Virtis Health, a national provider dedicated to therapeutic and diagnostic services for patients with complex conditions requiring specialty infusible and injectable medications, has announced the opening of three additional Ambulatory Infusion...Arizona News
Alignment Healthcare, a Medicare Advantage company, has announced the expansion of its health plan into Maricopa and Pima counties in Arizona in 2022.
In collaboration with Phoenix-based Arizona Care Network, Alignment will reach nearly 1 million Medicare-eligible seniors in the region. Pending regulatory approval, HMO and PPO options...Arizona News
Abrazo Cave Creek Hospital, which offers emergency and surgical care closer to home for local residents, is now open. The neighborhood micro-hospital serves patients of all ages and includes a 13-bed emergency department, an operating room and eight inpatient rooms.
Abrazo Cave Creek Hospital is smaller in scale than an average...Arizona News
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona (BCBSAZ) and Quartet Health (Quartet) announced they will join forces to help increase access to mental healthcare in Arizona, starting in Maricopa County. Quartet’s technology platform will make it easier for patients with BCBSAZ health insurance to quickly connect with mental healthcare services.
...Arizona News
The National Academy of Medicine and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation named the 2021-2022 class of Health Policy Fellows. The six health professionals joining the fellowship program will come to Washington, D.C. this September to spend a year working on health-related legislative and regulatory issues with members of Congress and the...
To protect patients, team members and the community, Banner Health notified its employees that being vaccinated for COVID-19 will be a condition of employment. All 52,000 team members have until November 1 to be fully vaccinated.
Peter Fine, president and CEO for Banner Health, said,
We care for some of the most vulnerable people in...
This week Banner Health announced the acquisition of Sonoran Hematology and Oncology - a well-established practice located in Peoria, Arizona.
As a result of the acquisition, Dr. Shelly Gandhok, a well-known hematologist-oncologist, will join Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center. Gandhok’s practice members will join as well, according...
The U.S. District Court for the State of Arizona has ordered the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Recovery (ADC) to go to trial for failing to make agreed-upon progress toward prison healthcare reforms.
The case against ADC was initially filed in 2012 by 15 people incarcerated in Arizona facilities on behalf of...
A former DaVita employee claims in a new lawsuit that DaVita and its outpatient provider competitors allegedly colluded to skew the executive labor market and suppress wages. The lawsuit follows last week's criminal indictment of DaVita and its former CEO Kent Thiry, who was charged with two counts of conspiring with competing employers...
At AHCCCS' quarterly Arizona State Medicaid Advisory Committee (SMAC) meeting, members discussed continued Public Health Emergency (PHE) funding and other funding priorities.
AHCCCS now serves 2.2 million Arizonans, and over the last 17 months enrollment has grown by 373,000 - which is due to a condition of the enhanced federal match...
Despite vaccinating most residents against COVID-19, the decline in cases and deaths in nursing homes, and the relaxation of some visitation restrictions, residents and families continue to face limitations on visitation.
In January, the Consumer Voice released a report detailing the horrific impact of lockdowns on nursing home...
As designated by Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the Valleywise Community Health Centers Governing Council is organized to provide governance and oversight of their Federally Qualified Health Center Clinics.
At Valleywise's meeting on July 7, the Governing Council went over HRSA COVID-19 relief funding items and...Arizona News
On July 12, AHCCCS submitted a proposal to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) detailing its plan for reinvesting federal funding made available through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
The spending plan includes strategies that aim to strengthen AHCCCS’ existing home and community based services (HCBS) program...Arizona News
A multi-institution team led by University of Arizona electrical and computer engineering professor Janet Roveda is building a future in which wearable devices will allow clinicians to gather patient data remotely and provide care in place so patients don't need to leave their homes.
The wearable technology market is valued at $116.2...Arizona News
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) provided $398 million in funding through the Small Rural Hospital Improvement Program (SHIP) to 1,540 small rural hospitals for COVID-19 testing and mitigation; funding allocated by the American Rescue Plan.
State...Arizona News
The University of Arizona has been granted $4.4 million by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration to improve health and wellness services in the state’s rural areas.
UofA said that Arizona is one of the largest states by area, which in turn has isolated many of its rural communities from human services and healthcare...Arizona News
Pam Kehaly, CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, said that when COVID-19 hit, everything she thought she knew about the healthcare workplace came crashing down - in the best way.
These are the three things that Kehaly learned that changed her outlook:
Nearly anything can be done in far less time than you think.
At the...National News
This week, CMS announced Dr. Meena Seshamani, M.D., Ph.D. as Deputy Administrator and Director of Center for Medicare. Dr. Seshamani will lead the Center’s efforts in serving people 65 and older, people with disabilities and people with End-Stage Renal Disease that rely on Medicare coverage. Dr. Seshamani started her new position on...Arizona News
Last week Steve Purves, President and CEO of Valleywise Health, became America’s Essential Hospitals’ board chair at a time when the nation’s safety net healthcare systems are in the national spotlight for leading the nation’s COVID-19 response.
Last week, Steve Purves, president and CEO of Valleywise Health, became...