The House on Tuesday voted 384-38 to delay a 2% cut to Medicare payments for the remainder of 2021, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from the District of Columbia, Georgia, and North Carolina.
- District of Columbia: The House on Tuesday voted 384-38 to delay a 2% cut to Medicare payments for the remainder of 2021. The cuts were initially put in place with the 2011 Budget Control Act, which implemented the annual cuts as a way to reduce debt. The bill now heads to President Biden's desk, where it is expected to be signed into law (Hellmann, Modern Healthcare, 4/13; Elis, The Hill, 4/13).
- Georgia: The American Cancer Society (ACS) has named Karen Knudsen as its CEO, effective June 1. Knudsen, who will be the first woman to serve as CEO of the ACS, currently serves as EVP of oncology services at Jefferson Health, enterprise director for Jefferson Health's Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, and president of the Association of American Cancer Institutes (Mandel, Atlanta Business Chronicle, 4/13; Carbajal, Becker's Hospital Review, 4/12).
- North Carolina: Duke Regional Hospital (DRH) President Katie Galbraith on Monday announced that Duke Health is opening its 112,246-square-foot, $102.4 million behavioral health center at DRH. The new center increases DRH's outpatient clinic rooms to 30 and features 42 private inpatient rooms. The center also includes a new ED and a secure behavioral health emergency unit with 18 treatment areas (Waraich, Triangle Business Journal, 4/12).