The Latest
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Provider demand for accurate patient matching is high, Pew says
Providers vary in how bad they think the country's patient matching problem truly is, with a majority indicating they don't have a "significant" problem with correctly matching records to patients.
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About 1/3 of hospitals earn A grade on safety, Leapfrog says
Patients at low-performing hospitals as graded by Leapfrog face a 92% greater risk of avoidable death, according to the report.
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Deep DiveOn the path to patients, NASH drugs may hit a payer roadblock
Wall Street estimates and clinical data suggest the earliest NASH drugs could come with limited efficacy but high price tags. Healthcare providers fear that won't sit well with payers.
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Physician revenues have jumped 52% since 2016
Cardiologists, neurosurgeons and orthopaedic and cardiovascular surgeons are the highest revenue-generators among their peers, each netting more than $3 million a year for their hospitals, according to a Merritt Hawkins survey.
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FTC commissioner: M&A outpacing agency funding
The regulator and other enforcers face multiple challenges in bringing enforcement actions against hospitals, FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter said.
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Nonprofit hospitals on solid footing to handle outside disruption, S&P says
The sector has been "heavily resilient," mostly due to strong management and governance over the past 20 years, according to a new report.
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Federal lawmakers put forward competing proposals to ban surprise billing, with key difference
Both bills are bipartisan, but a draft bill in the House does not include arbitration, while the Senate plan does. The American Hospital Association supports such a provision, while the payer lobby group strictly opposes it.
UPDATED: May 16, 2019 at 8:47 a.m. -
In US-China tariff poker game, health supply chains stand to lose
Tariffs on medical equipment and supplies, plus duties on imported steel and aluminum, could result in millions of increased costs for the healthcare industry and U.S. patients.
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As Trump wades in, states move on surprise billing
The political climate in Washington, where even historically bipartisan efforts move slowly at best, has left states to step in and do what they can.
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DOJ loses fight to limit CVS-Aetna testimony
The judge said it is "essential" to understand how pharmacy benefit management services affect Medicare Part D drug plans, which make up the scope of the merger settlement agreement.
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SponsoredAn empowering approach for behavioral healthcare providers
The behavioral health crisis in the United States is putting increased pressure on an already strained system, overwhelming providers and impacting care delivery in our nation’s emergency departments.
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Kaiser Permanente's net income soars to $3.2B in Q1
The California-based integrated health system's financials are in line with a trend for non-profits after several years of expenses outstripping revenues.
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HITAC recommends leveraging demographic data to help patient matching
The move should help correctly match patients to their healthcare records, a key problem area highlighted by interoperability experts when HHS announced its rules on the topic in February.
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Cancer patients face sticker shock under short-term plans, study finds
Short-term insurance plans are facing scrutiny from Congress and patient advocates, who argue consumers are often unaware the plans offer only bare-bones coverage.
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DOJ moves to block certain witness testimony in CVS-Aetna merger review
The AMA has called economics and health experts Richard Scheffler and Neeraj Sood and antitrust legal expert Tim Greaney as witnesses in the case. The DOJ is seeking to block or limit the testimony of all three.
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Maryland's all-payer model shows limited effects for rural hospitals
The facilities had a 9% drop in outpatient visits but no change in inpatient utilization, readmission rate or emergency department visits, according to a new study in Health Services Research.
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Health plans improve on coverage, benefits but lag on costs, member expectations
Overall satisfaction is 245 points higher when members view their health plan as actively trying to lower their out-of-pocket costs and coordinate care, according to a J.D. Power study.
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Uninsurance of children, parents inched back up in 2017, report finds
Both children and parents were more likely to be uninsured in states without Medicaid expansion, according to new research from the Urban Institute.
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FDA finalizes interchangeable biosimilar advice, with insulin focus
The agency will generally require switching studies for biologic copycats seeking a valuable interchangeable license.
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Private insurers pay hospitals more than double Medicare rates
The authors of a new RAND study looked at what commercial insurers pay as a percentage of Medicare prices, and found they increased from 235% of Medicare in 2015 to 241% in 2017.
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Massive Anthem hack engineered by China-based group, grand jury says
The payer's speed in notifying the government of the intrusion into its computer systems and cooperation in the investigation helped identify those responsible for the breaches.
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States inch forward on nurse staffing laws
A mandatory staffing bill is gaining steam in Illinois, a lawmaker reintroduced federal staffing legislation and a number of states are studying the potential impact of what unions call "safe staffing limits."
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Payers not entitled to $12B in risk corridors payments, DOJ says
According to a claim filed by government officials Wednesday, the Trump administration doesn't have to shell out the funds because Congress required the Affordable Care Act to be budget-neutral.
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Insured rate dips again, to 9.4% in 2018
About 1.1 million Americans lost insurance coverage in 2018, according to CDC's annual survey. That puts the total number of uninsured in the U.S. at 30.4 million.
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Trump prods Congress on surprise billing ban
The president called unexpected high-cost medical bills "one of the biggest concerns Americans have about healthcare."
