Stay in the know with Becker's Hospital Review's weekly roundup of the nation's biggest healthcare news. Here's what you need to know this week.
1. Gunman kills 2 at Parrish Medical Center
A man entered a patient's room at Parrish Medical Center in Titusville, Fla., early Sunday and opened fire, killing an elderly female patient and a hospital employee in what appears to be a random attack, authorities told CNN. Following his arrest, the attorney of the 29-year-old suspect, David Owens, said he is severely mentally ill and incompetent to stand trial.
2. Miami may have first case of locally acquired Zika in US
On July 19, the Florida Department of Health announced it is conducting an epidemiological investigation in collaboration with the CDC into a possible non-travel related case of Zika in Miami-Dade County.
3. CMS to withdraw Medicare funding for Texas psychiatric hospital
CMS notified Behavioral Hospital of Longview (Texas) it will terminate Medicare funding to the facility due to alleged deficiencies that jeopardize patient health and safety, reports Longview News-Journal.
4. CMS reveals new cardiac, stroke innovation model
CMS unveiled the participants July 21 of a new innovation model aimed at reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes, which cause 1 in 3 deaths and result in $300 billion of healthcare costs annually. The new program — dubbed the Million Hearts Cardiovascular Disease Risk Reduction Model — is a five-year, randomized controlled trial.
5. ProPublica posts HIPAA violation notification letters in ongoing patient privacy series
Not all data breaches are reported or penalized equally. While some organizations face multimillion dollar fines for alleged HIPAA violations, HHS' Office for Civil Rights resolves thousands of complaints of potential violations without notifying the public, according to an investigation by ProPublica.
6. CMS releases some overall star ratings data: How many hospitals have 5 stars?
Although CMS has not yet released its full Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating program to the public, on July 21 it released some data from the program, including the national distributions of the stars measuring hospitals on multiple facets of quality.
7. Feds to give Calif. $1.8B in uncompensated care funding
CMS updated California's 1115 waiver by upping its uncompensated care funding to public hospitals by $472 million annually for the next four years.
8. Kaiser Permanente nurses to picket at 7 California hospitals
Nurses affiliated with Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente picketed July 20 at seven Kaiser hospitals in California over what they say is unsafe staffing and eroding standards of patient care, California Nurses Association officials announced this week.
9. 3 Next Generation ACOs head for the door
Out of the original 21 participants in CMS' Next Generation Accountable Care Organization Model, 18 remain after roughly seven months in the program, Healthcare Finance reported.
10. Hospital cleared of wrongdoing after releasing patient hours before fatal rampage
State officials cleared Taunton, Mass.-based Morton Hospital and a contracted employee of any wrongdoing after a patient killed two people and injured five just hours after his discharge, according to the Boston Herald.