Because of the devastation caused by Hurricane Ian, NAHU is activating the UNITE program to help members in Florida and surrounding states who have been affected by this disaster. Click here to help now! Afterwards, come back and check out what we’re reading this week:

• Flex your ABS and check out the October edition of America’s Benefit Specialist. Read about recent mergers and acquisitions, the ACA family glitch, Supreme Court decisions, the Medicare marketing rule and much more!
• According to a GAO report released on Monday, actions are needed to strengthen oversight of telehealth in Medicare and help providers educate patients on privacy and security risks. Patients may also be unaware that their private health information could be overheard or inappropriately disclosed during their video appointment.
• Since pharmaceutical companies started funding their FDA drug applications 30 years ago, the agency’s reviews have gone much faster — perhaps too fast. In most cases, companies that win accelerated approval must submit additional data, after the drug goes to market, that prove it cures or successfully treats the disease. It turns out that some surrogate markers are better than others.
• Federal data released Monday shows ownership of about 15,000 nursing homes nationwide, information that will allow state regulators, researchers and the public to better track common owners. The new ownership information follows a data release in April on more than 3,000 nursing homes that changed ownership through mergers or purchases since 2016.
• As the cleanup and damage assessments begin in the wake of Hurricane Ian in Florida and the Southeast, insurance experts are emphasizing steps that can be taken to maximize insurance coverage and recovery following the immediate crisis.
• Black COVID-19 patients may have faced 4.5-hour treatment delays due to pulse oximeters' inability to accurately read their blood oxygen levels, according to researchers at Sacramento, California-based Sutter Health. The study revealed pulse oximeters overestimated black individuals' blood oxygenation by one percent, thus lowering their admission probability by 3.1 percent and access to dexamethasone and supplemental oxygen treatments by 3.1 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively.
• Ten hospital and physician groups have asked HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra to extend the October 6 information blocking deadline for one year. The groups also want HHS to send corrective-action warning communications to providers and clinicians prior to imposing any monetary disincentives or beginning a formal investigation.
• The 2022 midterm elections are all about who will control Congress for the next two years, and who controls Congress will have significant impact on health policy.
• Thousands of people were evacuated from nursing homes and hospitals across Florida on Thursday even as winds and water from Hurricane Ian began receding. Hundreds of those evacuations were taking place across the hard-hit Fort Myers region, where damage cut off potable water to at least nine hospitals.
• In this week’s bit of feel-good news: NASA scientists celebrated as a spacecraft smashed into an asteroid. While that sounds like a strange thing to celebrate, it was humanity’s first real-world test to see if we could alter the path of an asteroid if ever one were discovered heading on a collision course with Earth.