Healthcare News and Headlines
Healthcare News and Headlines
Medicare Advantage (MA) spending is projected to be 14% higher than fee‑for‑service Medicare in 2026, adding roughly $76 billion in excess costs. The gap stems from intensified diagnostic coding, a quality‑bonus program that adds $16 billion, and favorable selection that boosts payments about 11% above comparable FFS levels. Rebates from below‑benchmark bids have more than doubled since 2018, while the V28 risk‑adjustment model has modestly narrowed the coding‑related gap. MedPAC recommends reforms to coding practices, benchmark calculations, and encounter‑data completeness to curb overspending.
CMS announced that the third round of the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program will proceed with full manufacturer participation, covering 15 high‑cost, single‑source drugs and one drug slated for renegotiation. The agency will issue initial price offers by June 1, 2026,...
Congress introduced a suite of bipartisan bills aimed at shaping America’s AI future. The AI‑Ready Bio‑Data Standards Act directs NIST to create standards for biological datasets used in machine‑learning research, while the Government Surveillance Reform Act tightens warrant requirements for...
HCA Healthcare reported $6.8 billion net income on $75.6 billion revenue in 2025, driving a $0.7 billion rise in total executive compensation to $32.9 billion. CEO Sam Hazen’s pay jumped $2.7 million, reaching $26.46 million, while the five highest‑earning officers collectively earned over $53 million. The company...
California’s Medicaid program now reimburses health care services provided inside jails and prisons, giving inmates access to prescription medication, mental‑health treatment, and case‑management before release. The policy, backed by corrections officials, aims to smooth the transition to community life and...
Larry H. Miller Senior Health capped 2025 with the $142 million acquisition of the Kissito Healthcare portfolio, adding six Virginia skilled‑nursing facilities and 532 beds. The integration introduced specialty services such as ventilator, tracheostomy and memory‑care units, expanding the company’s clinical...
A recent cohort study of 220 infants with mild neonatal encephalopathy compared therapeutic hypothermia (TH) to standard care. The TH group experienced more arrhythmia, delayed first feeding, and higher hospitalization costs, yet neurodevelopmental assessments at two years showed no statistically...
Health system CEOs are increasingly choosing to deepen services within their existing footprints rather than pursue cross‑market mergers. California’s stringent oversight and seismic safety mandates make out‑of‑state acquisitions financially risky for Scripps Health. Valleywise Health and Saint Francis Health System...
Tom Morris has been appointed chief executive officer of Eastside Rehabilitation Hospital, a 40‑bed inpatient rehab facility under construction in Loganville, Georgia, slated to open in June. The hospital is a joint venture between Encompass Health and Piedmont, marking Encompass’s...
A prospective cohort of 894 women in Indiana’s WeCare community health worker (CHW) program found that 26% experienced rapid repeat pregnancy (RRP), defined as a live birth within 27 months of a prior delivery. Adjusted analyses linked younger age at...
Thyme Care has expanded its oncology value‑based care program from under 8,000 to more than 85,000 lives by leveraging a population‑level clinical infrastructure that integrates claims data, health‑information exchanges, onboarding assessments and electronic patient‑reported outcomes (ePRO). This data‑driven model delivers...
The American Hospital Association (AHA) submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on the agency’s proposed Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters for 2027. While the AHA praised CMS’s push for innovative coverage options, it warned...
The Peterson Health Technology Institute report finds that virtual gastrointestinal programs can both improve patient outcomes and lower costs. Wraparound solutions that add nutrition and behavioral support cut annual spending for IBS patients by $1,889, while clinician‑led multidisciplinary platforms save...
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) released its March 2026 report to Congress, outlining recommended payment rates for hospital inpatient and outpatient services for 2027. The commission also proposed allocating an additional $1 billion to safety‑net hospitals through a new Medicare safety‑net...
The CDC reports 1,362 measles cases nationwide in 2026, with 94% tied to outbreaks. South Carolina’s outbreak, now at 996 cases, shows signs of slowing, while Utah’s outbreak has risen to 405 cases, marking a recent surge. Both states account...
The American Hospital Association will host a webinar on March 19 at 1 p.m. ET to examine how health‑care leaders are strengthening the clinical workforce. The session will focus on improving retention, physician well‑being, and coverage stability across hospitals. Attendees will...
