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Feds rein in use of predictive software that limits care for Medicare Advantage patients

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:05:00 GMT

Susan Jaffe | KFF Health News (TNS)Judith Sullivan was recovering from major surgery at a Connecticut nursing home in March when she got surprising news from her Medicare Advantage plan: It would no longer pay for her care because she was well enough to go home.At the time, she could not walk more than a few feet, even with assistance — let alone manage the stairs to her front door, she said. She still needed help using a colostomy bag following major surgery.“How could they make a decision like that without ever coming and seeing me?” said Sullivan, 76. “I still couldn’t walk without one physical therapist behind me and another next to me. Were they all coming home with me?”UnitedHealthcare — the nation’s largest health insurance company, which provides Sullivan’s Medicare Advantage plan — doesn’t have a crystal ball. It does have naviHealth, a care management company bought by UHC’s sister company, Optum, in 2020. Both are part of UnitedHealth Group. NaviHealth analyzes data to he...

Home Showcase: A distinctive, unique spot in Holliston

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:05:00 GMT

For a buyer who is willing to dust off their imagination and put in some time, 120 Goulding Street in Holliston is a real estate opportunity of a lifetime.The 1937 home has lived many lives, each as interesting as its modernist, Art Deco and Streamline Moderne architecture. The main house — the property also boasts a pair of additional structures — wouldn’t look out of place in the Hollywood Hills, with a distinctive exterior facade and an interior that blends Colonial influences, modernist touches, and those quintessential 1930s built-ins we know and love in New England.In previous iterations, the main house and its sprawling, tree-filled 18 acres were part of a larger 500-acre property where Bernese Mountain Dogs were raised, housed a religious school, and became the home and working farm belonging to the founders of Sonesta hotels. It’s now ready for a new owner to whip it into shape and enjoy life by the serene adjoining pond, only an hour from Boston.There’s more than 6,000 squ...

Lucas: Where is Robert Gates when you need him?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:05:00 GMT

Robert Gates, 80, is the distinguished former secretary of defense under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.Before that, he spent 26 years in the CIA, which he headed, and was a member of the National Security Council.Do not include him among the 51 disgraced intelligence officials who signed the deceitful letter calling the suppressed Hunter Biden laptop Russian disinformation during the 2020 election.Throughout Gates’ career, he got to know Joe Biden well, both when Biden was a U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and when he was Obama’s vice president.He summarized his opinion of Biden’s expertise on foreign policy in his book, “Duty, Memoirs of a Secretary of War,” published in 2014.He said he liked Joe Biden personally, but “I think he’s been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”Asked if he still believed that on the eve of the 2020 presidential election, which Biden won, Gat...

Feds hope to cut sepsis deaths by hitching Medicare payments to treatment stats

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:05:00 GMT

Julie Appleby, KFF Health News | (TNS) KFF Health NewsDon Smith remembers the moment he awoke in an intensive care unit after 13 days in a medically induced coma. His wife and daughter were at his bedside, and he thought it had been only a day since he arrived at the emergency room with foot pain.Smith said his wife “slowly started filling me in” on the surgery, the coma, the ventilator. The throbbing in his foot had been a signal of a raging problem.“When you hear someone say a person died of infection, that’s sepsis,” said Smith, 66, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, who went to the ER shortly before Christmas 2017. Ultimately, he spent almost two months in the hospital and a rehab center following multiple surgeries to clear the infected tissue and, later, to remove seven toes.Sepsis, the body’s extreme response to an infection, affects 1.7 million adults in the United States annually. It stems from fungal, viral, or bacterial infections, similar to what struck Madonna this year, al...

911 calls from deadly Lahaina wildfire reveal terror and panic in the rush to escape

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:05:00 GMT

By CLAUDIA LAUER, REBECCA BOONE and AUDREY McAVOY (Associated Press)LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Audio of 911 calls from a deadly August wildfire released late Thursday by Maui County authorities reveals a terrifying and chaotic scene as the inferno swept through the historic town of Lahaina and people desperately tried to escape burning homes and flames licking at cars in gridlocked traffic.The 911 calls were released to The Associated Press in response to a public record request. They cover a period from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 8 as the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century, whipped by powerful winds from a passing hurricane, bore down on the town.At least 98 people were killed and more than 2,000 structures were destroyed, most of them homes, leveling a historic town that once served as the capital of the Hawaiian kingdom and a port for whaling ships.FILE1; A general view shows the aftermath of a wildfire in Lahaina, Hawaii, Monday, Aug. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong,...

