Editor's Note UnitedHealth Group acquired dozens of outpatient facilities, particularly surgery centers, in 2023, often without public announcements, STAT March 11 reports. This builds on their network of about 90,000 physicians. Many new centers are in areas where UnitedHealth dominates the Medicare Advantage market. A major acquisition was National Cardiovascular…

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Editor's Note As aging ambulatory surgery center (ASC) physician-owners retire, many ASCs are struggling with succession plans, Outpatient Surgery Magazine May 1 reports. Per the article, younger surgeons often lack the capital to establish freestanding ASCs, and with tight margins in the ASC market, a capital infusion is often needed.…

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Editor's Note Healthcare industry groups are calling for the federal government to streamline and ease the recently proposed cybersecurity incident reporting rule by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Fierce Healthcare reported July 8. According to the report, CISA's proposal imposes enhanced reporting requirements for critical infrastructure entities, including…

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Healthcare employment in the US rose by 49,000 from June to July, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, released on July 5. That is compared to an overall monthly gain of 206,000 in June. In June, healthcare employment also trended up in: ambulatory healthcare services…

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Editor's Note Expected to grow at an average annual rate of 5.6%, US healthcare spending will outpace GDP growth—projected at 4.3%--and rise to $7.7 trillion by 2032, according to a June 28 report in ASC focus. The $7.7 trillion figure amounts to 19.7% of GDP. The report is sourced from…

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Editor's Note On June 27, The Justice Department announced the 2024 National Health Care Fraud Enforcement Action, leading to criminal charges against 193 defendants, including 76 medical professionals across 32 federal districts in the U.S. for their involvement in various health care fraud schemes. These schemes accounted for approximately $2.75…

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Editor's Note Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations are at risk, and legal challenges to Medicare payments are likely to rise following the Supreme Court’s overturning of the 40-year-old legal precedent Chevron deference, according to a June 28 report in Becker’s Hospital Review. "Chevron deference is the principle that when…

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Editor's Note Although SecurityScorecard gave the US healthcare a “better than expected” B+ rating for cybersecurity in 2024, the supply chain cybersecurity firm also highlighted significant risks in application and endpoint security, HealthcareIT News reported June 25.   Overall, 35% of third-party data breaches in 2023 affected healthcare organizations, the…

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Editor's Note Federal regulation of hospital mergers is inadequate, according to an April antitrust enforcement study scheduled to be published by the American Economic Association. According to a June 14 report in Modern Healthcare, researchers at universities including Harvard and Yale analyzed insurance claims data from Aetna, Humana, and UnitedHealthcare,…

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Editor's Note Increased demand for anesthesia services, especially in non-operating room (non-OR) sites, has outpaced the growth of anesthesia clinicians, a June 2024 special article published by the journal Anesthesiology reports. The imbalance in the anesthesia workforce supply and demand, the article argues, was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and…

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