The Latest
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Dive Awards
Disruptor of the Year: The Affordable Care Act lawsuit
An unexpected ruling at the end of 2018 invalidating the ACA paved the way for even more uncertainty for the landmark law, following a decade of upheaval. The case is nearly certain to end up before the Supreme Court.
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SponsoredHow AI can help health plans become member-centric
Improving the customer experience and providing member-centric care helps drive member acquisition and retention and improve reimbursement.
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Nonprofit hospitals get bump in Moody's ratings for 2020
The investor service predicts a healthier sector in the new year, though health systems will still contend with headwinds like rising labor costs, an aging population and political uncertainty.
UPDATED: Dec. 11, 2019 at 9:01 a.m. -
Dive Awards
The Healthcare Dive Awards for 2019
From the Affordable Care Act lawsuit to CVS Health CEO Larry Merlo, these are the companies, executives and movements that shaped U.S. healthcare this year.
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Health insurance coverage linked to reduced mortality
In a sweeping study of millions of households, researchers found that people were more likely to sign up for health insurance once prodded.
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UnitedHealth to acquire embattled specialty pharmacy Diplomat for $300M
The payer giant's offer of $4 a share for the roughly 75 million shares outstanding is a relatively lowball offer, sending Diplomat's stock down 31% in premarket trading Monday.
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Dive Awards
Executive of the Year: Larry Merlo, CVS Health
Merlo has a vision for the future of the industry, and he's leveraging all of the retail giant's many assets to try and get there.
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Supreme Court to hear $12B ACA risk corridors case this week
The justices will consider the case Tuesday. Observers say the money will not be the ultimate thrust of the court's decision — it's whether the business sector will have trust in the federal government in current and future partnerships.
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Biotech's Alzheimer's pitch polarizes scientists
Two large clinical trials testing Biogen's drug aducanumab in patients with less advanced disease looked negative after early analyses, leading the company to stop them before they finished.
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New life in surprise billing ban as key lawmakers reach agreement
With little time left in the session, a bipartisan group of committee leaders said they had reached a deal, but industry groups are stuck in their lanes.
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More than 1K employers push Senate to repeal ACA Cadillac tax
AHIP and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce were among those arguing the tax will have sweeping effects beyond just "gold-plated" health coverage and will raise costs for the millions of Americans with employer coverage.
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US healthcare spending growth rebounded last year, influenced by insurance tax
Hospital and physician and clinical services spending fell, but prices were up. CMS Administrator Seema Verma blamed provider consolidation and the "creation of monopolies."
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Value-based care payments increasing but risk still rare
Bundled payment adoption, for example, remained flat between 2012 and 2017 despite studies showing their promise in holding down costs, the Catalyst for Payment Reform found.
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Roche MRSA test wins FDA OK
The agency said the novel diagnostic technology can deliver results in as little as five hours, compared to the one- to two-day wait time with conventional methods.
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Kaiser mental health worker strike back on, with potential hit to 100 clinics
The five-day strike now planned to begin Dec. 16 had been postponed following the death of CEO Bernard Tyson.
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More state laws back telehealth, but many stop short of mandates
While regulations have inhibited growth in the past, many states are warming up to the adoption of virtual services. That's a "sea change compared to a decade ago," Foley & Lardner lawyers said.
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Disparities between care in rural, urban areas getting worse
"The game is rigged," Janice Probst, a professor at the University of South Carolina's Arnold School of Public Health, said. "If we don't change the game, we never win."
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Philips to offer Paige.AI's prostate cancer detection tech
Weeks after Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center spinout Paige.AI won a CE mark for its diagnostic tools, Philips announced it will combine its own digital pathology capabilities with the startup's prostate cancer product.
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Hospitals sue HHS, warning price transparency rule would chill competition, crash computers
An agency spokeswoman shot back that hospitals "should be ashamed that they aren't willing to provide American patients the cost of a service before they purchase it."
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Deep DiveWill sky-high drug prices spur the US to use an obscure power over patents?
New cell therapies as well as gene-based treatments like Zolgensma benefited from NIH funding of early-stage research. Advocates say the time is now for the government to invoke its "march-in" rights.
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Senators push CMS, commercial payers on bias in algorithms
The letters sent to UnitedHealth, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Humana and Aetna flagged a study that found racial bias in a widely used algorithm for assessing healthcare needs.
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Medicare Advantage members rarely review or switch plans
A Kaiser Family Foundation analysis found that more than one in three Medicare beneficiaries reported difficulty comparing plan options and nearly half of those on Medicare said they rarely or never review their choices.
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Anthem, Passport to protest $7B Kentucky Medicaid contract loss
Aetna, Humana, Molina, UnitedHealthcare and WellCare were the winners in the bid to provide coverage to about 1.3 million Medicaid members.
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Amazon's new medical transcription service bolsters voice-to-text bid
Transcribe Medical was developed in partnership with AWS clients, including EHR giant Cerner. However, unlike other end-to-end offerings in development, it doesn't automatically input personal health data into a patient's record.
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Dive Awards
Payer of the Year: Centene
Centene's blockbuster acquisition of WellCare doubled its Medicare Advantage footprint and positions the company to be the leader of government-sponsored plans.
