Executives from 21 not-for-profit hospitals and health systems offered some starkly conflicting messages this week as they mingled with bankers, bondholders and hedge fund analysts at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco.
What they said: Strong inpatient volumes are a priority — but they are also committed to "value-based care" that, in theory, leads to fewer inpatient hospital stays as more people get care in outpatient sites or at home.
Humana has terminated its membership with the health insurance industry’s primary trade group, America’s Health Insurance Plans. The formal termination came on Dec. 31, though a Humana spokesman said the company "has not actively participated in AHIP since early 2017."
Why it matters: It's another blow to AHIP, renewing questions about the group's lobbying influence. Humana, one of the largest Medicare Advantage insurers in the country, is the third major defection since the middle of 2015, when former Obama administration official Marilyn Tavenner took over as AHIP's CEO. Aetna and UnitedHealth Group were the first big insurers to ditch AHIP in 2015.
New data from the JPMorgan Chase Institute suggests that when Americans get a tax refund, they use it to take care of health care needs they had been delaying.
The bottom line: People put off health care services based on their ability to pay.
After years of sharp declines in sleep-related infant deaths in the U.S., progress has slowed considerably, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns in a new report.
Key stat: Roughly 3,500 infants die from sleep-related issues in America annually. The causes range from SIDS and accidental suffocation in cribs to deaths from unknown causes. Despite intensive public education efforts, only half of mothers say they receive “safe sleep” advice from healthcare providers during pre- and post-natal visits, CDC said.
The phrase "deaths of despair" gained wide use after economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton reported that life expectancy for middle-aged Americans without a college degree was falling due to rising suicides and deaths related to drugs and alcohol.
Quick take: Case and Deaton argue that the primary cause of the trend is economic, but in a new paper, economist Christopher Ruhm places the blame on drug price and availability.
