Major Medical Groups Pushed Out of Role Supporting CDC’s Vaccine Advisors
Multiple healthcare organizations that have historically helped the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) develop vaccine recommendations have been told they can no longer participate in ACIP work groups, leaving the organizations frustrated and worried about what will happen next. “We’re very concerned and disheartened that our organizations are considered ‘special interest groups’ and […]
Kennedy Forum, Third Horizon and AMA launch Mental Health Parity Index
A pair of Chicago-based organizations partnered with the Kennedy Forum to recently launch a new interactive tool that tracks data from commercial insurers in Illinois.
Incorporating Bereavement Into the Continuum of Care
A new sense of urgency has emerged for healthcare organizations to develop “sustainable and accessible bereavement care” and to cultivate a “bereavement-conscious” workforce to position bereavement as an “inherent element of the duty of care,” authors of a recent opinion piece asserted. Inadequate investment in bereavement care has led to a paucity of integrated services […]
Health Organizations Making Strides In Health Equity, AMA Leader Says
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Half of healthcare organizations surveyed have eliminated or are working to eliminate race-based clinical algorithms and decision-making tools that incorrectly use race as a proxy for genetic or biological ancestry, a survey by the American Medical Association (AMA) found. “This is critically important,” Aletha Maybank, MD, the AMA’s chief health equity […]
Top Patient Advocacy Orgs Have Industry Ties in Leadership, Study Shows
Three-quarters of the highest-revenue patient advocacy organizations (PAOs) in the U.S. have board members or senior leadership with ties to the pharmaceutical or medical device industry, a cross-sectional study showed. Of the 50 PAOs reviewed, 74% had board members with prior or current industry ties, and 50% had paid staff or executives with these ties, […]
Laboring in 90 Degrees, Indoors: Workers Push for Action on Heat-Related Illness
As the nation continues to fry in this summer’s sky-high temperatures, worker organizations and others are asking the federal government to take actions to prevent injury to workers exposed to extreme heat, whether indoors or outdoors. Cullen Page, who works in the kitchen of a pizzeria in Austin, Texas, knows the issue firsthand. “Every day […]
Opinion | Healthcare Culture Is Hell
A strong organizational culture is considered the secret sauce of successful organizations. But the Latin term abyssus abyssum invocat (one hell calls forth another), explains perfectly why it is increasingly difficult to maintain optimal organizational cultures in healthcare. Hell #1: Pre-pandemic, health systems and their workers in both Canada and the U.S. were highly stressed. […]
Should Board Certification Organizations Have to Meet Particular Standards?
Should organizations that bestow board certifications be required to meet particular standards? That was one of the questions debated by members of the American Medical Association’s (AMA) House of Delegates at its meeting this week. The delegates discussed on Tuesday a resolution that would amend AMA policy to say that board certification programs “must first […]
WHO Expert Says Monkeypox Won’t Turn Into Pandemic, But Many Unknowns
LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization’s top monkeypox expert said she doesn’t expect the hundreds of cases reported to date to turn into another pandemic, but acknowledged there are still many unknowns about the disease, including how exactly it’s spreading and whether the suspension of mass smallpox immunization decades ago may somehow be speeding […]
New York Doc Tries to Take Down No Surprises Act
Healthcare organizations have already sued the federal government over its interpretation of the No Surprises Act, but one Long Island physician has declared the new law designed to protect patients from surprise billing flat-out unconstitutional. Acute care surgeon Daniel Haller, MD, of Rockville Centre, New York, filed a lawsuit in December 2021 against HHS, among […]