A Look Back At 2018: Unexpected Health Care Partnerships And Players Joined The Field
Partnerships and mergers set the stage for an ever-changing health care landscape over the past year. Industry news also focuses on long-term care and court battles.
Modern Healthcare:
2018 Year In Review: Healthcare Sees Unconventional Partnerships Rise
Healthcare's 2018 began with a resounding sentiment that set the tone for the rest of the year: “We're tired of the current healthcare system, so rather than wait for someone to change it, we'll do it ourselves.” Intermountain Healthcare, Ascension, SSM Health and Trinity Health kicked off 2018 by pledging to create a generic-drug company. The providers spoke on behalf of nearly every health system that faces daily shortages of critical drugs and the challenge of working around an unexpected price hike. (Kacik, 12/26)
Modern Healthcare:
2018 Year In Review: Health Insurance Business Defined By Flexibility
If 2017 was a year of regulatory unknowns, 2018 was when health insurers and other industry stakeholders started getting answers. The Trump administration offered insurers and states extra tools to sidestep the Affordable Care Act in lieu of a full repeal of the healthcare law. And in an environment of rising costs and new competition, insurers sought courtships that further blurred the lines between payers and providers. Still, a Dec. 14 ruling by a federal judge in Texas declaring the ACA unconstitutional thrust the health insurance industry back into an environment of uncertainty that threatens the future stability of the individual market. (Livingston, 12/26)
Marketplace:
GE Has A Long-Term Care Insurance Problem
Caring for the elderly is getting more and more expensive at a time when Americans are living longer than ever. For General Electric, that means that premiums on its 300,000 long-term care insurance policies aren’t even close to covering the cost of coverage. Marketplace senior economics contributor Chris Farrell spoke with host Kimberly Adams about the rising costs of long-term care. (Adams, 1/1)
Bloomberg:
J&J's Risk From Tainted-Talc Lawsuits Only Gets Bigger In 2019
Johnson & Johnson paid a steep price this year for claims that its celebrated baby powder was contaminated with asbestos. Problem is, 2019 could be even worse. A jury ordered the company in July to pay $4.69 billion to 22 women who blamed the talc-based product for causing their ovarian cancer. The prospect of similar judgments helped erase $45 billion in J&J’s market value, with the shares headed for their biggest annual loss in a decade. (Feeley and Fisk, 12/21)
