Iowa news
The Iowa Clinic buys land in Kettlestone for multispecialty medical center in Waukee
The Iowa Clinic announced it has closed on an acquisition of 7.6 acres of land in the Kettlestone Development in Waukee, where it plans to break ground for a new multispecialty medical center that will be the largest of its kind in Waukee. The multispecialty physician group plans to open the facility in mid-2024. The planned facility, which will be about 53,000 square feet, will be similar in size to the Iowa Clinic’s Ankeny center. The new Waukee facility will include primary care, family practice and urgent care. Additional services are under consideration. In total, the facility will house about 75 health care providers and staff members. The Iowa Clinic operates two clinic locations in Waukee. (Business Record)
New effort addresses a mental health crisis among Iowa’s youths
A new effort is focusing on addressing a mental health crisis in Iowa’s youths. Health officials said that, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Iowa is seeing an increase in suicides. Recently, more children and young people have died by suicide. Please Pass the Love is a program in Iowa that focuses on increasing school mental health supports. Its Stick By Me crisis sticker program is asking for businesses to help get crisis hotline stickers into every school and business. (KCCI)
Iowa City mental health services center helps more than 1,000 people in first year
Within just one year of being open, the GuideLink Center in Johnson County has merged the community and medical-based models that comes with treating mental health, addiction and brain health. They offer 24/7 mental health and substance use services, and immediate access to those services. By the time it reached the six-month mark, it opened a new extension to the center — the sobering unit. The number of clients they have reached showed growth as well. (KCRG)
National news
23% of health care workers likely to leave health care soon, poll finds
Although health care workers still overwhelmingly report being satisfied with their jobs, they also report experiencing ongoing strain amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with almost 1 in 4 saying they are likely to leave the field in the near future, according to a USA Today/Ipsos Poll/Ipsos Poll released Feb. 22. The poll was conducted Feb. 9-16 among a nationally representative probability sample of 1,170 adult health care workers. The workers included physicians, nurses, paramedics and therapists. (Becker’s Hospital Review)
342 hospitals have received price transparency noncompliance notices from CMS
CMS has sent about 342 warning notices to hospitals found noncompliant with price transparency regulations since the rule went into effect Jan. 1, 2021. CMS can request a corrective plan if it finds a hospital is not compliant with one or more of the requirements of the price transparency rule. The agency also can issue a civil monetary penalty if the hospital does not respond to its request. CMS has sent 124 requests for a corrective plan to hospitals that have received warning notices and not made any corrections. Seventy-seven hospitals have had their cases closed after they’ve addressed citations. No monetary penalties have been issued to date. The maximum penalty for noncompliance is $2 million. (Becker’s Hospital Review)
Kronos class action lawsuit settled for $15.3M
Kronos reached a settlement to pay just under $15.3 million to thousands of workers allegedly harmed when the workforce management company collected and stored their fingerprints or palm prints in violation of Illinois privacy laws. The settlement has been submitted to the court for preliminary approval and class certification. The proposed settlement class includes everyone who used Kronos biometric timekeeping devices at work in Illinois and whose finger-scan data “was hosted” by Kronos between Jan. 18, 2014, and 30 days after the deal’s preliminary approval. (Top Class Actions)