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Babies requiring care in the neonatal intensive care unit...can cost the hospital thousands of dollars daily, depending on the equipment or medication required to keep them stable, said Sunrise CEO Todd Sklamberg...But Medicaid, the insurer for about 70 percent of the hospital’s NICU patients, only pays up to $1,487 daily per baby...The discrepancy left Sunrise Hospital with $77 million in uncompensated costs for intensive infant care last year...Without a bump in payments for the hospital with the most pediatric acute care beds in the state and the only dedicated pediatric cardiology unit in Nevada, Sklamberg said he worries some of the hospital’s highest cost services...will disappear...Nevada’s Medicaid program is one of just a few nationwide to pay on a per diem rate...Most states reimburse hospitals based on what’s called a diagnosis-related group — a code that ties a reimbursement rate to the level and type of services provided by the hospital. But Nevada uses a flat dollar amount of $1,487 to pay back high-level NICUs, no matter the level of care provided...

Pharmaceutical companies are preparing to submit their initial reports detailing why rising prices of some diabetes drugs have outpaced medical inflation, giving state officials the first detailed look into the costs associated with a disease that affects about a tenth of Nevadans...Despite a protracted legal battle...pharmaceutical manufacturers are required to submit reports...to comply with a new diabetes drug transparency law… the state released a list of 175 so-called national drug codes...manufacturers...are required to submit reports to the state detailing the factors that contributed to the price increases...

In a city where quality customer service and visitor experience run the economy, professionals at UNLV’s medical school said embracing the same principles for sick patients will determine which future physicians rise above the pack...The level of service you have to provide has to mimic level of service that hotels provide to their guests…in Las Vegas, medical care providers must also go the extra mile to meet the standards of other industries’ high bar for customer service...that means offering tourists a courier service to deliver prescriptions to hotel rooms and daily phone calls checking in on the patient until the end of the patient’s Las Vegas vacation...

Campaign contributions from pharmaceutical companies named in lawsuits filed by the state and several local governments have largely dried up this year...The pharmaceutical industry — long one of the biggest political players in the country, donating tens of millions of dollars to candidates and politicians at all levels of government — has contributed less to state-level candidates this election cycle despite contributing nearly $1 million to various candidates and PACs over the past decade...Seven of the 14 pharmaceutical companies implicated in a Clark County opioid lawsuit that had donated more than $934,000 to state level candidates or party committees have been easing off, and only two named companies — Johnson & Johnson and Purdue Pharma — continued to donate any money after those lawsuits were filed...

FYI

An Elko cardiologist has pleaded guilty to distributing highly-addictive prescription drugs...to patients without a medical purpose...59-year-old Dr. Devendra I. Patel...who owns and operates Northeastern Nevada Cardiology, was indicted by a grand jury in December 2017...The investigation showed Patel illegally prescribed opioids and other prescription narcotics to patients for financial gain. As part of his plea, Patel admitted that, between September 2015 and February 2016, he prescribed Oxycodone and Hydrocodone to patients without a legitimate medical purpose and outside the usual course of professional practice...The statutory maximum penalty is 20 years in prison and a $1,000,000 fine.

Nevada’s public hospital in Las Vegas has been ordered to pay nearly $820,000 in sanctions and attorney fees for failing to produce required emails, text messages and computer records in an ongoing federal employee wages lawsuit...University Medical Center has until Dec. 5 to pay the penalty in the civil case alleging that thousands of nurses and other employees routinely worked through 30-minute meal periods for no pay...The court found that UMC had repeatedly violated its discovery obligations and its duty to preserve...noting that some electronically stored information that was turned over included “indecipherable codes complete with Japanese and Korean characters.”

Nevada could soon have almost twice as many marijuana dispensaries as it does now after the state issued 61 conditional licenses, although it’s not releasing details about who the winners of the potentially lucrative permits are...“We issued a number of state-level licenses in counties that have thus far declined to allow marijuana establishments,” said spokeswoman Stephanie Klapstein of the Nevada Department of Taxation, which regulates marijuana. “There’s a chance some of those licenses will not ultimately result in operational retail marijuana stores.”...License winners have one year to obtain local approvals and pass a final inspection from the tax agency before they are issued a final state license. At that point, the name of the dispensary will be published on the state list of open retail stores, which currently includes 65 dispensaries in five counties.

Nevada Medicaid officials are putting a temporary stop on the enrollment of some mental health providers while new certification requirements are considered...the largely federally funded state agency will put a six-month pause on enrolling new qualified behavioral aides and qualified mental health associates...State mental health groups had brought up concerns that some enrolled as either provider type were performing services without proper qualification…Nevada Medicaid acting Administrator Cody Phinney also expressed concern over potential improper billing for codes including medication training and support and crisis intervention...

The number of Nevada hospitals adhering to best practices on patient safety jumped in a new report…The state’s overall ranking rose to 16th, up from 40th in the spring...The rankings are based on the percentage of hospitals in the state earning A grades...which more than doubled in Nevada from just under 17 percent to 35 percent...Seven Nevada hospitals received top marks, including four in Southern Nevada: Henderson Hospital, Mountain View Hospital, North Vista Hospital and St. Rose Dominican Hospital, Rose de Lima campus. Northern Nevada Medical Center, Renown South Meadows Medical Center and St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Reno also received As.