Federal Report Highlights Private Equity, Consolidation Concerns

Modern Healthcare / By Hayley DeSilva
 
Three federal agencies on Wednesday said "more effective and vigorous" enforcement is needed to protect patients harmed by healthcare's continued consolidation.
 
In a report released just days before a new administration takes over, the Health and Human Services Department, Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department said comments they sought earlier this year on the state of the industry made clear that worries about access to services and costs have intensified as consolidation and private equity's role have grown.
 
"It is clear from the commentors that the Agencies’ past actions have not sufficiently addressed the harms inflicted by anti-competitive activity in the health care sector, and more effective and vigorous antitrust enforcement is necessary to stop or reverse the trend of consolidation," the agencies wrote.
 
The report stems from the agencies' request for information in March about how market transactions have affected consolidation, patient safety, affordability, employee wages and safety as well as taxpayer burden. The agencies received comments from more than 2,000 patients, physicians, health systems, insurers, industry associations, labor unions and academic researchers. 
 
Merger and acquisition activity, particularly among hospitals and involving private equity firms, dominated many of the responses. Many hospitals and health systems have turned to mergers and acquisitions, sometimes with private equity firms, to ease financial pressures…

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Mandatory OSHA Injury & Illness Reporting

Alliance Daily

Many employers with more than 10 employees are required to keep a record of serious work-related injuries and illnesses. Some health care and home care companies must electronically submit injury and illness reports to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) annually through OSHA’s Injury Tracking Application (ITA).  The deadline for submission of the 2024 data is March 2, 2025.

It is important to note OSHA has requirements for both recording and reporting work-related injuries and illnesses. A recordable injury or illness includes:

• Any work-related fatality.
• Any work-related injury or illness that results in loss of consciousness, days away from work, restricted work, or transfer to another job.
• Any work-related injury or illness requiring medical treatment beyond first aid.
• Any work-related diagnosed case of cancer, chronic irreversible diseases, fractured or cracked bones or teeth, and punctured eardrums.
• There are also special recording criteria for work-related cases involving: needlesticks and sharps injuries; medical removal; hearing loss; and tuberculosis.

To determine if your organization must submit a report, please review the ITA submission requirement flowchart [found on page 3 of the linked Injury Tracking Application (ITA) User Guide] Note that there may be different and/or additional state-specific reporting differences.

All employers, including those partially exempted by reason of company size or industry classification, must report to OSHA any workplace incident that results in a fatality, in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye (see § 1904.39). 

Additional information about OSHA’s recordkeeping and reporting requirements can be found here.

ACO Growth Inches CMS Toward Value-Based Care Goal

Modern Healthcare / By Bridget Early
 
More than half of fee-for-service Medicare enrollees are now in accountable care arrangements, putting the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services past midway toward its 2030 goal, according to data the agency released Wednesday.
Accountable care participation rose 4.3% to 14.8 million people from 2024 to 2025, the largest annual increase since CMS started tracking these numbers. That amounts to 53.4% of fee-for-service beneficiaries, according to the agency.
 
The CMS report illustrates the progress the agency has made promoting value-based care in traditional Medicare since announcing in 2021 that it wanted all fee-for-service enrollees in accountable care arrangements by 2030. It also shows how much is left to do to meet that target, and consummating the endeavor would require President-elect Donald Trump's administration to pick up where President Joe Biden's team leaves off.
 
“This progress demonstrates that when providers are empowered to manage costs and focus on outcomes, they can achieve high-quality outcomes and drive innovation,” Aisha Pittman, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Association of ACOs, said in a news release.
 
Tweaks to existing accountable care organizations and the creation of models such as the ACO Primary Care Flex Model support the 2030 goal, but regression in one high-profile model highlights the ongoing challenges. Congress also must decide how to handle bonus payments for providers transitioning into value-based care.
 
The CMS report covers the permanent Medicare Shared Savings Program and models from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation such as ACO Realizing Equity, Access and Community Health, or ACO REACH…

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Dementia Cases Expected to Double by 2060: Study

The Hill / By Filip Timotija
 
Alzheimer’s disease is expected to spike nationwide in future years, and according to new data released by the Alzheimer’s Association, there is a significant shortage in the dementia care workforce.
 
Dementia cases in the U.S. are expected to double by 2060 when around 1 million Americans are projected to develop the memory-losing condition every year, according to a new study that was published Monday in the medical journal Nature Medicine. 
The study found that the risk of developing dementia after turning age 55 is around 42 percent. Dementia is a group condition that includes loss of concentration, judgment and memory. 
 
The collaborative study was funded by the National Institutes of Health to NYU Langone. It relied on the data garnered from the ongoing Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Neurocognitive Study, which began in 1987 and has tracked the cognitive function and vascular health of participants. 
 
“Our study results forecast a dramatic rise in the burden from dementia in the United States over the coming decades, with one in two Americans expected to experience cognitive difficulties after age 55,” said Josef Coresh, the study’s senior investigator and epidemiologist. 
 
The researchers discovered that a lifetime risk of suffering from dementia for men after turning 55 is 35 percent while it is 48 percent for women. For the most part, the higher risk among women is because of their lower death rates, according to researchers. 
The study also found those who had a variant of the APOE4 gene are at a higher risk of developing dementia. 
 
Blood pressure control and preventing diabetes are one of the ways to slow down cognitive decline and prevent dementia, according to researchers…

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