Man Entered Aetna Building With Assault Weapon, Hartford Police Say
Security guards detained the man without incident, AP reported. Police say they aren't sure what the man's intentions were when he entered the insurer's headquarters in Connecticut. Other health industry news looks at private Medicare Advantage plans; a report on the out-of-network billing system; hospital-at-home programs; and more.
AP:
Police Arrest Armed Man Who Walked Into Aetna's Connecticut Headquarters
A man carrying a backpack with an AR-style pistol inside was arrested Thursday after walking into health insurer Aetna’s headquarters in Connecticut, police said. Security guards detained the man without incident shortly after 10 a.m., within 3 minutes after he entered the Hartford building. They held him until city police officers arrived, a spokesperson for Hartford police said. It wasn’t immediately clear what the man’s plans were, Lt. Aaron Boisvert said. (Roubein and Weber, 4/16)
More updates from the health care industry —
The New York Times:
Help For Medicare Advantage Patients Who Lose Doctors Is Shelved, For Now
Nationwide, hospitals and other providers are leaving private Medicare Advantage plans, putting thousands of seniors at risk of higher costs and of losing trusted doctors. (Jaffe, 4/16)
Chicago Tribune:
Judge Allows Suit To Proceed Against Alden Nursing Homes
A judge has cleared the way for a trial over a class action lawsuit claiming the operator of Alden nursing homes in the Chicago area systematically understaffed its facilities to make more money, increasing the safety risks of its patients. (McCoppin, 4/16)
Fierce Healthcare:
Providers' Advantage On OON Billing Disputes Likely To Continue
Insurers hoping for a reprieve from an out-of-network billing system largely favoring healthcare providers will likely be left wanting as federal policymakers sit on their hands and one large payer’s bid to limit the claims faces an uphill battle, strategy firm Capstone concluded in a new report. A quarter-by-quarter rise in total payment dispute volumes is likely to continue due to the structural incentives for providers to engage in the process, the firm’s analysts wrote in its report. Such a trend would be slightly positive for hospitals, solidly beneficial for specialty providers and a roadblock for payers—“however, employers could face an additional burden,” they said. (Muoio, 4/16)
The Boston Globe:
MGB, CVS Primary Care Partnership Could Inflate Health Care Spending
A proposed collaboration between Mass General Brigham and CVS to increase primary care access could raise commercial health care spending by more than $40 million annually within three years, according to a preliminary state report released Thursday. That cost estimate, published by the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission, would add to already ballooning health care spending in the Commonwealth. (Wolf, 4/16)
Stat:
What HaloMD's Legal Win Means For No Surprises Act Arbitration
Arbitration decisions, it turns out, are like cockroaches. They’re very hard to kill. It’s a long held truism in the legal world, and it was underscored this week when a federal judge shot down a health insurer’s lawsuit challenging No Surprises Act arbitration decisions. (Bannow, 4/16)
Modern Healthcare:
Hospital-At-Home Takes Off, Providers Push For Permanent Payment
Hospital-at-home programs are gaining steam again as health systems make investments and press for a permanent payment solution for the care model. Penn Medicine, Cleveland Clinic and Tampa General Hospital are among the health systems that launched or expanded in-home acute care programs in the past few weeks — encouraged by the extension of the Acute Hospital Care at Home wavier through September 2030. (Eastabrook, 4/16)
KFF Health News:
Listen: With Little Federal Regulation, States Are Left To Shape The Rules On AI In Health Care
Speed, efficiency, and lower costs. Those are the traits artificial intelligence supporters celebrate. But the same qualities worry physicians who fear the technology could lead to insurance denials with humans left out of the loop. With scant federal regulation, states are left to shape the rules on AI in health care. For residents in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, a divide is playing out on opposite sides of the Potomac River. Maryland and Virginia have taken very different approaches to regulating AI in health insurance. (Sausser, 4/17)
KFF Health News:
Your New Therapist: Chatty, Leaky, And Hardly Human
Vince Lahey of Carefree, Arizona, embraces chatbots. From Big Tech products to “shady” ones, they offer “someone that I could share more secrets with than my therapist.” He especially likes the apps for feedback and support, even though sometimes they berate him or lead him to fight with his ex-wife. “I feel more inclined to share more,” Lahey said. “I don’t care about their perception of me.” There are a lot of people like Lahey. (Tahir, 4/17)
On organ transplants —
Stat:
Novel Approach To Transplant Rejection Shows Promise In New Study
Immune tolerance has long been the holy grail in transplant medicine, a hoped-for end to the downsides of anti-rejection regimens for patients after they receive lifesaving organ transplants. A small, early-stage study now shows promise in taking cells from living donors — people giving a portion of their livers — to teach recipients’ immune systems to accept the foreign organs as their own and achieve the ultimate healthy outcome. (Cooney, 4/17)
The CT Mirror:
Are Black Americans Disproportionately Represented On The Organ Transplant Waitlist?
Black Americans are disproportionately represented on the national organ donation transplant waitlist compared to people of other races or ethnicities, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Available data show that in 2025, Black or African American patients accounted for about 27% of people on the national transplant waiting list, or 28,000 people, while they represented roughly 14% of the U.S. population. (David, 4/16)
