Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
CMS Proposes 0.1% Average Pay Raise For 2027 Medicare Advantage Plans
Stat: Medicare Advantage Plans Face Tiny Pay Raise From Trump Admin
The Trump administration plans to increase payments to next year’s Medicare Advantage plans by less than 0.1% on average — far below what the industry had expected. (Herman, 1/26)
More health care industry updates —
San Francisco Chronicle: Kaiser Strike Begins As 31,000 Workers Walk Off The Job
More than 31,000 Kaiser Permanente nurses and other health care workers walked off the job early Monday, launching an open-ended strike across California and Hawaii that could disrupt operations at dozens of hospitals and hundreds of clinics. The workers, represented by the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals, say the strike was triggered by what they describe as unfair labor practices and Kaiser’s refusal to return to national bargaining talks. (Vaziri and Flores, 1/26)
Minnesota Public Radio: Hennepin Healthcare Cuts 100 Positions And 5 Medical Programs
Hennepin Healthcare is cutting five medical programs and about 100 full-time positions to address a $50 million budget shortfall by the end of March. (Zurek, 1/26)
Minnesota Public Radio: University Of Minnesota, Fairview And M Physicians Reach Agreement For Medical School
The University of Minnesota, Fairview and M Physicians have reached a 10-year agreement to fund the U’s medical school and support physician training and research after seven weeks of intensive mediation. (Zurek, 1/26)
North Carolina Health News: Youth Voices Drive Vaya Health’s New Mental Health Approach
In Alamance County, Ivey Broadnax works with young people who may be struggling with mental health issues. Instead of focusing on mental health symptoms or deficits, Broadnax and other “youth partners,” through Vaya Health, want to build positive childhood experiences for the young people they are helping. (Fernandez, 1/27)
Modern Healthcare: Why Mayo, Cleveland Clinic Are Investing In Pulsed Field Ablation
Health systems are making big investments in pulsed field ablation systems, reasoning that the technology will help expand their cardiac programs and the short-term financial hit quickly will be recouped. Pulsed field ablation has only been available in the U.S. within the past two years. Despite it being reimbursed at the same level as older technology, hospitals have embraced it as an atrial fibrillation treatment because it’s considered safer, in demand by patients and the procedure is faster. (Dubinsky, 1/26)
KFF Health News: Watch: A Strange Checkup Bill Revealed A Firefighter’s Kids Were Mistakenly Uninsured
After Susannah Reed-McCullough’s husband died in 2018, she and their young daughters continued to receive health insurance through his job as a firefighter in Maryland. Then, in 2024, she got an unexpected medical bill: $377 for a checkup for one of her children the previous fall. Reed-McCullough said she called the doctor’s billing department and learned the insurance company had dropped the children’s coverage. The drop turned out to be a mistake. (Jackman, 1/27)
In obituaries —
The New York Times: Thomas Fogarty, 91, Who Helped Revolutionize Vascular Surgery, Dies
In time, his surgical innovations were credited with saving millions of lives, and publications hailed him for his supreme skill and accomplishments as the “Thomas Edison” and even the “Mickey Mantle” of medical device inventors. But long before Thomas J. Fogarty drew such renown, he was a tinkerer — a boy growing up in Cincinnati in the 1940s, fixing things around the house for his widowed mother. (Longman, 1/26)
