Nurses at UnityPoint Health-Des Moines hospitals have announced that they intend to form a union over their concerns about compensation, working conditions and patient care.
Nurses behind the union will hold a rally Tuesday afternoon to garner support for their efforts, and to raise awareness about the conditions at the Des Moines hospitals that have prompted them to seek union representation.
Executives at the overextended hospital chain have treated their in-house malpractice insurer, TRACO, like a piggy bank, pulling cash from it at will, and severely depleting the assets meant to cover claims of medical harm. Indeed, Steward was so eager to spend TRACO's money that it moved the insurer from the Cayman Islands — a traditionally permissive locale for foreign investors — to Panama, where certain key regulations were even more lax. Auditors had been pushing Steward to shore up TRACO's balance sheet. But executives had other plans for the insurer's assets and believed Panama would allow them more freedom to spend, according to three Steward insiders and internal company emails.
CMS in 2020 temporarily expanded Medicare's telehealth coverage to all specialties. That expansion, renewed in 2022, is set to expire at the end of the year, impacting more than 65 million Americans. Multiple bills have been introduced in the 118th Congress to preserve Medicare telehealth provisions and continue allowing people on Medicare to use telehealth flexibly, but all still await votes in both the House and Senate. Perhaps the likeliest to pass, the Telehealth Modernization Act of 2024, introduced by Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), received widespread, bipartisan support from members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and its subcommittee on health.
As a physician, I was taught to appreciate the clinical importance of human touch for our physical and mental health. As a human being, I worry about its loss. And as a dermatologist, I know what that loss may mean for the loneliest and most vulnerable among us.
After an abandoned effort to turn it into a public school, the former St. Joseph's Hospital in South Providence will be put up for sale by real estate developer Joseph R. Paolino Jr., who hopes it will be turned into badly-needed housing. The listing is set to go live tonight through real estate company Cushman & Wakefield, which will conduct an auction. There is no asking price, said Paolino, who is seeking proposals. Paolino thinks a mixed-use development with housing would be the best use of the property, though he's open to other proposals. He originally sought to develop the property himself, but was unable to secure COVID relief funds earlier this year from quasi-public agency R.I. Housing, which administers affordable housing subsidies. He ultimately decided the project needed a developer with more experience in subsidized housing.