Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 87, says she's seeing "positive results" from chemotherapy and is "fully able" to continue fulfilling her obligations on the high court, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from the District of Columbia, California, Kansas, and Texas.
- District of Columbia: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 87, on Friday announced that, on May 19, she began receiving chemotherapy to treat a recurrence of cancer, and she is seeing "positive results." Ginsburg said she's "fully able" to fulfilling her obligations on the high court. According CNN, Ginsburg previously has received treatment for pancreatic cancer in 2009 and 2019 and for colon cancer in 1999, and she had tumors removed from a lung in 2018. Ginsburg said her hospitalization last week to have gall stones removed and treatment for an infection was unrelated to her cancer care (Berman, CNN, 7/17).
- California/Texas: Houston's and San Francisco's public school districts on Wednesday announced they won't physically reopen this fall due to the novel coronavirus, and they'll instead hold all classes for the fall 2020 semester online. Houston schools are slated to remain online-only until Oct. 19, depending on the status of America's coronavirus epidemic. San Francisco's public school district did not say when it plans move to in-person instruction. The announcements came just a few days after the Los Angeles and San Diego school districts similarly said they will be holding fall classes online (Ayesh, Axios, 7/15).
- Kansas: The American Academy of Family Physicians and the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions are partnering to develop a national, primary-care prospective payment model that aims to shift the U.S. health care system away from fee-for-service reimbursements. The groups said they intend to work with regional physician networks and employer coalitions to create the new payment model, which won't take a one-size-fits-all approach to reimbursements (Kacik, Modern Healthcare, 7/15).