The Biden administration last week announced that it delayed its decision over whether it will ban menthol cigarettes following lobbying from tobacco companies, convenience stores, and other industry-backed groups, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from the District of Columbia, Illinois, and Tennessee.

• District of Columbia: The Biden administration last week announced that it delayed its decision over whether it will ban menthol cigarettes following lobbying from tobacco companies, convenience stores, and other industry-backed groups who claim that billions of dollars in sales and jobs will be lost, and that Black smokers may become targets of aggressive police tactics. FDA last year proposed a rule banning menthol cigarettes in an effort to reduce health disparities, citing statistics showing 85% of Black smokers prefer menthol brands. However, some groups, including the National Action Network founded by Rev. Al Sharpton, have suggested the ban could increase the potential for racial targeting by police. Other organizations, including the majority of the Congressional Black Caucus, have dismissed the argument saying it's a cynical attempt to distract from the harm of cigarettes. "What we're seeing now is the reaction of a very well-organized industry that has been peddling death to the Black community," said Patrice Willoughby, VP of policy and legislative affairs at the NAACP. (Jewett et. al., New York Times, 12/6)
• Illinois: The Joint Commission last week announced that it will start offering a new certification program aimed at protecting patient privacy and developing standards for how de-identified healthcare data is used. The goal of the program will be to provide an objective evaluation of whether best practices are being adhered to in the use of the data, according to the Joint Commission. The program will also evaluate hospitals based on their de-identification process, data controls, limitations on use, algorithm validation, patient transparency, and oversight structure. (Desilva, Modern Healthcare, 12/5)
• Tennessee: RaDonda Vaught, a former nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) who was convicted on felony charges for a fatal medical error, was denied her bid to get her nursing license back. During the appeal, Vaught argued new evidence had arisen after the board's administrative hearings. A letter written by Terry Bosen, director of the medication safety program at VUMC, "urged the judge to consider that flaws in VUMC's automated medication dispensing system contributed to the patient's death," according to court documents. However, the court found the letter didn't render the board's decision incomplete nor its proceedings to be unlawful. (Fiore, MedPage Today, 12/5)