Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
As Hospitals Buy Up Doctors' Offices, Cost For Care Can Increase Tenfold
The Washington Post: Doctors’ Offices Are Charging Patients 10 Times More By Claiming To Be Hospitals
As U.S. hospitals buy up a growing portion of the doctors’ offices in the United States, patients are paying a steep cost: Routine medical care is often being billed at the much more expensive rate for hospital care, instead of the lower cost for procedures in a doctor’s office. The higher rates along with hospital “facility fees” — tacked on even when patients never step into a hospital — can lead to bills 10 times costlier or more, according to research on patients’ bills. (Weil, 10/24)
More healthcare industry news —
Bloomberg: Bon Secours Nears $6 Billion Buy Of Surgery Partners, FT Says
Bon Secours Mercy Health is in late-stage talks to buy a majority stake in Surgery Partners in a deal that would value the Bain Capital-backed surgical care provider at roughly $6 billion, including $3.5 billion in debt, the Financial Times reported. Bon Secours’ partial takeover of Surgery Partners would value the group at about $20 a share. Bain Capital would retain its nearly 40% stake. (Tsekova, 10/25)
MPR News: Rural Labor And Delivery Units To Get Boost From University Of Minnesota Medical School Fellowship
As more Minnesota rural communities lose local obstetrics services, the University of Minnesota Medical School and central Minnesota’s CentraCare hospital are teaming up to equip more rural providers with the skills they need to handle complicated births. (Work, 10/25)
Los Angeles Times: UCLA Health Expansion Raises Costs And Concerns
UCLA Health has rapidly expanded the number of hospitals and clinics it operates. Critics say the expansion is raising healthcare costs and question why it hasn’t included lower-income neighborhoods. (Petersen, 10/25)
The Baltimore Sun: Data Breach: Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center Alerts Patients
Thousands of Baltimore patients may have had their personal health information exposed after a worker uploaded a spreadsheet to a third-party public artificial intelligence tool that the hospital had not approved. (Byrne, 10/24)
Modern Healthcare: Johns Hopkins Health System President To Retire In 2027
Johns Hopkins Health System President Kevin Sowers plans to retire at the end of 2027. The organization will conduct a national search for a successor, led by Johns Hopkins Medicine CEO Theodore DeWeese and the board of trustees, according to a Thursday news release. Sowers plans to become a senior executive adviser after his retirement to help with the transition, the release said. (Hudson, 10/23)
Modern Healthcare: How Mount Sinai, University Hospitals Manage TAVR Procedure Costs
Hospitals running transcatheter aortic valve replacement programs often face a difficult balancing act to control costs while maintaining high-quality patient care. Medicare reimbursement for TAVR, a minimally invasive procedure that replaces narrowed aortic valves, falls short of covering hospitals’ costs or covers them with little to no margin, providers say. (Dubinsky, 10/23)
KFF Health News: Many Medicare Patients Could Lose Access To Remote Monitoring Devices
Dianne Williams said she lost weight and lowered her blood pressure thanks to quarterly doctor appointments, monthly phone calls with a nurse, and a blood pressure cuff she uses at home that transmits data to her care team. “It’s good to have somebody talk to you and tell you what your progress is like. And she’s a very nice person,” Williams said of her nurse. (Zionts, 10/26)
KFF Health News: The Cost Of Healthcare Is Hitting America Where It Hurts: The Wallet
Bill McAdams, a 45-year-old travel nurse from Holiday, Florida, was uninsured last year when he experienced a stroke. He hadn’t been able to afford his agency’s health plan, which would have cost $3,600 monthly to cover him and his wife. The hospital that treated him sent him a bill for $93,000. (Rayasam and Whitehead, 10/26)
KFF Health News: Digging Into The Money Behind The US Healthcare System
The United States spends a lot of money on healthcare. To better understand how much, who spends it, and what it’s spent on, we dug into the federal government’s data. In 2024, the most recent year for which data was available, the U.S. spent $5.3 trillion on healthcare. That means an average of more than $14.4 billion was spent each day, and more than $10 million each minute. (Zuraw and Rayasam, 10/23)
