Sen. Collins introduces bill to support maternal health at rural hospitals
Co-sponsoring the bill with Collins are Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire, Tina Smith, D-Minnesota, and Katie Britt, R-Alabama. The Rural Obstetrics Readiness Act would help prepare hospitals to handle obstetric emergencies.
The proposal comes as many hospitals — especially in rural areas — have closed maternity wards.
Seven Maine hospitals have closed their birthing centers in the past decade, and two more, at hospitals in Belfast and Waterville, are slated to shutter this year. Ten of Maine's 25 rural hospitals do not offer maternity services.
The bill would create training programs to help respond to emergency labors, help purchase needed hospital equipment for emergency deliveries and expand telehealth services.
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Business Wire
7 days ago
- Business Wire
AcuityMD Makes the Forbes' 2025 'Next Billion-Dollar Startups' List
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Boston Globe
13-08-2025
- Boston Globe
Every VA medical center has severe staffing shortages, audit finds
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Veterans Affairs Secretary Douglas A. Collins has argued the department, the second largest in government, is bloated and inefficient and needs further staffing cuts. He initially pushed to slash the workforce by 15 percent, though he later backtracked on those plans. At the same time, he has acknowledged the department needs more medical staff members and blamed a nationwide shortage of health care workers. Advertisement 'We are the same as every other health care system,' Collins said in a May hearing for the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee. 'We are struggling to recruit doctors, nurses, and others just as anybody else.' In response to the report, VA press secretary Peter Kasperowicz said the findings aren't a reliable indicator of staffing shortages because the 'report simply lists occupations facilities feel are difficult for which to recruit and retain, so the results are completely subjective, not standardized and unreliable.' Advertisement Kasperowicz said the department-wide vacancy rates for doctors and nurses are 14 percent and 10 percent, respectively. Reacting to the report, Democrats warned the staffing situation probably was worse than the inspector general found. 'This report confirms what we've warned for months - this Administration is driving dedicated VA employees to the private sector at untenable rates,' Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, said in a statement. 'Staffing shortages at the Department are getting significantly worse, including critical veterans' health care positions and essential jobs that keep VA facilities running.' Representative Mark Takano of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, said in a statement that the report 'confirms our fears' and criticized Collins. 'Instead of making VA an employer of choice, Secretary Collins continues to vilify the VA workforce and strip them of their rights,' Takano said in the statement, referring to the news last week that VA is no longer recognizing most workers' collective bargaining rights. 'Now, VA is facing critical staffing shortages across the country, leading to decreased access and choice for veterans. Veterans deserve and have earned better.' The department, which had about 467,000 employees as of June, is in charge of providing health care to more than 9 million veterans through its medical centers and 1,193 outpatient clinics. 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The department reversed its plans for mass firings in July, announcing instead that it would reduce staffing by nearly 30,000 employees by the end of this fiscal year through retirements, attrition, and deferred resignations. Collins has repeatedly assured lawmakers and VA employees that he will not cull the department's medical staff. Mission-critical positions were exempt from voluntary buyouts, the department said. But Veterans Affairs was not immune to staffing reductions earlier this year by the cost-cutting US DOGE Service: The department lost more than 1,600 probationary workers, including Veterans Crisis Line operators who were later brought back. The inspector general's office has been surveying staffing in the department for over a decade, and it has repeatedly concluded that medical centers are understaffed in key medical jobs. 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Politico
01-08-2025
- Politico
Senate appropriators defend the NIH
WASHINGTON WATCH Senate appropriators came out hard in support of the National Institutes of Health on Thursday, giving the agency a $400 million funding boost for the 2026 fiscal year. How so: The Senate Appropriations Committee upped the agency's budget to $48.7 billion in the 2026 funding bill that cleared the panel with a 26-3 vote Thursday. If the bill becomes law, it would increase cancer research by $150 million; Alzheimer's research by $100 million and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, research by $25 million. The NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Office of Research on Women's Health would each get a $30 million boost. Research on maternal mortality, diabetes and rare diseases would also see an increase, among others. Why it matters: The funding boost is a rebuke from both Republicans and Democrats to the Trump administration's demand to decrease the NIH funding in the next fiscal year by as much as 40 percent, or $18 billion. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) said the legislation 'prioritizes funding to help make Americans healthier and supports life-saving medical research.' Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the panel, said the budget increase was a message to 'the scientists wondering if there will even be an NIH by the end of this administration. This committee's resounding message is: 'Yes, Congress has your back.'' Murray urged scientists to continue their research in the U.S. despite the efforts of other countries to lure them away. The appropriators also adopted an amendment Thursday that would limit the Trump administration's control over NIH research funding. An amendment in the bill's manager's package limits the administration's plan to shift funding for most NIH grants from a multiyear schedule to an upfront single-year payment. The amendment states that no funds appropriated in the fiscal 2026 spending bill can be used to increase the proportion of grants fully funded in the first year of the award, compared with fiscal 2024. The NIH can only increase that proportion of forward-funded grants if the agency ensures it isn't cutting grants to do so. What's next: The bill is cleared for floor action. But congressional leaders haven't started bipartisan negotiations toward overall government funding totals, increasing the odds that lawmakers will again resort to a stopgap funding patch before the next fiscal year starts on Oct. 1. WELCOME TO FUTURE PULSE This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. Peacock feathers have reflective structures that can amplify light into a laser beam, Science reports. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Carmen Paun at cpaun@ Ruth Reader at rreader@ or Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@ Want to share a tip securely? Message us on Signal: CarmenP.82, RuthReader.02 or ErinSchumaker.01. MORNING MONEY: CAPITAL RISK — POLITICO's flagship financial newsletter has a new Friday edition built for the economic era we're living in: one shaped by political volatility, disruption and a wave of policy decisions with sector-wide consequences. Each week, Morning Money: Capital Risk brings sharp reporting and analysis on how political risk is moving markets and how investors are adapting. Want to know how health care regulation, tariffs, or court rulings could ripple through the economy? Start here. WORLD VIEW A draft United Nations plan to make the world healthier no longer includes several targets cracking down on sugary drinks, trans fats and tobacco to prevent and control noncommunicable diseases globally. Struck down: A target of 80 percent of countries taxing sugary drinks at levels recommended by the World Health Organization by 2030, POLITICO's Rory O'Neill reports. That goal was a pillar of the initial draft, which will take the form of a nonbinding political declaration world leaders are expected to endorse at a Sept. 25 meeting in New York, on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly. The latest version has also dropped commitments to eliminate trans fats and aims instead to reduce them to the 'lowest level possible.' It also requires front-of-pack labels with nutritional information. A requirement for health warnings on tobacco packaging to be graphic and accompanied by elements that make it unattractive to consumers is also gone. The new draft has softer language on tobacco advertising, requiring countries to restrict it instead of eliminate it. 'Make no mistake, the Declaration in its current form is a backslide,' said Alison Cox, director of policy and advocacy at the NCD Alliance, in a statement. The alliance is a Switzerland-based civil society group working to promote chronic disease prevention. Why it matters: World leaders aim to reduce premature mortality from noncommunicable diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes by 2030 through prevention and treatment and to improve mental health and well-being globally. Noncommunicable diseases killed 18 million people under age 70 in 2021, according to the WHO. Most deaths were in low- and middle-income countries. The aims align with the U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again agenda, but it's unclear how much the U.S. is involved in drafting the final text. HHS did not respond to a request for comment. What's next: Negotiators are meeting this week in New York to discuss the text.