Yu Chang elects free agency, Kaleb Ort claimed off waivers by Seattle

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:05:00 GMT

Two members of this past season’s Red Sox are moving on.According to the league’s transaction wire, infielder Yu Chang has elected free agency after finishing this past season in Triple-A. In addition, right-handed pitcher Kaleb Ort has been claimed off waivers by the Seattle Mariners, the team announced Friday.The Ort move was first reported by MassLive’s Chris Cotillo.Chang played 39 games for the Red Sox this past season, batting .162 with six home runs and 18 RBI. He missed nearly two months between late April and early July due to a fractured hamate bone in his left hand, but before and after that injury he served as a valuable presence defensively while Trevor Story worked his way back from elbow surgery.Outside of some occasional flashes of power, Chang didn’t contribute much offensively and was ultimately designated for assignment once Story was ready to return. He finished the season with the WooSox, batting .313 over 12 games down the stretch.Ort ha...

A father worries for his missing child: ‘My daughter didn’t go to war. She just went to dance’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:05:00 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Because of the fracture in her right leg, Karin Journo had talked herself out of going to the Tribe of Nova music festival and sold her ticket. But a week before Hamas militants turned the party into a killing ground, she bought another.The 24-year-old French-Israeli airport worker who loved to travel had learned that a bunch of her friends were going to celebrate the departure of one of them to the United States. She didn’t want to miss out.Before heading out to dance the night away, she snapped a photo of herself in her party gear — black shorts and black halter top for a joyous night of electronic music in a dusty field. She’d left her long dark hair untied and painted her nails bright red. She was clearly excited, giving a V-sign in her selfie. And dance she did: Video shot that night showed her waving her arms to the thumping beats, though she was rooted to the spot by the gray protective boot that encased her right foot and calf all the way up to her k...

Business groups applaud Supreme Court ruling against federal environmental impact law

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:05:00 GMT

CALGARY — Business groups and energy companies celebrated a decision Friday by the Supreme Court of Canada that ruled Ottawa’s impact assessment law for major project approvals is largely unconstitutional.The loudest cheering came from Alberta, where industry leaders saw the 2019 legislation as a roadblock to development of oil and gas infrastructure and other energy-related projects.The federal Impact Assessment Act, formerly known as Bill C-69, lays out the process for assessing the environmental impacts of major project development in this country and lists activities that would trigger a federal review.But the broader business community saw it as heavy-handed, and the legislation was so reviled in the oil-and-gas-producing province of Alberta that it was common to hear people there refer to it as the “No More Pipelines Act.”“I know this has boosted the positive feelings of Alberta business leaders. I’ve heard from a number of them already this morning,” said Sc...

Parties running in Poland’s election hold final campaign rallies as polls suggest a close race

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:05:00 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The main party leaders facing off in Poland’s upcoming parliamentary election called on voters to give their respective parties winning support as they held final campaign rallies Friday. Opinion polls suggested a close race.The election Sunday will decide whether the ruling conservative, Euro-skeptic Law and Justice party will win a third straight term or whether the liberal, pro-European Civic Coalition and its partners will take power. The Civic Coalition aims to improve Poland’s democratic standards and international standing that have suffered under eight years of a conservative government.Law and Justice leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is Poland’s de-facto ruler, met voters in southeastern Poland, where his party has a small edge over the opposition. His closing rally was held in the central market of the picturesque town of Sandomierz, the location of popular TV series “The Reverend Mateusz,” about an investigative priest. A majority of Law and Just...

Man, two teens charged after threats made against Jewish high school students

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:05:00 GMT

Two teens and a man in his 20s are facing charges as part of a hate-crime investigation after threats were directed towards a Jewish high school in North York on Thursday.Police were called to the Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto on Wilmington Avenue just after 12:30 p.m. after reports circulated online regarding threats.Investigators say three males were at the school and were told by security to leave the property. As they were leaving, they passed a group of Jewish students and one of the suspects allegedly made threatening remarks.Officers were able to track the three individuals down and arrested them a short time later. Related: 3 men arrested for allegedly threatening Jewish high school, community All three – 20-year-old Enes Boydak of Toronto, a 17-year-old male and a 14-year-old male – have been charged with uttering threats/property damages, uttering threats/death of bodily harm, intimidation by threats of violence and mischief int...