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MA Lawmakers to Weigh Four-Day Work Week The Massachusetts House Labor and Workforce Development Committee scheduled a hearing last week on legislation ( HB 3849 ) that would provide tax credits to businesses...
Bills to Overhaul Long-Term Care and Control Prescription Drug Costs on Move in MA The Massachusetts House unanimously passed a bill ( HB 4178 ) that would overhaul the long-term care industry, while...
OpenAI Ousts CEO Sam Altman The board of directors of OpenAI, developer of ChatGPT, announced on the company’s blog last week that its CEO Sam Altman would be stepping down. The blog post said...
For more than half a year, labor strife has swept the country. First, Hollywood writers went on strike in May. Then actors joined them in walking off the set a couple months later, in July. Detroit...
IL Lawmakers Approve Bill Lifting Moratorium on Nuclear Power Plants: The Illinois General Assembly passed legislation ( HB 2437 ) that, as amended, will lift a nearly four-decades-old moratorium on new...
Volunteer workers have become an integral part of the labor force at hospitals across the country. According to analysis of federal and other data by Kaiser Health News, hospitals may use over $5 billion worth of free volunteer labor each year.
Some labor experts say using volunteers puts hospitals, especially for-profit ones, at risk of violating federal rules, which dictate that those who perform tasks that significantly benefit for-profit entities are entitled to wages.
“The rules are pretty clear, and yet it happens all the time,” said Marcia McCormick, co-director of the Wefel Center for Employment Law at Saint Louis University. “It’s a confusing state of affairs.” (KAISER HEALTH NEWS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR)
Expanding patient access will be one of the top priorities for Montana lawmakers this session, according to Republican legislative leaders, whose party holds a veto-proof majority. Expanding telehealth is one way they will look to do that, along with letting physicians dispense prescription drugs to their patients.
Lawmakers will also consider increasing reimbursement rates for nursing homes and other health providers. A study commissioned by the state found that reimbursement rates weren’t high enough to cover the cost of care.
Increasing oversight of the way nonprofit hospitals report community benefits will be on the agenda as well.
The time available for debating all those issues may be limited, however, with over a dozen draft requests for bills dealing with abortion also having been filed. (KAISER HEALTH NEWS, MONTANA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES)
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall (R) said last week that women who use abortion medications to end their pregnancies in the state could be prosecuted. That news came a week after the Food and Drug Administration finalized a rule change broadening the availability of such medications. (AL.COM, STAT)
As many as 7,100 nurses employed by two of the largest hospitals in New York City went on strike last week in protest of severe understaffing, according to the New York State Nurses Association. After three days both hospitals, the Montefiore Medical Center and Mount Sinai Hospital, announced they had reached tentative agreements with the union. (CBS NEWS)
With their new majority, Republicans in the U.S. House passed a pair of abortion-related measures last week. One was a resolution condemning attacks on anti-abortion facilities, and the other would make doctors who refuse to care for infants born alive after an attempted abortion subject to new penalties. It’s unlikely either measure will be taken up by the Democrat-controlled Senate. (ASSOCIATED PRESS, POLITICO)
— Compiled by KOREY CLARK