Estes Park Health has started the process of joining the UCHealth System, with an expected starting date in the spring of 2025, the two organizations announced in a joint news release. More than 80% of voters in the Park Hospital District, which operates Estes Park Health, authorized the district to join a health system in 2023. A letter of intent was signed by the two health systems Oct. 3, with a final agreement expected in the 'coming months.' UCHealth will invest more than $30 million into the hospital and Estes Park community 'in the coming years,' help recruit new staff members and stabilize Estes Park Health's finances.
SEIU Healthcare Michigan this week reached a tentative agreement with the University of Michigan Health, avoiding a work stoppage that was supposed to start yesterday. The union did not provide details on the three-year agreement but said it allows "workers to move forward and keep their focus on taking care of Michiganders." The agreement comes more than a week after workers sent a strike notice to the hospital administration and management. Nearly 98% of the group voted to issue the strike, asking for pay increases and the restoration of benefits taken away during the pandemic.
CMS announced quality ratings for 2025 Medicare health and prescription drug plans on Thursday, the first indication of which large health insurers, including CVS Health, UnitedHealth Group, opens new tab and Humana, opens new tab, will get bonus payments in 2026. Sixty-two percent of people currently enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans that cover prescription drugs are covered by plans rated four or more stars, the Medicare agency said in its release, down from 74% last year. About 40% of plans being offered are four stars or higher, down from 42% in 2024. Research firm KFF said in September that the government was on track to pay out nearly $12 billion in star ratings-related bonuses to Medicare Advantage plans in 2024.
Pinellas County issued mandatory evacuation orders for long-term care facilities, assisted living facilities and hospitals in evacuation zones A, B and C due to the threat posed by Hurricane Milton. This order affects six hospitals, 25 nursing homes and 44 assisted living facilities, totaling about 6,600 patients. On Monday, it expanded to all residents in evacuation zones A, B and C and all mobile home residents countywide. HCA Florida had two of those six hospitals. HCA said in a statement, “In preparation for Hurricane Milton, HCA Florida Largo West Hospital (Indian Rocks Road campus) and HCA Florida Pasadena Hospital have initiated the transfer of patients to other facilities. The main campus of HCA Florida Largo Hospital will remain open. We have a patient reunification hotline that has been established at 1-844-482-4821.”
Milton rapidly strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane Monday on a path toward Florida population centers including Tampa and Orlando, threatening a dangerous storm surge in Tampa Bay and setting the stage for potential mass evacuations less than two weeks after a catastrophic Hurricane Helene swamped the coastline. Milton had maximum sustained winds of 150 mph (240 kph) over the southern Gulf of Mexico, the hurricane center said. Its center could come ashore Wednesday in the Tampa Bay area, and it could remain a hurricane as it moves across central Florida toward the Atlantic Ocean.
Hurricane Helene's widespread impact across the southern United States underscores how climate change jeopardizes the nation's healthcare system. The brick and mortar buildings Americans depend on to recover from crises such as Helene are themselves in peril as rising temperatures intensify disasters. Several county health departments across Tennessee remain closed due to flooding, while other hospitals have paused outpatient surgeries and chemotherapy treatments in the wake of Helene. Some ERs in southern Appalachia are only open for patients who are giving birth. And thousands of pharmacies across the southeastern U.S. are out of commission.