Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Community Health Systems Selling 4 Arkansas Hospitals To Pay Down Debt
Modern Healthcare: CHS To Sell 4 Hospitals To Freeman Health System In $112M Deal
A Community Health Systems subsidiary signed a definitive agreement to sell four Arkansas hospitals to Freeman Health System for $112 million. The deal announced Thursday would include the 128-bed Northwest Medical Center-Bentonville, the 222-bed Northwest Medical Center-Springdale, the 64-bed Northwest Medical Center–Willow Creek Women’s Hospital and the 73-bed Siloam Springs Regional Hospital, in addition to related outpatient centers and practices. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter, pending regulatory approval. (Hudson, 3/5)
Modern Healthcare: Insurer Coalition's 'Hospital Watch' Targets Consolidation, Costs
A health insurance industry-backed coalition is going after hospitals in a bid to capitalize on Washington’s bipartisan focus on affordability and rising healthcare costs. Better Solutions for Healthcare launched its “Hospital Watch” campaign last month. The organization’s website links to news articles and data that are unflattering to the hospital sector. A banner on the home page reads, “Shining a Light on Corporate Hospital Systems’ Role in Driving America’s Healthcare Cost Crisis.” (McAuliff, 3/5)
Modern Healthcare: Chronic Condition Patients Drive Most Of Healthcare Use: Vizient
Patients with one or more chronic conditions account for the majority of healthcare use — and a fragmented approach to delivery is driving up costs, according to a recent report from Vizient. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Chronic has noted chronic conditions such as heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes are becoming more common in the United States. (DeSilva, 3/5)
On the use of AI in health care —
Healthcare Dive: Amazon Launches Suite Of Healthcare AI Agents
Amazon Web Services rolled out a suite of agentic artificial intelligence tools Thursday that aim to handle a range of healthcare tasks, like helping patients schedule appointments and summarizing medical data for clinicians. The product, called Amazon Connect Health, includes five capabilities: verifying patients’ identities; handling appointment scheduling; creating summaries of patient medical histories; creating clinical notes based on conversations between clinicians and patients; and generating medical codes from clinical documentation. (Olsen, 3/5)
Modern Healthcare: CVS Health To Launch AI Platform Health100
CVS Health plans to launch a health technology subsidiary later this year that will offer an artificial intelligence-based platform designed to help consumers access healthcare information and services. The platform will allow patients to find providers, compare costs of care and centralize their health records and information, CVS said. It also will make recommendations for the next steps of care for patients with chronic conditions and offer care management through a digital health portal between visits. (DeSilva, 3/5)
Fierce Healthcare: Salesforce Unveils New AI Agents To Take On Healthcare Paperwork
Salesforce is building out its library of pre-wired artificial intelligence agents to take on manual, administrative work on behalf of payers, providers and public health organizations. The company is partnering with three health tech companies—HealthEx, Verily and Viz.ai—to handle the heavy lifting for healthcare organizations by automating tasks from clinical intake and electronic health record updates to hospital bed management and monitoring for contagious outbreaks. (Landi, 3/6)
