Category: Health Care
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Unvaccinated Being Slammed by Omicron
by Steve Haner In just four weeks ending January 8, more than 12% of unvaccinated Virginians have been diagnosed with COVID-19. In the most recent week reported, the unvaccinated were almost 60 times more likely to come down with the disease than those current on their shots. This is new. This Omicron version is clearly…
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Littel Pick as Health Secretary Signals Youngkin’s Approach to Healthcare Reform
by James A. Bacon Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin has appointed a new Secretary of Health & Human Resources to lead the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic and also to pursue long-term reforms in mental health and healthcare. Youngkin’s pick, John Littel, is a Virginia Beach resident and recent president of Magellan of Virginia and chief external…
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Chronic Complainers Notch Big Win Against Landlords
by James A. Bacon Whether you agree or disagree with Attorney General Mark Herring’s position on the case, a dispute between an unnamed individual with mental health issues and her Manassas landlords, Gia and Ernest Hairston, makes a fascinating case study. In a press release, Herring touts the outcome — the landlords paying the tenant…
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A Price of COPN — Sentara Pleads COVID Capacity Shortages
by James C. Sherlock Sentara Health, once described by The Washington Post as “playing COPN like a violin,” yesterday went statewide with an acknowledgment that its system is out of capacity for many who seek its help. On a Zoom press conference yesterday, Sentara reported seeing a huge surge in hospital admissions. Hospitalizations have more…
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Medical Facility State Inspector Shortfalls An Urgent Matter for the Governor and General Assembly
by James C. Sherlock Virginians are blessed to have a person running the Department of Health Office of Licensure and Inspection (OLC) who may be the best public servant in the Commonwealth. She desperately needs help to do the work she is assigned in order to protect us. Kim Beazley, the Director of that Office,…
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Another Brick in the Wall Around Sentaraland
by James C. Sherlock Which one of these doesn’t match? Story in Virginia Business Dec. 20: EVMS, ODU and Sentara sign health center agreement. Eastern Virginia Medical School, Old Dominion University and Sentara Healthcare entered into a memorandum of understanding Friday to work toward a collaborative academic health center…. That’s right. EVMS and ODU are…
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Two Virginia Health Systems In Top Five Nationally for Cost Efficiency
by James C. Sherlock Becker’s Hospital review reports: “Lynchburg, Va.-based Centra Health is the most cost-efficient health system in the U.S., according to a ranking from the Lown Institute, a nonpartisan healthcare think tank.” Also on the list of the top 20 is Inova Health of Falls Church at number 5. No surprise there.
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To Get Respect, Show Respect
by Dick Hall-Sizemore There are frequent posts on this blog citing the low morale of police officers and officers quitting or retiring as a result. (For one example, see the post from earlier today.) However, for some reason, those posts often fail to report on the continued bad behavior of police. Early last month, a…
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The Woke Are Coming for Your Doctor
by James C. Sherlock I just finished reading a profoundly disturbing article by Robert Graboyes, a PhD. economist with deep personal and professional roots in Virginia. “The Pall of Politics Descends Upon American Medicine” is published in Discourse Magazine, a publication of Mercatus Center at George Mason University. It is subtitled: “A new guidance document for medical…
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Feds Require Changes to Virginia Health Insurance Law
by James C. Sherlock There are a couple of new issues between Virginia’s Bureau of Insurance (BOI) and the federal Centers for Medicare/Medicaid Services (CMS). The problems were briefed today by a Board of Insurance representative to the Health Insurance Reform Committee. CMS has told the BOI that the 2020 General Assembly passed a law…
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Kamala Is on It
by James C. Sherlock News you can use. “Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday called for a health care workforce that “looks like America.” It would not have been possible to make it up.
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Marik Sues Sentara Over COVID-19 Treatment Ban
by James A. Bacon Paul Marik, director of Sentara Norfolk General’s ICU, has sued the hospital to reverse a ban on a treatment protocol he uses to treat critically ill patients. That protocol includes the administration of ivermectin and fluvoxamine. In the lawsuit Marik claimed that the Sentara restrictions may have contributed to the deaths…
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Herring Intervenes to Protect Hospital Competition… in Pennsylvania
by James A. Bacon It’s encouraging to see that Mark Herring has taken a forceful action against an “anticompetitive hospital merger” in his final days as Attorney General. Too bad the targets of his judicial intervention are in New Jersey, not Virginia. Herring has joined a bipartisan coalition of 26 attorneys general filing an amicus…
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Day One Powers of the Governor – Removal of Members of Boards and Commissions
by James C. Sherlock The left routinely reminds us that elections have consequences. Well, indeed they do. People ask what can Glenn Youngkin really do on day one of his administration. The answer — more and more consequentially — than is commonly understood. I have written here repeatedly about long term corruption in the Board…
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McAuliffe Lets the Cat out of the Bag
by James C. Sherlock Current Virginia law and Terry McAuliffe cannot coexist. “A parent has a fundamental right to make decisions concerning the upbringing, education, and care of the parent’s child.” Code of Virginia § 1-240.1. Rights of parents. “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” Terry McAuliffe, Sept 28,…