away from facilities for a variety of reasons, vaccines stalling, and COVID surges continuing as people let down their social distancing guard results in hospital revenue losses totaling $122 billion in 2021.
  
Throughout the pandemic, hospitals have faced double-digit increased expenses for, among other items, drugs, purchased services (environmental and sterilization services), labor increases, and supplies (such as PPE). They have also invested heavily in digital healthcare. The expenses are expected to continue but revenue from outpatient, inpatient, and emergency department visits is not expected to recover, according to the Kaufman Hall study.
  
MHA is supporting efforts of the American Hospital Association, which commissioned the study, to have the U.S. Congress insert more funding for the Provider Relief Fund into the COVID relief package now being debated in D.C. The version of the administration's $1.9 trillion relief bill that the U.S. House passed on Saturday, while containing funding for many positive health related initiatives, does not contain new monies for the Provider Relief Fund. The Senate will take up the legislation this week.
 

Tech Challenges and Hope for Increased Vaccine Supply

The state’s vaccine finder website continued to face criticism last week, although it ultimately provided tens of thousands of residents with appointments. The flaws in the system are under review and the state promises more changes.
  
As Governor Baker repeatedly told an oversight hearing at the State House last Thursday, the best way to cut through the frustration, aside from fixes to the flawed online system, is to get more of the supply of the vaccine into the state.
  
Earlier in the week, the state announced it will resume sending new doses to hospitals so that they can distribute it to their patients – especially to underserved populations in their service areas. MHA President & CEO Steve Walsh lauded the strategy shift, saying, “Massachusetts hospitals are in prime position to help steer a vaccine rollout that is safe, equitable, and efficient. Our hospitals will continue to vaccinate as many patients as possible under the guidance provided by the state, with special focus on residents of hard-hit communities.” 
  
Governor Baker in announcing the new hospital strategy said, “As time goes by, if we get any kind of significant increase in doses from the feds, you’ll see providers do a lot more vaccinating.” Over the past several weeks, hospitals have been in contact with the administration to review the vaccination capacity that they are able to provide as supply improves.
  
 

State Behavioral Health Roadmap Focuses on Access, Treatment

The state’s much-awaited behavioral health redesign was unveiled last Wednesday, and aims to revamp the way people can access care as well as the way treatment is provided.
  
A main feature of the Roadmap for Behavioral Health Reform is a “front door” through which individuals can connect by phone or text with a provider before an emergency develops. It attempts to reduce insurance payment barriers to behavioral health and to tackle the ongoing problem of how to expand the behavioral health workforce. The roadmap includes loan repayment incentives for clinicians with diverse racial, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds. 
  
On the treatment side, the roadmap would increase the integration of behavioral health to primary care to allow for early intervention for mild to moderate behavioral health conditions. Outpatient treatment would be expanded through the use of Community Behavioral Health Centers (CBHCs) and urgent/crisis treatment would incorporate the CBHCs into a regional crisis system that delivers 24/7 community and mobile crisis intervention. The state plan also addresses the commitment of creating more behavioral health beds.
  
MHA and its hospital partners have participated in the formation of the plan and will in the coming weeks provide feedback to the state on its components.
 

Caring for the Caregiver Report Coming this Week

This Thursday, MHA will release a final report from its Caring for the Caregiver Task Force. The task force was constructed in the wake of the 2018 nurse staffing ballot question, and brought together leaders from across the healthcare spectrum to discuss the biggest challenges facing the healthcare workforce and to construct recommendations for every healthcare organization to consider. The task force’s aims gained even greater importance as COVID-19 has strained healthcare professionals even further.
  
MHA will be hosting a webinar on Thursday featuring task force leaders, where they will discuss the process, the resulting recommendations, and how the pandemic has affected caregivers over the past year. Focus areas include safety, wellbeing, engagement, workforce development, and deployment of staff. 
 