A dietitian‑led case series of four critically ill patients with advanced pressure ulcers implemented personalized enteral nutrition, targeting progressive energy and protein goals, glycemic control, and selective immunonutrient supplementation (arginine, glutamine, HMB). Over several weeks to months, each patient showed...
A one‑month early time‑restricted eating (eTRE) regimen in 21 male patients with metabolic syndrome led to significant reductions in weight, BMI, fasting glucose, insulin and HOMA‑IR. Neuroimaging revealed increased fractional anisotropy in the left anterior thalamic radiation and cortical thinning...
A retrospective study of 811 coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) patients identified pre‑operative nutritional status, especially the Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI), as an independent predictor of postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI). Six machine‑learning algorithms were trained on clinical and nutritional...
Recent studies reveal that while hospice and palliative services are increasingly aligning with patient goals, significant gaps remain, especially among advanced‑cancer patients who often receive life‑extending treatment despite preferring comfort care. Only 15% of cancer patients with comfort preferences receive...
Intuitive Surgical disclosed a phishing breach that accessed employee and customer data via a compromised internal administrative network. The company promptly activated its incident‑response plan, secured affected applications, and confirmed that its da Vinci, Ion, and digital platforms remained untouched....
During the COVID‑19 pandemic, vaccine makers pledged not to enforce mRNA‑related patents, but that restraint has ended, sparking a wave of litigation over lipid nanoparticle (LNP) and mRNA payload technologies. Major cases include Alnylam’s suits against Pfizer and BioNTech, Arbutus’s...
SpyGlass Pharma’s Bimatoprost Drug Pad‑IOL System demonstrated significant intra‑ocular pressure (IOP) reductions and vision gains in a phase 1/2 trial of 104 patients with open‑angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension undergoing cataract surgery. At 12 months, the 78 µg dose lowered mean IOP 34%...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Novartis' secukinumab, marketed as Cosentyx, for adolescents aged 12 and older with moderate‑to‑severe hidradenitis suppurativa (HS). This marks the first IL‑17A inhibitor cleared for a pediatric indication, extending the drug’s adult HS...
The American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology and nine other medical groups released new guidelines urging cholesterol testing as early as age ten and aggressive LDL reduction beginning around age thirty. The recommendations aim to lower lifelong LDL...
The FDA Compounding Quality Center of Excellence is launching a series of instructor‑led training courses, offered both in‑person and virtually, for outsourcing facilities, pharmacy compounders, and regulators. Each course costs $249 per participant and awards continuing‑education credits to pharmacists, technicians,...
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld West Virginia's ban on Medicaid coverage for gender‑affirming surgeries, extending the restriction from minors to adults. The ruling overturns a lower court finding that the 2004 statute violated anti‑discrimination laws and...
Interventional echocardiographers using Biotronik’s Zero‑Gravity suspended lead suits during left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) procedures experienced dramatically lower radiation, with undetectable levels in 60% of cases. In a JAMA Network Open study of 125 LAAO cases, median dose dropped from...
Researchers at Jeonbuk National University have unveiled DDINet, a lightweight neural network designed to predict drug‑drug interactions (DDIs) for previously unseen compounds. The model employs five fully‑connected layers and molecular fingerprints, with Morgan fingerprints delivering the best results. Using a...
At HIMSS26, CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz outlined a sweeping technology overhaul aimed at boosting healthcare efficiency and cutting waste. He announced a new Salt Lake City office to attract tech talent and highlighted a $300 billion annual waste figure, with...
The latest dyslipidemia guideline introduces the PREVENT risk calculator, enabling clinicians to personalize ASCVD risk using routine health data and specific risk enhancers. It expands recommendations to include non‑contrast coronary artery calcium scans, as well as Lp(a) and apoB testing,...
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Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are the first‑line pharmacologic treatment for obsessive‑compulsive disorder, helping roughly 70% of patients achieve a 40‑60% reduction in symptoms. FDA‑approved SSRIs such as fluvoxamine, paroxetine, fluoxetine and sertraline are dosed higher than for depression, and...
Minnesota reported the largest U.S. outbreak of Trichophyton mentagrophytes genotype VII (TMVII), a sexually transmitted fungal infection that appears as round, red rashes and can be mistaken for eczema, psoriasis or bacterial skin conditions. More than 30 cases have been confirmed,...
