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Chamber of commerce and trade association health plans are in legal limbo after a federal judge ruled earlier this year that the Trump administration rule allowing them violates the Affordable Care Act...Some associations in Nevada have stopped allowing new businesses into their health plans out of an abundance of caution as the case goes up on appeal, while others have chosen to press forward. The heterogeneous response is the result of the fact that the court’s decision only affects some association health plans and the state Division of Insurance, which oversees the plans, doesn’t know which ones those are...READ MORE

College of Southern Nevada paramedic students are the first in the state to begin training on portable ultrasound machines that can help diagnose traumatic bleeding long before a patient arrives at an emergency room...Students in uniform practiced with the handheld devices for the first time...The devices, which will help first responders determine how to care for patients and where to send them, can also communicate patient information to emergency room doctors during transport, expediting the arrival process...“If we have a decision to make in the field, one hospital may not have the trauma surgery capabilities that are needed,” said Braiden Green, CSN’S program director of emergency medical services. “This allows us to decrease the amount of times…that a patient is moved, to get the patient to definitive care faster and improve patient outcomes.”...In rural Nevada, an on-the-spot diagnosis could determine whether a helicopter is needed, Green said, one big reason that CSN decided to pursue this technology...READ MORE

In a cut-throat, protectionist sort of way, it makes sense that Nevada’s existing medical providers want to handicap new competitors. But that doesn’t mean elected officials should be doing their bidding...Elite Medical Center provides hospital and emergency room services near the Strip. It’s a small facility trying to fill an overlooked niche in the market — tourists. It treats an average of 30 patients a day. It boasts that patients see a doctor within minutes of arrival...Most Las Vegas residents would likely have never heard of it, except its competitors keep attacking the facility. Other hospitals are upset that Elite Medical Center doesn’t accept Medicaid and Medicare as payment methods...But why would hospitals care if a competitor didn’t accept certain payment methods? That would seem like an opportunity to lure those customers...The medical field needs innovation. Nevada won’t get it by stifling providers who dare to do things differently...READ MORE

Nevada leads the nation in a dubious category — the rate of syphilis infections....The state’s rate of the primary and secondary form of the sexually transmitted disease was highest in the nation in 2017, and the rate of congenital syphilis, life-threatening infections spread to an infant during pregnancy, was second highest...It’s an alarming trend because syphilis, particularly the congenital form, is preventable, said the district’s chief health officer, Dr. Joe Iser. State law requires prenatal screening for the disease during the first and third trimesters of pregnancy...‘Totally unacceptable’...READ MORE

A year after its opening and a few months after it was targeted in a political debate in the Nevada Legislature, Elite Medical Center...is looking toward 2021...That’s the year that Elite will have to accept Medicare and Medicaid, although CEO Patty Holden, who said it could be much sooner, hopes to work with lawmakers to create different classes of hospitals in Nevada...Less than a mile from Strip landmarks like the Bellagio and Paris Las Vegas, the hospital is working toward accepting Medicare and Medicaid, after state legislators earlier this year passed a law requiring essentially all hospitals in the state to accept the government programs...READ MORE

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford filed a lawsuit...in Clark County District Court accusing dozens of drug manufacturers and distributors of propagating the state’s deadly opioid epidemic...The 241-page complaint names more than 40 defendants, including prescription drug makers such as Purdue Pharma and Teva Pharmaceuticals, and distributors including CVS, Walgreens and retail giant Walmart...It accuses drug manufacturers of pushing doctors to prescribe the addictive medication while downplaying the side effects. It also alleges that distributors supplied many more opioids than justified for the Nevada market, ignoring data that allowed them to track overprescribing...READ MORE

Clark County Commission Chairwoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick pushed for more progress on the long-awaited UNLV School of Medicine building during a board meeting...The vexed commission chair expressed concern about project delays, saying her constituents haven’t gotten what was promised, including space for the UNLV Ackerman Autism Center. She asked for monthly updates to the commission’s management team...“I need more than a commitment. I need a hard date, a hard timeline, a hard communication expectation, because what I will tell you is that for me, I am super-frustrated with this whole thing,” Kirkpatrick said. “I have been waiting for financing for 10 years. That’s where we’re at.”...READ MORE

While there is a worsening doctor shortage across America, the need for physicians is particularly acute in Southern Nevada. The UNLV School of Medicine is working to address this local shortage by accepting only students who are from Nevada or who have strong ties to the area, as we know that medical students who are attached to the city from which they graduate are more likely to stay and practice there...The UNLV School of Medicine is recruiting the brightest local students and embedding them in the community from the very start of their medical education...students are required to fan out in groups of five or six into economically challenged neighborhoods where...they educate residents about how they can get better access to medical care, public transportation and healthy food. And these students will maintain these ties to the community throughout their four years of medical school by volunteering at shelters and soup kitchens. In these venues, students not only get a firsthand look at a community’s needs, they experience what it is like to provide care to those who need it most...READ MORE

A Department of Veterans Affairs program launched last week will offer military veterans new options in accessing health care...The Maintaining Internal Systems and Strengthening Integrated Outside Networks Act, or Mission Act, essentially expands on earlier legislation intended to cut down on wait times at VA medical facilities by allowing veterans to see private doctors in some circumstances...“It was a temporary fix at that time to deal with wait times and scheduling issues,” Chuck Ramey, spokesman for the the VA Southern Nevada Healthcare System in North Las Vegas...“The VA has been working with the community to provide community care since day one.”...Under the new program...veterans can work with their VA health care provider or other agency staffers to see if they are eligible to receive care from local non-VA doctors...Dr. Ramu Komanduri, chief of staff at the VA facility in North Las Vegas, said the new act “offers many more opportunities for the veteran to make a choice.”...READ MORE

New hospitals or medical centers that offer or advertise emergency services in Clark County will need to accept Medicare and Medicaid, starting this summer...Hospitals that obtain a business license after June 1 will be subject to the new rule. They must also be certified by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and be in compliance with federal law that requires emergency departments to treat patients without regard for insurance or ability to pay...The new stipulations...come amid concerns over the emergence of freestanding ERs, or microhospitals, that are not part of existing hospital networks. Those medical facilities are licensed through the state, but lack accreditation, do not accept Medicare and Medicaid and are not subject to the same reporting requirements and other standards...READ MORE