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Following spike in hospitalizations, Maryland provides surge of money to overburdened hospitals

By John Domen

The flu and COVID season has been a tough one for Marylanders. State leaders say about 4,000 residents have been hospitalized with the flu this year, another 1,000 with RSV and hundreds more with COVID.

It’s put a strain on Maryland’s hospitals and led Gov. Wes Moore to announce Thursday the state will provide $164 million to hospitals around the state to help those facilities care for the influx in patients.

“This funding will make sure that hospitals have support to be able to cover the costs of additional staff,” Moore said. “It will make sure that hospitals have the ability to keep beds open and available.”

Maryland Health Secretary Dr. Meena Seshamani said the level of respiratory illnesses remains high after a recent spike in hospitalizations.

“We are still high,” Seshamani said during an event at University of Maryland Capital Region Health in Largo. “Even when a spike starts to come down, there can be another spike, because people start to relax and say, ‘OK, we’re through that hump’ and maybe hand washing, other things kind of fall back a little bit.”

Nat Richardson, the president and CEO of the University of Maryland hospital in Largo, said his organization plans and budgets for increased needs at this time of year brought on by illnesses such as the flu. However, this year has been overwhelming.

“When you think about a 30% surge in hospitals — that surge, we can’t just go in a closet and pick up a bunch of team members and say, ‘Come help with the surge,’” Richardson said. “We’re typically reaching out to agencies … to bring in additional resources. And those are dollars that we plan for, for the most part, but not at a 30% surge.”

State leaders also kept hammering home the point that vaccines of all kinds, but especially flu and COVID shots, are safe and effective. Officials have said even if the vaccines don’t stop someone from getting sick, they reduce the impact the virus will have on you.

“The confusion stops here,” Seshamani said. “It is worth it. Vaccines are one of the most powerful tools in our toolbox to keep ourselves healthy. They continue to be the most effective way to protect ourselves and our families against severe illness, and that includes the strains of flu that are circulating now.”

States seek to lower drug prices by targeting the companies that manage them for health plans

By The Associated Press
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — As consumers worry about medication costs, states are trying to lower drug prices by reining in big companies that oversee prescription coverage for health insurers. Some of those companies, called pharmacy benefit managers, also own pharmacies, and one of them, CVS, has spent millions of dollars fighting the regulations. Affordability is a key issue ahead of this year’s midterm elections. Legislators in at least a dozen states passed laws this year to limit compensation to the companies, set minimum payments from the companies to pharmacists and require the companies to disclose more information to their clients, states and the public. A Tennessee law will bar pharmacy benefit managers from operating retail pharmacies as of July 1, 2028, though CVS Health Corp. has filed a federal lawsuit to avoid having to close its 136 pharmacies there.
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