Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
How Amazon Is Nudging Into Health Care Space Beyond New Initiative With Tech Billionaires
The Wall Street Journal: Amazon’s Latest Ambition? To Be A Major Hospital Supplier
Amazon.com Inc. is pushing to turn its nascent medical-supplies business into a major supplier to U.S. hospitals and outpatient clinics that could compete with incumbent distributors of items from gauze to hip implants. Amazon has invited hospital executives to its Seattle headquarters on several occasions, most recently in late January, to solicit information about the sector and sound out ideas for expanding the company’s business-to-business marketplace, Amazon Business, into one where hospitals could shop to stock outpatient locations, operating suites and emergency rooms, according to hospital executives who attended the meetings. (Evans and Stevens, 2/13)
In other health industry news —
Bloomberg: A Long Era Of Low Health Care Inflation May Be Coming To End
Hospital prices increased 2.2 percent in December, the fastest rate in four years, according to an analysis by Altarum, a nonprofit health-care research organization. The group analyzes data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and other sources to estimate the underlying prices that health plans and consumers pay for medical goods and services. While overall medical inflation was restrained last year, the report warns that “we could very well be at the cusp” of a return to a more typical pattern where increases in health-care prices outpace the broader inflation rate. (Tozzi, 2/12)
