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Dr. Shannon Orsak has been practicing emergency-room medicine in the state of Texas since the late ’90s. In February 2007, he opened the first free-standing emergency room in the state. “My brother and I went to the state and legislated so the politicians would pass a law so we could get a license and with that it opened up a groundwork where other people could go and start their own,” Orsak says...The next goal for Orsak and his partners was to bring his business model to Las Vegas, but make it Vegas-sized...Elite Medical Center is now open within walking distance of the Strip, and will offer emergency medical care with a concierge-type level of service...We’re an acute-care hospital. But most likely our patients are going to be in the emergency and then be discharged. We don’t expect that many admissions. We’re going to be taking care of people on the Strip...We are a full-service hospital so: X-rays, CAT-scans, full-service lab, full-service pharmacy, 20 in-patient beds, 20 ER beds. It’ll look like a hotel and a suite at Caesars. All our staff has the same philosophy—going that extra mile...

A Las Vegas counseling and mental health care provider has been fined more than $1 million and placed on three years of probation after fraudulently billing Medicaid...We Care Behavioral Health Agency LLC was convicted on a gross misdemeanor charge of intentional failure to maintain adequate records...(the agency) didn’t keep documentation on when or which billed services it actually provided to Medicaid recipients

The Nevada Supreme Court heard oral arguments...in the case of a death row inmate who wants the state to put him to death with a lethal injection method never before used in Nevada or elsewhere...Scott Raymond Dozier, 47, is a death row inmate convicted in Clark County of the 2002 killing and dismemberment of Jeremiah Miller...also...has repeatedly expressed his desire to give up his appeals and be put to death...Dozier’s lawyers are particularly concerned that the execution protocol calls for a paralytic (cisatracurium) in addition to two other drugs (fentanyl and diazepam) meant to kill the defendant...the paralytic doesn’t serve a medical purpose but is only included to mask signs of distress, potentially hiding any indicators of a painful or botched killing...The issue the court must decide is whether the state’s use of the paralytic in the execution violates Dozier’s right, under the Nevada and U.S. constitutions, to avoid any cruel and unusual punishment...

The governor’s task force on the opioid crisis met for the second time...to receive a progress report on its efforts to rein in abuse and death resulting from prescription painkillers...Representatives of health care organizations and Nevada officials told members of the Governor’s Opioid State Action Accountability Task Force that progress was being made on four priorities identified by the panel at its first meeting...: prescriber education, treatment options, data collection and criminal justice interventions...Specifics included obtaining federal funding for three new treatment centers; development of informational presentations for schools and law enforcement; distribution of the opioid reversal drug naloxone to law enforcement; and creation of the Opioid Dashboard, a publicly available collection of state data related to the epidemic...At the task force’s third meeting in July, presenters promised to present updates on other task force goals, including identifying ways to compile real-time overdose data...

...if you get injured or ill in Nevada, you will pay the second-highest price in the nation just to step through the ER doors...The cost of an emergency department visit in the Silver State, not counting the services actually rendered once you’re admitted, is rising at the fastest rate in the country, according to a report published...by the Health Care Cost Institute. The average price per claim in Nevada was $1,281 in 2016, trailing only No. 1 California by $7...From 2009 through 2016, the latest year for which data was available, the price of an emergency department visit increased 147 percent in Nevada...It rose 98 percent nationwide in the same time period...It could be that Nevadans today are sicker than they were a decade ago...Or it could be that Nevada’s ERs are looking to offset the costs incurred by an increasing number of Medicaid patients...A 2014 expansion of the federal program in the state doubled the number of Medicaid patients to more than 600,000, but state health care providers receive one of the lowest reimbursement rates in the nation...

Two Las Vegas entrepreneurs — one a doctor, one a former gaming company executive — are embracing technology in two distinctly different quests to promote good health. And each is capitalizing on something that Las Vegas has led the way on for decades: hospitality...Constantine George, chief medical officer of the concierge practice Epitomedical, this year launched Vedius, a smartphone app that combines personalized clinical care with the kind of customer service for which Las Vegas is known...“Patients first,” George said. “They’re the center of our universe, medically speaking. Just like the hotel industry here, (where) it’s about the tourists, all about people coming to town and having a good time and wanting to come back over and over. The same concept should be applied to health care.”...Tim Stanley, a former gaming and technology executive...launched Carepoynt, a web-based health care rewards program with 15,000 members nationwide that recently began adding Las Vegas partners...“I think helping reward the right behaviors is good for our health,” Stanley said. “There are many things we can do preventatively that significantly (reduce) the ravages of time — disease, things like that. Diabetes, heart disease — these things are not completely preventable but significantly.”

The Healthy Nevada Project is opening up 5,000 more testing slots for people interested in their genetics study...researchers at Renown Health and DRI have partnered with Helix to assess personal health risks of Nevadans and build a demographic profile of our area...Since kicking off the second phase of the Healthy Nevada Project, researchers have collected 10,000 DNA samples.

The Stacie Mathewson Behavioral Health and Addiction Institute will focus on identifying the causes of mental illnesses and addiction at early ages. Thanks to a $6 million donation by Charles and Stacie Mathewson, parents and the medical community will have more resources to help battle addiction and mental health issues..."We don't have enough specialty providers that know how to treat children and adolescents in the community. It's a severe lack; we need more people to specialize in that population and those kids and being able to reach them early," said Kristen Davis-Coelho, psychologist at Renown Regional Medical Center...The Institute will also track babies who are born addicted and help provide individual case management to meet the medical needs of the babies, as well as parents working toward long-term recovery or support for foster and adoptive parents.

Nevada health officials are examining how the state could license consultants who transfer mentally ill people to unregulated group homes, a step prompted by a Las Vegas Review-Journal investigation that highlighted the death of a suicidal woman after she was placed in an unsupervised residence...“This story has been really motivating for people,” said Julie Kotchevar, deputy director at the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services. “It’s certainly been motivating for me to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”...Kotchevar presented lawmakers with an idea: Broaden the state statute that governs “referral agencies” to require anyone doing that type of work to obtain a license. Currently, state law requires a license only for businesses that refer patients to “residential facilities for groups.”

An explosive but confidential audit which investigated reports of widespread billing errors within the University of Nevada medical school has been kept quiet for more than two years...It's only been known to a handful of officials in the higher education system. But the confidentiality is about to end...The audit uncovered incompetence on a massive scale, and quite possibly, fraudulent billing that continued for years within the University of Nevada's medical school practice...The I-Team has been asking for a copy of the report for weeks. Two days ago, the state said no because it is private and confidential...The audit by an independent firm, "Crowe Horwath," uncovered systemic problems within the University of Nevada, Reno Medical School's billing procedures: overbilling, underbilling, lack of oversight, and potential legal consequences...