For this week in Community Matters we are sharing two great interviews with you. The first is with Dr. Saini of the Lown Institute, and he’ll be sharing some results from the Hospitals Index his organization has just completed. This index essentially compares Virginia hospitals with each other based on an equal set of criteria, and he also addresses how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the quality of care in our region. More
Dr. Elizabeth Nabel did not disclose her role as a board member at Cambridge biotech Moderna. The hospital says the 'omission was not intentional' and she now regrets it More
Consumers are probably entitled to millions of dollars in rebates under Obamacare rules that cap companies’ profits. More
Many times through the years, HealthNewsReview.org has criticized the National Press Foundation in Washington, DC, for accepting drug company funding for journalism training. More
Everyone has been talking about structural racism in criminal justice, but what about health care? In this latest edition of "Lown Hospitals Q&A," Shannon Brownlee and Vikas Saini discuss what the Lown Hospitals Index inclusivity metric shows about race and hospital access. More
Only 16% of providers are eliminating bonus payouts entirely this year as COVID-19 roils the healthcare industry and the broader economy. More
Early in the pandemic, insurers expected the costs of treating COVID-19 would vastly increase medical spending. Instead, non-COVID care has plummeted and insurers have pocketed the result. More
As health workers were dying of COVID-19, federal work-safety officials filed just one citation against an employer and rapidly closed complaints about protective gear. More
Lawmakers in two states have introduced bills in the past month that would ban drug makers from giving most gifts to doctors. More
Experts weigh in on the recently revealed price of Covid-19 drug remdesivir. More
"On a scale of 0 to 10, how painful is the cost of your health care?" All doctors should ask their patients about the financial pain of their health care. More
According to Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute, by incorporating civic leadership rather than just patient outcomes, the new rankings aim to make hospitals "rethink what it means to be great." He explained, "What we're trying to do is create a new narrative and for all of us to think differently about hospital[s]—what they are doing and what they could do." More
Hospitals are increasingly soliciting donations from patients, and the patients don’t much like it, a new survey finds. More
This Viewpoint considers the implications of hospital-financed housing on the health care system as a whole as well as compared with governmental and social financing obligations. More
Additional guidance issued late last month by the Trump administration added to the confusion. Some consumers may find themselves unexpectedly on the hook for the cost of a test. More
What are the top hospitals in the country doing to excel in all three categories on the Lown Hospitals Index? At a recent event hosted by the Lown Institute, Washington Monthly, and Open Markets Institute, the creators of the Lown Index and leaders of some of the winning hospitals discussed how hospitals can go from good to great. More
Prescription drugs have long provided two bad examples of American exceptionalism. They cost three-to-four times more than anywhere else, and we’re one of only two countries in the world that allows consumer advertising of the drugs. More
A growing number of prominent hospitals are using AI-powered tools to advise patient care. But patients often aren't informed, a STAT examination finds. More
Advocacy groups and Democratic senators have complained that Moncef Slaoui's extensive financial interests in drug companies pose a conflict of interest. More
“This is more for all of us to think about hospitals in a different way and begin to imagine what it could be like if all hospitals really hit those stretch goals across the board, and what kind of a health care system we could have if we did that,” Dr. Vikas Saini said. “We didn’t realize how much of a challenge it would be to find hospitals that do well across these measures. But we did. There are hospitals that do that.” More