Today’s NewsStand — Jan. 7, 2020

Today’s NewsStand — Jan. 7, 2020

By Iowa Hospital Association|
|January 7, 2020

Featuring hospital and health care headlines from the media and the Web.

Iowa News       

Expansive Ronald McDonald House opens at MercyOne Children’s Hospital
Families with children who are receiving care at MercyOne Children’s Hospital will have a comfortable place to stay at no cost right inside the Des Moines hospital with the opening of Greater Des Moines’ second Ronald McDonald House. Now available on the hospital’s fourth floor is a dedicated wing outfitted just for families. The “house” features 14 private bedroom suites that each sleep up to five people, along with a full-size community kitchen. (Des Moines Business Record)

NAMI family-to-family program sees more people seeking mental health help
Oline Stigers says it wasn’t until her son turned 42, that he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.  "We just needed some more help some support because there is a lot of understanding that we really don't have about mental illness, until it comes knocking at your door." That's what brought her in to take one of NAMI's family to family classes a couple of years ago. It's for family members of loved ones with complex mental health needs. Stigers said the biggest thing she took from it is knowing she wasn't alone. (KCRG)

Marshalltown community raises concerns about the lack of mental health care
A recent Marshalltown Community Health Needs Assessment raised concerns about insufficient psychological health care in the UnityPoint Region. The first of its kind survey was carried out in Grundy, Marshall and Tama counties, with the next one scheduled to be conducted after 2 years, in 2022. The survey highlighted that Iowa ranked at the 41st position out of 50 states in the country with respect to the number of psychiatrists and psychologists available per person. It also laid low on the list in terms of hospital beds in the psychological health department. (Ask Health News)

National News

Obamacare market stable and profitable despite loss of individual mandate
The Obamacare market is “stable” and profitable for insurers despite the repeal of the law’s mandate to have coverage, a new analysis finds. When Republicans repealed the health law’s mandate to have coverage in the 2017 tax law, many Democrats and some policy experts warned the move would cause chaos in the markets as healthy people dropped coverage, leaving only sick, expensive patients remaining. But the analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation released Monday finds that the fears largely did not come to pass in 2019, demonstrating a measure of resilience to the health law. (The Hill)

Supreme Court sets Friday deadline for responses in Obamacare case
The Supreme Court on Monday told the Trump administration and a group of states to respond by the end of the week to an effort by Democrats to expedite a challenge to a lower court ruling that struck down a key tenet of Obamacare. The court asked the health care law's opponents to file a response to the motion by Friday afternoon. (The Hill)

Bundles cut spending on joint replacements, but not for other conditions
Medicare's voluntary bundled-payment program for hip and knee replacements reduced spending by 1.6% from 2013 to 2016 with no overall change in quality, according to a new study in Health Affairs. Another new Health Affairs study reported that lower extremity joint replacement is the only type of clinical episode in Medicare bundled-payment programs that has produced savings so far. The two studies highlight the challenges facing federal policymakers, hospitals and physicians in using bundled payments to achieve cost savings and better quality care on a wide range of medical and surgical episodes. (Modern Healthcare)

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