The Environmental Protection Agency proposed a rule to weaken limits on ethylene oxide emissions from medical device sterilization plants. The change would affect roughly 90 facilities and eliminate the requirement for continuous emissions monitoring. About 2.3 million people, many in low‑income...
Augie Luptak, Vice President of Strategy & Operations at St. Croix Hospice, has been honored as a 2025 Future Leader by Hospice News. The award recognizes high‑performing professionals under 40 who demonstrate vision, advocacy for seniors, and operational excellence. In...
CommonSpirit Health launched a Virtually Integrated Care (VIC) nursing model that embeds remote nurses into bedside teams across its 158 hospitals. The program, built on proprietary telehealth software, has been deployed on 1,075 beds and aims to reach 3,000 by...
The FDA has released a searchable table of extended use dates for specific drug lot numbers, based on manufacturer‑provided stability data. These extensions allow providers and patients to continue using existing stock beyond original expiration dates, helping to mitigate ongoing...
The Cardiovascular Research Technologies (CRT) 2026 meeting showcased a suite of late‑breaking interventional cardiology studies, ranging from long‑term TAVR versus SAVR outcomes to novel radiation‑shielding devices. A seven‑year PARTNER 3 substudy found comparable health‑status results for low‑risk patients after TAVR and...
Researchers at INSERM uncovered hypothalamic tanycytes as a previously unknown tau‑clearing pathway, opening fresh therapeutic avenues for Alzheimer’s and related tauopathies. Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) announced the synthesis and pre‑clinical testing of novel PET tracers that bind α‑synuclein, aiming...
At Vision Expo, optometry leaders highlighted how empathy and cultural competence can close the trust gap for Hispanic, Latino, and African‑American patients with chronic eye diseases. Panelists urged clinicians to acknowledge patients' fears, involve family members, and leverage multilingual tools...
Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, the largest affiliate in California and Nevada, announced it will now offer Botox injections and IV hydration packages alongside its traditional reproductive health services. The move is a direct response to severe budget shortfalls caused by the...
Shilpa Biologicals and mAbTree Biologics received FDA orphan drug designation for an investigational monoclonal antibody that targets an immune‑evasion pathway in essential thrombocythemia and polycythemia vera. The designation validates the novel mechanism and accelerates plans for IND‑enabling studies and first‑in‑human...
The FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research has expanded its Drug Safety Podcast series, delivering concise audio briefings that coincide with official Drug Safety Communications. Recent episodes address serious liver injury linked to Ocaliva, rare hypocalcemia risks with Prolia,...
The FDA released draft guidance that lets biosimilar developers use foreign comparator data and, in some cases, replace clinical studies with chemical analysis, potentially cutting development costs by $20 million. Simultaneously, the agency launched the Adverse Event Monitoring System (AEMS), a...
The J. Craig Venter Institute unveiled a 4D, nanoscale simulation that tracks the entire life cycle of a minimal bacterial cell, marking a milestone for synthetic biology. A new gene‑editing platform designs DNA donors that dodge immune detection, enabling safer,...
BlackDoctor, a Black‑owned health media brand, has launched BlackDoctor Pro, a dual‑platform clinical delivery model that equips providers with culturally fluent data and AI tools. The rollout adds a network of more than 20,000 practitioners, a proprietary AI assistant called WellBot,...
Serotonin Centers announced the Serotonin Partner Program, a medical longevity model for U.S. fitness facilities. The turnkey platform lets gyms add medically supervised services—weight loss, hormone optimization, peptide and NAD+ therapies, IV metabolic support—within dedicated longevity suites. Serotonin funds, staffs,...
Insulet announced a recall of select Omnipod 5 insulin patch pumps after discovering a small tear in the internal tubing that can cause insulin to leak inside the pod. The defect has been linked to 18 serious adverse events, including hospitalizations...
China’s National Medical Products Administration has granted the first commercial approval for an invasive brain‑computer interface, developed by Shanghai‑based Neuracle Medical Technology. The coin‑sized, wireless implant sits on the brain’s surface and enables users with partial spinal‑cord injuries to operate...
CDC data show early prenatal care (first trimester) fell from 78.3% in 2021 to 75.5% in 2024, a 4% drop, while second‑trimester initiation rose 12% and late or no care increased 16% to 7.3%. The shift occurred across age groups...