A Busy Legislative Year Shapes Up

MHA has secured the sponsorship of 26 policy proposals for the Massachusetts legislature to consider during the new 2021-2022 session. The proposals range from ensuring equitable patient access to telehealth, increasing transparency of health insurer financial data, and reforming and improving the behavioral health system. In addition to new proposals, MHA has refiled bills from previous sessions, including An Act relative to the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC) in Massachusetts. That legislation would authorize the commonwealth to join 34 other states that have adopted the NLC. The compact allows a nurse to have one license in his or her state of residency and to practice in other states, subject to the nurse practice laws and regulations of each state.

Johnson & Johnson Receives FDA OK for Its Vaccine 

There is now a third approved vaccine in the U.S. to fight the COVID-19 virus, following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Saturday.
 
Unlike the other two vaccines currently being administered, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires just one dose and it can be stored in standard refrigeration units for up to three months. The vaccine is 85% effective overall in preventing severe disease and 28 days post vaccination it has shown that it provides 100% protection against COVID-19 related hospitalization and death.
 
Johnson & Johnson began shipping the vaccine the past weekend and said it would distribute 20 million doses across the U.S. by the end of March.
 
The new vaccine was developed by Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies – a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson – and a team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, part of Beth Israel Lahey Health.

Betsy Lehman Center Offers Free Support Group for Nurses

The Betsy Lehman Center is offering a free support group for nurses affected by COVID-19. These professionally-facilitated groups will meet online weekly to provide a supportive setting for nurses where they can share their experiences during very challenging times.
  
The six sessions occur on Wednesday evenings from 8 to 9:15 p.m. on March 10, March 17, March 24, March 31, April 7, and April 21. The support groups will meet on Zoom using phones, tablets, or computers.
  
Advanced registration is required and space is limited. Sign up here. For more information, e-mail Jacqueline Ewuoso at jacqueline.ewuoso@state.ma.us.
  
 

BU Manufacturing Innovation Center Makes Face Masks

To assist in the shortage of PPE, the bright folks at Boston University’s Fraunhofer USA Center for Manufacturing Innovation have devised an automated, on-demand mask production machine that is creating 2,000 masks per hour. And they’re giving the masks away to any organization that needs them. The center believes this compact machine that makes the three-ply polypropylene masks could be a way for hospitals, army bases, or other entities to make their own masks, thereby mitigating supply chain issues. To see the machine in action, view this one-minute video. To learn more, contact Dr. Andre Sharon, director of the Fraunhofer Center, at (617) 353-8776 or sharon@bu.edu.

Nominations Open for Schwartz Center Compassionate Caregiver Award

The National Compassionate Caregivers of the Year award recognizes extraordinary healthcare professionals from across the country who embody the characteristics of compassionate care, and whose professional achievements have helped to create healing healthcare environments for patients, families, colleagues, and communities.
 
Up to six award recipients will be chosen by a national review committee. Nominees may include healthcare professionals and interdisciplinary teams of healthcare professionals. Nominations may be made for clinical and non-clinical providers, administrators, educators, and others who provide direct or indirect care to patients, families, and/or healthcare staff.
 
Make your nomination by the April 5 deadline by clicking here.
 

WEBINAR—Digital and Disruptive Strategies in Healthcare

Tuesday, April 13; 1 - 2:15 p.m. ET

The COVID-19 crisis has dramatically accelerated the already powerful shift toward new business models driven by technology companies and rapidly changing consumer habits. While traditional in-person businesses have been affected adversely, e-commerce market penetration grew 69%. And although virtual healthcare innovation has also accelerated during the pandemic, the broader business model changes will drive even more radical changes.

 This webinar will describe the momentum for both health systems and new competitors to develop:

  • A broad digital platform for healthcare
  • An ecosystem of interrelated products and services
  • Subscription offerings
  • Advanced digital health, including care in the home, connected and cognitive devices, and artificial intelligence that enhances diagnosis, improves predictive interventions, and optimizes clinical productivity.

Register today for this insightful program.

John LoDico, Editor