Healthcare Daily Digest for Friday, 22 March: A Friday Horror Story About Hepatitis and Healthcare Loopholes

David Kwiatkowski didn’t let getting fired three times and suspended once from various hospitals keep him from his true passion:

Stealing prescription medication.

Oh, and allegedly infecting patients with Hep C.

Sure, it’s a attention-grabber and kind of salacious. It does, however, point to some critical issues healthcare organizations face when looking at policies and procedures. Namely: keeping drug addicts out of the system as employees.

“There is a communication problem that we have identified for interstate reporting and reporting between these types of agencies,” said Dr. Lucy Wilson, Maryland Department of Health, in what we in the journalism biz like to call “casual understatement.”

Kwiatkowski used numerous staffing agencies which aren’t regulated by the state. Health officials are now trying to change that.

Friday’s headlines:

Big Data Use In Healthcare Needs Governance, Education: “Healthcare organizations should adopt a standardized framework for data governance if they want to harness the power of big data, says a new report.”

The New York Times is Still in Love with Kaiser: “When people talk about the future of health care, Kaiser Permanente is often the model they have in mind.”

Healthcare Reform Sometimes is and Sometimes isn’t Going to Save or Not Save Us All: “After three years, healthcare reform is closing the gap.” Tune in next week for a story that suggests the exact opposite.

Someone Pokes the Wall Street Journal About its Biased Reporting; Also, it’s a Day That Ends in -y: “The Wall Street Journal criticized the health care reform law for limiting government subsidies that fund private health insurance for seniors — a key aspect of the Medicare Advantage program — while ignoring the program’s failure to contain health care costs. The Journal has repeatedly called for entitlement cuts yet remains a stalwart defender of Medicare Advantage, despite the fact that economists argue that the program is inefficient.”

States Urged to Expand Medicaid With Private Insurance: “The White House is encouraging skeptical state officials to expand Medicaid by subsidizing the purchase of private insurance for low-income people, even though that approach might be somewhat more expensive, federal and state officials say.”