New York University's Grossman School of Medicine is allowing students to graduate early if they begin working in internal or emergency medicine beginning in April, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from California, New York, and Rhode Island.
- California: The California Department of Public Health (DPH) this month released data suggesting the state hasn't made progress on addressing high levels of lead in children's blood. The data DPH released this month shows that fewer children in California had their blood lead levels tested in 2018 than in 2015, and that the percentage of children with unacceptable levels of lead in their blood in 2018 was remained higher than the more than 5% of children in California with high lead blood levels in 2015. DPH Director Sonia Angell said the department is working on a plan to reduce children's exposure to lead (Rowan, Kaiser Health News, 3/26).
- New York: New York University (NYU) is allowing medical students at NYU's Grossman School of Medicine to graduate early if they begin working in internal or emergency medicine beginning in April. Kate Malenczak, a spokesperson for NYU, said the school decided to let students graduate early in order to increase staffing amid the United States' COVID-19 epidemic (Young, Medscape, 3/25).
- Rhode Island: CVS Health on Wednesday announced that, for certain Aetna plan members, the company is waiving cost-sharing requirements for inpatient hospital care for COVID-19 and care for health complications associated with the disease. The move applies to commercially insured Aetna members who seek treatment at in-network hospitals (Livingston, Modern Healthcare, 3/25).