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The Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents Thursday approved the broad framework for a new, privately-funded medical school building at UNLV, subject to mutually-agreed conditions with the project’s donors that require construction to start by Feb. 1 of next year...“If we are to become a state of the art medical school that innovates and changes the health care landscape in Southern Nevada, we need facilities to make that goal a reality,” Marta Meana, UNLV’s acting president, told the board before the vote. “What we have before us today is a once in a generation opportunity thanks to the remarkable generosity of a group of community members who have been strongly invested in this medical school since its inception, and in UNLV for decades.”...Critics of the deal expressed concerns that NSHE and UNLV potentially would have to surrender to the donor corporation too much control over the operation, management and programming.,,READ MORE

Two national health care industry behemoths have ended a yearslong standoff and reached an agreement that will bring a major Las Vegas hospital in network for hundreds of thousands of patients insured by some of Nevada’s largest health plans...Patients insured by Health Plan of Nevada, Sierra Health and Life and Sierra Health-Care Options — subsidiaries of insurance giant UnitedHealthcare — will be able to visit Sunrise Health System’s hospitals, urgent care centers, surgery centers and free-standing emergency rooms, part of the hospital giant HCA’s system, at in-network rates beginning Jan. 1...The lack of a contract between the two companies had left thousands of Nevadans insured under the plans vulnerable to out-of-network bills, particularly at Sunrise Hospital, which, as one of three trauma centers in Las Vegas, often receives patients in critical condition unable to make choices about which hospital they want to go to...READ MORE

Painful Mistakes...Does Nevada discipline dentists who injure patients? Our investigation found complaints have climbed, while sanctions have plummeted...Many say the dental board needs an overhaul...Nevada’s dental board members have faced allegations of conflicts of interest, illegally required dentists to contribute to nonprofits with ties to board members and failed to investigate complaints against the board’s own president, a Las Vegas Review-Journal investigation found...The allegations, detailed in audits, public records and complaints, so outraged Gov. Steve Sisolak that he directed the Nevada Board of Dental Examiners, whose members he appoints, to undergo training by the Nevada Commission on Ethics...READ MORE (pay wall)

Becoming temporarily blind in 2015 was Robert Hoey’s wake-up call to take control of his Type 1 diabetes... Now he’s diligent in monitoring his glucose levels...Medicaid will only pay for him to receive 100 test strips a month, and Hoey typically uses anywhere from 180 to 210...he often purchases the remaining test strips he needs from what experts describe as a mostly unregulated — and potentially dangerous — gray market of entrepreneurs flipping pre-owned test strips...The chemical mixture on a test strip used to measure blood sugar can be damaged by heat or moisture. And unlike with licensed pharmacies, the Nevada State Board of Pharmacy does not regularly inspect flippers’ operations to ensure products are being properly stored. There’s also the potential of expired or counterfeit test strips being sold...READ MORE

Tedder (Ryan Tedder ) confirmed...he teamed up to buy the Walgreens building across from Park MGM, and that his investors on the deal included DJ duo the Chainsmokers...The $38 million sale by Walgreen Co., which bought the building in June from its former landlord for $30 million and flipped it, closed last month, property records show...Drugstores on tourist-choked Las Vegas Boulevard are big business, commanding outsize rents, strong retail sales and, as the recent purchase shows, high property values...Illinois-based Walgreen Co. had listed its 15,000-square-foot building on Las Vegas Boulevard between Tropicana and Harmon avenues for $40 million...READ MORE

Gov. Steve Sisolak announced...a new plan for a permanent home for the UNLV School of Medicine that relies on $155 million in donor funds, rather than a $125 million bond measure approved in July...“This agreement is a monumental step forward in ensuring that UNLV will have a state-of-the-art medical school that will save taxpayer money, raise the quality of health care, and help us combat Nevada’s critical doctor shortage in the face of rapid population growth,”...In July, the Nevada System of Higher Education regents authorized acting university President Marta Meana to move forward with a plan to fund the building via $125 million in bonds... a funding resolution was never brought before the Board of Regents...UNLV will be able to use the bonding capacity for another purpose...Before the bond resolution, the school planned to construct a building through a combination of donations and a state grant...READ MORE

The Valley Health System has a new freestanding emergency department — its second in the Las Vegas Valley...ER at Blue Diamond opened...Sept. 30...“Really, this area of the community didn’t have anything with this level of care,” said Kevin Scott, manager of ER at Blue Diamond...Freestanding emergency departments can improve access to care and are more likely to be in affluent areas...In May, the Clark County Commission adopted a new rule related to freestanding emergency rooms as a result of concerns about facilities unaffiliated with existing hospital systems...Effective June 1, freestanding emergency rooms seeking a business license must accept Medicare and Medicaid, and be in compliance with federal law that requires emergency departments to treat patients regardless of ability to pay...READ MORE

Leapfrog’s highest “A” rated hospitals for 2019 has remained unchanged from last year. These are Henderson Hospital, Mountainview Hospital, Northern Nevada Medical Center, Renown South Meadows Medical Center, and St. Mary's Regional Medical Center of Reno.

The Leapfrog Group hospital grading system is based on Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data collection and represents a single metric that evaluates a hospital’s overall safety performance. The nonprofit is dedicated to transparency and has created the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade as a quality standard for comparing health care institutions.

The “B” team consists of North Vista Hospital, Valley Hospital Medical Center, St. Rose Dominican Hospitals - Siena Campus, St. Rose Dominican Hospitals - San Martin Campus, and Renown Regional Medical Center.

The good news is two of these hospitals have shown a marked safety improvement by moving up from a “C” rating to a “B” rating; these are: Valley Hospital Medical Center, and Renown Regional Medical Center.

These hospitals are to be applauded for consistently maintaining high standards and striving to improve patient care.

The bad news is the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada continues to struggle with its’ “D” rating.

By Chase

12.30.2019

Gov. Steve Sisolak last week took a small step toward dealing with Nevada’s rogue dental regulatory board. Let’s hope he doesn’t stop there...He should also consider a re-evaluation of all the state’s licensing boards, which too often function as protectionist entities more concerned with shielding existing interests than with promoting competition and public health and safety. The dental board is hardly the only problem...Last week, for instance, Gov. Sisolak revealed that the state Board of Pharmacy for more than a decade has often failed to conduct the required background checks of drug wholesalers. Last year, a report presented to the state executive audit committee cited numerous oversight issues with the more than three dozen occupational regulatory boards operating at the state level...READ MORE

Just a day before a lawsuit by The Nevada Independent to obtain public records through the state’s drug transparency law was set for a hearing and both sides had filed briefs, District Court...has kicked the hearing date to November 19...the state effectively denied two records requests seeking copies of reports submitted to the state by drug companies and pharmaceutical middlemen under the state’s bipartisan insulin pricing transparency law...the state argued that a federal law, the Defend Trade Secrets Act, preempts the state law and makes that information confidential. Its position came in the face of stiff opposition from the pharmaceutical industry, which pushed hard against the bill during the 2017 session and which has sued once already to keep the state from publishing key details...That suit was eventually dropped, but only after DHHS adopted internal policies allowing drug makers to mark those details as trade secrets. In ending legal action, industry lawyers — calling the bill “facially unconstitutional” — left the door open for another lawsuit...READ MORE