Test Missed Almost All COVID Cases; Hospital Staff Go Unpaid; Disparity Funds Unused

Welcome to the latest edition of Investigative Roundup, highlighting some of the best investigative reporting on healthcare each week.

COVID Testing Company Missed Nearly All Positive Cases

Northshore Clinical Labs’ PCR test was ultimately found to have missed 96% of positive COVID-19 cases on a university campus in Nevada last year, but early concerns raised by state epidemiologists went unheeded as the company aggressively pursued government customers, ProPublica reported.

When students from a Nevada school district began receiving conflicting test results from their COVID antigen and PCR tests last winter, Heather Kerwin, an epidemiology program manager in Washoe County, raised red flags about a potential problem with Northshore Clinical Labs. She investigated further, and noticed a similar pattern of conflicting test results at the University of Nevada in Reno, which used the same testing company.

Kerwin notified her boss, who brought her concerns to the county’s assistant manager, David Solaro. But as the scientist warned about the accuracy of Northshore’s testing, Solaro was in the midst of negotiating with the company to provide tests to employees and local residents. He ended up signing the deal anyway.

“Why did this go through without a discussion of their discordant results? This is going to cause absolute mayhem,” Kerwin wrote to her boss when she learned the agreement had been signed, according to emails obtained by ProPublica.

ProPublica reviewed more than 3,000 internal emails showing that Chicago-based Northshore Clinical Labs was unreliable from the start. The outlet found that Northshore used political connections, including friendships with the governor’s son, to fast-track their state laboratory license and secure deals with five government entities. Despite an investigation that found that Northshore was operating unlicensed testing sites, regulators allowed it to continue some of its testing. The company also misrepresented surveillance testing as free when it was not often covered by insurance, according to the report.

The state of Nevada ultimately rescinded Northshore’s license. But experts say the case remains a cautionary tale for local health governments aiming to meet demand for COVID testing.

Florida Hospital Hasn’t Paid Workers in 3 Weeks

Healthmark Regional Medical Center in DeFuniak Springs has not given healthcare workers their most recent paycheck, failing to pay its workers for three weeks in a row, employees told Nexstar station WMBB.

“No one has been paid to my knowledge, including salaried people because I asked today, since … our last payday was April 22,” an anonymous source told the station.

On May 10, Healthmark’s chief operating officer, Lisa Holley, gave employees a letter to provide to banks and creditors which stated that the health system is experiencing a delay with their payroll obligations. “Our employee’s expected to be paid on May 6, 2022,” the letter stated. “Due to circumstances beyond our control, our funding was not able to cover their paychecks.”

Healthmark’s emergency room has been closed since March 18 for renovations. Administrators said that the closure would last for 2 to 4 weeks, but 8 weeks have gone by and there has been no announcement that the department is reopening, according to the report.

“As far as anyone can say it’s closed,” the anonymous source said. “There’s no inpatients, there’s no ER, there’s nothing. I mean the ancillary services are there but there’s not a patient in the building unless they are an outpatient getting their labs drawn.”

An internal message sent to Healthmark employees stated that the hospital is not closing, and employees will be paid once funds are released from CMS.

But employees are still working without pay in the immediate future. Local EMS has been taking patients to nearby emergency departments until Healthmark’s emergency department reopens, the report stated.

Several States Haven’t Used Federal Funds to Target COVID Health Disparities

More than a year after the federal government allocated funds to the states to tackle COVID health disparities, many have spent very little — or none — of the federal money, according to an investigation by Kaiser Health News.

In March 2021, the federal government allocated more than $2.25 billion to the states to address health disparities, the largest federal funding initiative designed to help communities hit hardest during the pandemic, KHN reported. Additionally, the CDC awarded grants to all states to limit the spread of COVID-19 among people at risk in rural areas, or those in marginalized racial and ethnic groups.

But while many states have allocated large portions of the money to COVID initiatives, most have spent very little. Missouri, for example, has not spent any of its money. Wisconsin, Illinois, and Idaho — all of which received between $27 and $31 million from the federal government — have spent around 5% of the funds.

Local health departments have cited a need to hire more staff, hefty bureaucratic funding processes, and a long process to partner with community organizations as reasons they have not started putting these funds to use. But Republicans cite the unused funds as one of the reasons they oppose Democrats’ efforts to allocate more federal money for COVID relief.

“Public health has been historically underfunded, and all of a sudden this is way more money than we ever get,” Wendy Hetherington, public health program chief with a health department in California, told KHN. “It’s great that we got this funding because it’s necessary, but we are struggling in trying to spend it.”