About healthcare personnel
Kaiser Permanente, union announce $130M initiative aimed at healthcare workforce shortage: This type of alliance is a new way for a health system to address a worker shortage. Kaiser and
the “Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) are launching the $130 million organization, called Futuro Health, as part of the labor agreement reached by the two parties last year.
Futuro’s goal is to graduate 10,000 new licensed and credentialed allied health workers in California in the next four years. Estimates suggest California alone will face a demand of nearly 500,000 healthcare workers by 2024, Kaiser Permanente said.”
Employment Situation Summary: From the US Bureau of Labor Statistics: “Employment in health care increased by 28,000 in December. Ambulatory health care services and hospitals added jobs over the month (+23,000 and +9,000, respectively). Health care added 399,000 jobs in 2019, compared with an increase of 350,000 in 2018. “
About health insurance
DOJ boasts $2.6B in healthcare fraud settlements, judgments in 2019: “The recoveries involved all sectors of the industry including drug and medical device manufacturers, managed care providers, hospitals, pharmacies, hospice organizations, laboratories and physicians. It is the tenth consecutive year the department's civil healthcare fraud settlements and judgments have exceeded $2 billion.”