CMS on Thursday launched a revamped website that combines its eight online provider comparison tools—including Hospital Compare and Nursing Home Compare—into a single platform called Care Compare, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Utah.
- District of Columbia: U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Wednesday issued a preliminary injunction blocking a final rule that would roll back certain health care protections for transgender individuals. The federal rule, which the Trump administration issued last year, would rescind a regulation issued under former President Barack Obama that prohibits health care providers and insurance companies from discriminating against transgender individuals. Boasberg in his order wrote that the Trump administration had failed consider to the "substantial evidence" showing its final rule would affect access to care for LGBT patients, who would "fear discrimination at the hands of religiously affiliated providers" if the regulation takes effect. Boasberg's preliminary injunction comes less than two weeks after a federal judge temporarily blocked the rule nationwide until a lawsuit challenging the new policy is settled (Burnson, Bloomberg, 9/2).
- Maryland: CMS on Thursday launched a revamped website that combines its eight online provider comparison tools—including Hospital Compare and Nursing Home Compare—into a single platform called Care Compare. CMS Administrator Seema Verma on Wednesday said the existing eight tools—which allowed users to comparison shop for dialysis facilities, home health providers, hospice, hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, long-term care hospitals, nursing homes, and physicians—had been confusing and difficult to navigate. In comparison, Verma said, the new platform displays information in "a modern streamlined design to make it as helpful as possible to users." Users can visit the Care Compare website and use a drop-down menu to select the type of provider they're looking for and compare up to three providers based on cost, location, and quality data, according to CMS (Castellucci, Modern Healthcare, 9/3; King, FierceHealthcare, 9/3).
- Utah: Civica Rx, a nonprofit launched in 2018 by four of the nation's biggest hospital systems to bolster America's generic drug supply, on Wednesday announced it is now serving 1,200 hospitals, which represent 30% of the nation's hospital beds. Civica RX also said its contracts with hospitals cover 40 different medications. So far, the nonprofit has delivered 11 million vials of drugs throughout the United States, including more than two million to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile to address drug shortages spurred by the coronavirus pandemic. The company said it hopes to supply 100 different treatments by 2023 (Anderson, Becker's Hospital Review, 9/2).