- Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that the state will award $239M in construction grants to expand and improve access to inpatient behavioral health care in rural parts of Texas. The funding will support up to 332 new beds.
- DispatchHealth and Medically Home announced a merger that will create the country’s largest home health provider, with 50 major metro areas covered and partnerships with nearly 40 health systems.
- A recent report mapped so-called “medical deserts” throughout the country, finding that around 20% of U.S. counties require residents to drive at least 30 minutes to the nearest hospital. The states with the most medical deserts are AK, ND and MO.
- A recent survey of hospital managers and executives ranked the biggest challenges to day-1 operational readiness for construction projects. The top challenges were: (i) lack of in-house expertise and staffing numbers to manage the processes and systems involved; (ii) building equipment and systems that were improperly specified; and (iii) having too many project changes during the design and construction process.
- New data showed a 12% year-over-year increase in the cost of completing new MOB projects. It also indicated a 30% rise in new construction MOB rents over the past seven years, compared with a 15% increase in existing properties over the same period.
- HHS has begun issuing termination notices to employees as part of wide-reaching federal job cuts, which will total approximately 10,000 workers among CMS, CDC and other HHS agencies.
- VMG Health published a report highlighting the pros and cons of site-neutral payment legislation, which seeks to equalize Medicare reimbursement rates across different care settings. Site-neutral payments stand to save Medicare billions of dollars and reduce out-of-pocket costs for patients who pay higher copays for hospital-based services. Opponents argue that such policies don’t account for differences in construction and maintenance costs and could force more expensive settings (e.g., hospitals) to reduce services.
- Nebraska Medicine shared details on how it plans to “future-proof” its upcoming $2.2B hospital. One strategy is the so-called “universal room” that has adaptable features to accommodate a variety of acuity levels, as well as app-based controls to accommodate patient needs like in-room temperature, window blinds and food orders. Each room costs over $2M to build out.
- Kaiser Permanente started construction on one of the first hospitals in California that will be fully powered by renewable electric sources instead of fossil fuels. The hospital will be located in Sacramento’s Railyards district and have 310 beds.
- Memorial Hermann discussed new strategic expansions in the Houston area, including developments in Cypress, Katy and Sugar Land, with the goal of reducing transfers of patients facing complex care. The health system has 134 Houston-area acute-care beds and 262 rehabilitation beds.
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