Hospitals & Providers - Health Care Chief

Strike Canceled as Minnesota Hospitals and Nurses Agree on a Deal the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) has announced that a tentative deal has been reached with several Minnesota health systems, averting a planned strike by nurses that was due to begin. Approximately 15,000 nurses were due to walk out for about three weeks across 15 Twin Cities and Twin Ports hospitals, including those run by Allina Health and Children’s Minnesota. For most locations, the strike was supposed to end on December 31, while for others, open-ended strikes had been planned. If the strike had taken place as planned, it would have been the second in just a couple of months. In September, nurses went on a three-day strike, which the association hailed as the largest nurses' strike in the private sector in the country’s history. The agreement was reached after nine grueling months of negotiations and nearly half a year of work for nurses with no active contract. The outlined three-year agreement calls for unprecedented pay increases of 17% to 18% over the course of its duration and greater efforts to address understaffing in hospitals. Nurses in Twin Ports or Duluth areas would receive a 7% increase in the first year, with 6% and 4% jumps following in the next two years of the contract. The deal for nurses in the Minneapolis and St. Paul region is similar, with the only difference being a 5% increase in the third year. The collectively-agreed pay increases, according to MNA, are the biggest it has obtained in more than 20 years and include compensation going back to the expiration of the previous contract. The agreement also includes pay raises for nursing preceptors and charge nurses, who play key roles in the education and supervision of new nurses. These initiatives, according to the association, will assist health systems in retaining nurses at a time when many of them are walking out of their jobs at hospitals. The association also stated that the contract includes stipulations to ensure nurses aren’t penalized for raising concerns and expressing their opinions regarding different assignments. It also calls for reviews of staffing levels tied to patient and nurse well-being “This tentative agreement is a historic win for nurses and patients at the bedside,” Mary C. Turner, a registered nurse and president of the MNA, stated. “For years, hospital executives have been pushing nurses out of the profession by under-staffing our units and under-valuing our nurses. This tentative agreement will help to keep nurses at the bedside, where we will keep fighting to oppose the corporate healthcare policies which threaten our hospital systems and the care our patients deserve.” Nurses have now settled the contract dispute with 15 of the 16 hospitals involved. The truce between the nurses and Minnesota hospitals comes just a couple of weeks after a similar cease-fire between Kaiser Permanente and over 20,000 of its nurse staff - that deal included a 22.5% pay raise over four years.

Hospitals & Providers

Strike Canceled as Minnesota Hospitals and Nurses Agree on a Deal

Editorial Team

December 7, 2022
3 min read

The audit report shows million in Medicare overcharges federal audit reports disclosed recently show excessive charges in terms of pending payments charged to Medicare Advantage health plans for senior citizens. These included plans overcharged to the government by over $1,000 per patient annually. The government's audits revealed around $12 million in net overpayments for the care of over 18,000 patients who were sampled, however, the actual costs to taxpayers are likely substantially more significant. Medicare Advantage is considered an expanding alternative to traditional Medicare, which is mostly managed by large insurance firms. CMS officials have stated that they will cover the payment rate mistakes for the entire membership. They anticipate collecting over $650 million in compensation. CMS had scheduled to implement the mentioned rule in November but delayed it until February of next year. According to CMS, most of the audited plans were of high sensitivity. They were among the most active in pursuing additional compensation for patients they said were sicker than others. The government pays healthcare providers using a mechanism known as a "risk score," which is expected to result in higher charges for sicker patients and lower prices for healthy ones. Over the past ten years, CMS has completed 90 audits, During that time, enrollment in Medicare plans increased nearly four times to twenty-eight million dollars as of 2022, increasing the cost to the government to over $420 billion. According to government statistics, audits have shown overpayments of $1,000 per patient. Additionally, Humana, one of the top Medicare Advantage sponsors, had overpayments above the $1,000 average in 10 audits. Auditors characterize overpayments as when patient records do not justify the payment made by the government for their health condition, or when doctors are unable to identify the intensity of sickness. Over the three years, this occurred for little over 20% of the medical disorders evaluated; rates of unconfirmed illnesses were greater in other plans. Three groups, including KHN, have filed a lawsuit against CMS to get information regarding the overpayment audits, known as Risk Adjustment Data Validation. As per legal reports, CMS had charged a legal firm a search cost worth $120,000, leading to giving nothing in return. The law firm filed a suit in federal court in Washington, D.C. last year, and the case is still pending. In September 2019, KHN filed a lawsuit against CMS after the agency failed to reply to the audit request. CMS agreed to turn up the audit summaries and other records in exchange for $63,000 in legal costs to Davis Wright Tremaine, the law firm that represented KHN. CMS has made no admission of wrongdoing in withholding the documents. Mary Beth, President of Medicare Alliance stated: "While this data is more than a decade old, more current research shows Medicare Advantage's affordability and good management of Medicare resources, the sector provides superior service and outcomes for patients.

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