The US has faced healthcare worker shortages for years, and the trend is only projected to get worse.

Hospitals have increasingly turned to staffing agencies in recent years as they seek to fill in workforce gaps. CHG Healthcare, which is focused primarily on locum tenen (meaning temporary) physicians, is one of the largest healthcare staffing firms in the US, with more than 4,000 employees and an estimated $2.8 billion in revenue in 2024, according to Staffing Industry Analysts.

Leslie Snavely, who became CHG’s president in 2023 and CEO in 2024, told Healthcare Brew the company aims to combat shortages and keep physicians in the field of medicine for as long as possible.

Making the jump. CHG was Snavely’s first foray into the healthcare industry more than 15 years ago, coming from working in the packaged goods industry at companies like Procter & Gamble and Pepsi Bottling Group. She was inspired to make the switch after giving birth to her first child, she said.

“I just felt compelled to be a part of healthcare because I felt like there was just so much to be given to the industry,” Snavely said. “I thought this was my bridge to be a hospital administrator, but decided that my impact—personally and our company’s impact—could be very large if we helped doctors with their careers.”

Read more here on how Snavely manages her “highly unpredictable” workday.—MA

Doctors often gripe that Medicare Advantage (MA) denies their prior authorization requests. New data backs them up.

A June 11 report released by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found that in June 2024, 19 MA organizations denied almost two-thirds of prior authorization requests for long-term care hospital admission and more than half of requests for inpatient rehab facility admissions.

This report builds on past critiques of MA plans improperly denying prior authorization requests for care, including an October 2024 Senate report saying UnitedHealthcare, Humana, and CVS denied requests for post-acute care, like at long-term hospitals and inpatient rehabs, at “far higher” rates than other types of care between 2019 and 2022.

Research also suggests MA plans cost the government 20% more than if beneficiaries were enrolled in traditional Medicare, at the expense of traditional Medicare beneficiaries.

But the alleged deniers deny these accusations; keep reading here.—CC

When’s the last time you read an app’s full privacy policy? It’s probably been a while, if ever.

That’s always been a concern for data privacy experts. But the explosion of health and mental health chatbots have taken those concerns to a new level as more consumers discuss sensitive mental health information with AI models, some of which operate outside the healthcare system and don’t have to follow federal patient data protection laws, i.e., the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

A lot is on the line as a result. Bad actors can leverage personal health information to gain access to health savings accounts or even bank accounts. But keeping track of where data is going is difficult. Even state health insurance marketplace websites have shared personal data with Big Tech via ad trackers, per a May Bloomberg report.

Experts have some thoughts on what needs to happen fast; keep reading here.—CC

Learn what nurses from California and North Carolina had to say about why
they’re concerned about AI and what they’re doing to prevent harm.

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