Oscar Health Adds Inclusive Identity Options For LGBTQ + Community

Modern healthcare: Oscar Health unveils tool for LGBTQ + community

Oscar Health updated its user interface to allow members to enter their name, pronouns and gender identity, with the goal of being more inclusive of members who identify as transgender or non-binary. “From day one, Oscar has focused on building a member-centered healthcare system,” CEO Mario Schlosser said in a statement. “While there is still work to be done, I am proud of our team of engineers who, through our unique full stack technology, are able to respond quickly and effectively to the needs of our transgender and non-binary members. help to feel seen and heard. “(Tepper, 7/14)

In other healthcare industry news –

Modern healthcare: providers pledge to fight health insurance wage freeze

The lobbying began just minutes after CMS released a physician payment rule for next year that does not include salary increases for physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners and others. Provider groups are poised to resume the battle over this year’s physician fee schedule, which originally funded a pay rise for primary care providers by reducing payments to specialists. Congress came after a sustained lobbying effort that resulted in an overall wage increase of 3.75% for calendar year 2021, at a cost of $ 3 billion to taxpayers. CMS on Tuesday released the proposed rule for 2022. (Brady, 7/14)

KHN: Influx of medical students could overwhelm Montana’s resources, warn program officials

Opening two new medical schools in Montana would stretch and possibly overwhelm the state’s physicians who provide the clinical training students need to become physicians, according to leaders of a medical school program in Montana. the University of Washington which relies on these teaching physicians. The WWAMI program at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Montana requires its students who have completed their academic work to complete internships and clinical placements to graduate, and then these graduates must be matched with residencies. WWAMI – an acronym for the five states participating in the program: Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho – uses hundreds of Montana doctors for this hands-on training, in addition to doctors from the other four states. (Halland, 7/15)

Modern Healthcare: Kindred Healthcare Adds Inpatient Rehabilitation Units to Hospitals

Kindred Healthcare will add acute inpatient rehabilitation units to three of its long-term care hospitals to help patients recover faster, the provider said on Wednesday. The units, with a total of 33 beds, are expected to begin serving patients in September 2021 and will be located at Kindred Hospital Denver, Kindred Hospital Melbourne and Kindred Hospital Philadelphia – Havertown. They will provide intensive and interdisciplinary clinical and rehabilitation services. Physical rehabilitation patients will receive 24/7 nursing care and at least three hours of therapy a day for five days a week from physicians trained in physical medicine and rehabilitation. (Devereaux, 7/14)

Modern healthcare: ONC seeks feedback on draft EHR reporting criteria for providers

The first draft of a set of criteria that developers of electronic health records will be required to report on as part of certification with a federal program has been released for public comment, but the new reporting requirements are unlikely to take hold. not take effect until at least 2024 The Urban Institute, a Washington, DC-based think tank tasked with creating HHS ‘EHR reporting program, on Wednesday opened public comment for the draft of the interoperability metrics on which the EHR software developers will have to report, as the 21st Century Cures Act mandate. (Kim Cohen, 7/14)

Modern healthcare: ONC publishes schedule for interoperability network

The office of the HHS National Health Information Technology Coordinator has announced a timeline for implementing its interoperability framework, which aims to facilitate cost-effective data sharing between networks. ONC plans to open up the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement network for participation in the first quarter of 2022. “We think it’s really important for the market to know the timeline so that everyone can think about how they want to participate. ”Said ONC. Chief Micky Tripathi at a meeting of the Health Information Technology Advisory Committee on Wednesday. (Devereaux, 7/14)

Georgia Health News: North Carolina-based Atrium Reaches Agreement for Another Georgia Hospital System

A Charlotte-based healthcare system has finalized a deal to acquire a Rome-based nonprofit hospital organization. Floyd Medical Center, a hospital in Cedartown and one in Alabama, will now be part of Atrium Health under the long-delayed agreement, announced Wednesday. This is the second major foray into Georgia for Atrium Health, which in 2018 acquired the Navicent system in Macon. Atrium may now be looking to expand further into the state, experts say. (Miller, 7/14)

Axios: UnitedHealth Group to Launch Second Quarter Results of Health Care

US companies are expecting a big jump in their profits in the second quarter. This is especially the case in healthcare, an industry that hasn’t really lost much financial momentum throughout the coronavirus pandemic. Healthcare spending has fundamentally returned to pre-COVID levels. Expect big numbers across the board. (Herman, 7/14)