Negotiations between Steward Health and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania continue in the sale of Sharon Regional Medical Center. According to a court filing made in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Steward Health is requesting funding of $3 million per month from the Commonwealth by Monday, Dec. 2 or they will begin the hospital closure process. However, a filing later Monday extended that deadline to Wednesday, Dec. 4. The Commonwealth committed to pay Sharon Hospital $1.5 million per month for three months ($4.5 million) in September to maintain operations including payroll, rent, supplies and accrued expenses. Steward Health threatened to close the hospital if it did not receive this funding.
What are the tangible ways AI can make this process easier? The most obvious improvement is in the claims scrubbing process, something historically managed by clearinghouses—a tool that allows providers to easily send batches of electronic claims to different insurance payers at once. Clearinghouses reject malformed claims before they get sent to payers based on certain universal rules, which include formatting issues, incorrect use/combinations of codes or conflicting insurance information. Using payer policies as ground truth and learning from every denial, AI tools can create a comprehensive rule engine for each individual payer so that no claim is denied for the same reason as another, taking the onus off the biller to read and remember policies, which are often unnecessarily complex and constantly changing. Then, with access to the EMR, AI could automatically resubmit a corrected claim, or flag the issue if information is missing. Eventually, a billing team would no longer be necessary—the rules engine would allow the AI to build the claim correctly on its own.
Norman Regional Hospital's revenue bonds have been downgraded due to a "precipitous decline in liquidity" following the resignation of its CEO and on the heels of a major facility upgrade. Moody's Ratings has downgraded Norman Regional Hospital Authority's revenue bonds rating from Ba1, or "stable," to B1, "significant credit risk," according to a release from the firm. The assessment from Moody's suggests Norman Regional's income is not sufficient to meet its cash flow needs. "The downgrade of NRH's rating to B1 reflects a material and precipitous decline in liquidity well in excess of projections at the time of our most recent review," Moody's says. "Heavy reliance on a short-term line of credit, which is currently fully drawn, ongoing cash flow losses, and challenges with the master facility project have also contributed to the downgrade."
The researchers say the method could act as a quicker and more convenient way to monitor brain activity and diagnose neurological conditions, such as seizures, epilepsy and brain tumors, compared to traditional electroencephalogram (EEG) tests.
UPMC is blaming a $371 million operating loss on increased medical utilization and rising pharmacy costs. The $371 million loss in the first nine months of 2024 is up from the $177 million loss reported over the same span last year. The loss comes despite increasing operating revenues. UPMC from January through September generated more than $22.2 million in revenues, up from about $20.6 million at the same point last year. UPMC spent $109 million on restructuring costs in the first nine months of this year. In April, it slashed 1,000 jobs, citing post-pandemic challenges. The cuts impacted just over 1% of UPMC's more than 100,000-member workforce. UPMC recently announced it was laying off another 100 employees and eliminating 200 vacant positions in an effort to cut costs.
A pilot study by medical students working in collaboration with a healthy aging advocacy group explored the key factors influencing recruitment of primary care professionals. Their findings challenge common assumptions about healthcare recruitment and identify a complex interplay of factors that go into a trainee's decision-making process about where to practice medicine.