News Briefs
Senators Seek Enforcement of No Surprises Act Good-Faith Estimate
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions is asking Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other Trump administration officials to enforce the good-faith estimate provision of the No Surprises Act. An Advanced Explanation of Benefits for upfront estimates of out-of-pocket costs remains an outstanding provision of the law, said U.S. Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-LA, Maggie Hassan, D-NH, and Roger Marshall, R-KS, in the letter to Kennedy, and the secretaries of the Departments of Labor and the Treasury.
(Source: Healthcare Finance News, 2025-07-31)
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Trump Tells Largest Drug Companies to Cut Prices Within 60 Days
President Trump sent letters to 17 of the world's largest drug companies, telling them to take more steps to slash the prices of prescription drugs to match the lowest price in certain foreign countries. The letters represent an escalation of the administration's push for lower drug prices by launching a "most favored nation" model, which ties the prices of prescription medicines in the U.S. to the lowest found among comparably wealthy nations.
(Source: The Hill, 2025-07-31)
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Hospitals to Receive 2.6% Pay Increase from CMS for 2026
The Trump administration has locked in a 2.6 percent payment rate increase for inpatient services in the coming fiscal year as well as an industry-opposed mandatory payment model for five common surgical procedures. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems and Long-Term Care Hospital Prospective Payment System final rule reflects a 3.3 percent market basket update that is reduced by a 0.7 percentage point productivity adjustment.
(Source: FierceHealthcare, 2025-07-31)
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Venture Capital Investments in Health Tech Strong, Especially AI
Venture capital investment across the healthcare sector slowed in the first half of the year, but health tech funding was a bright spot -- buoyed by growing interest in artificial intelligence, according to a report by Silicon Valley Bank. Overall healthcare investment and deal count declined, but health tech startups in the U.S. and Europe raised $8.2 billion across 358 deals, the best first half recorded in the segment since early 2022.
(Source: Healthcare Dive, 2025-07-29)
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Cost of Average Healthcare Data Breach Declines to $7.42M in 2025
Healthcare remains the costliest industry for data breaches, with each breach costing an average of $7.42 million, IBM found in its 2025 "Cost of a Data Breach" report. Despite maintaining the top position for the 14th consecutive year, healthcare saw a reduction from last year's average cost of $9.77 million.
(Source: Tech Target, 2025-07-30)
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Customers Increase Mail Order Pharmacy Use Amid Satisfaction
As more and more neighborhood drug stores close their doors, customers are increasingly turning to mail order pharmacies, mass market merchandisers, and supermarkets, and are preferring the customer experience, according to the J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Pharmacy Study. Overall satisfaction with mail order pharmacies is rising steadily, with a seven-point increase (on a 1,000-point scale) in overall customer satisfaction this year.
(Source: Healthcare Finance News, 2025-08-03)
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Lawmakers Finally Taking Steps to Address Doctor Shortage
There may finally be bipartisan momentum to lifting a cap that Congress put on Medicare-funded residency slots nearly three decades ago. U.S. Sen. John Boozman, an Arkansas Republican, and fellow Senators Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, Republican Susan Collins of Maine and Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York, this summer introduced the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2025.
(Source: Forbes, 2025-08-01)
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PCP Shortage Worsens as Image of Field Plays a Role
A multi-institutional study, led by researchers from Nova Southeastern University's Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine, highlights the enduring perception among medical students that primary care specialties carry less prestige than surgical and other specialty fields -- a dynamic that researchers say may be deepening the nation's primary care shortage. Published July 25 in Cureus via Modern Medical Educator, the survey of 100 med students across three medical schools in Florida and California found that most respondents rated their top specialty choice as more skilled and more respected in the healthcare community than primary care.
(Source: Medical Economics, 2025-07-29)
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4.4% of Primary Care Physicians Enrolled in Medicare Left in 2023
A new analysis of fee-for-service Medicare claims shows a sharper rise in primary care physicians leaving the federal health program than in specialists, raising concerns about older adults' access to care. An estimated 4.4 percent of primary care physicians enrolled in Medicare left the program in 2023, up from 3.3 percent in 2014, according to researchers Hannah T. Neprash, PhD, of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and Michael E. Chernew, PhD, of Harvard Medical School, Boston, writing in JAMA Health Forum.
(Source: Medscape (free reg. req'd), 2025-07-31)
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Senior Living and Care Sector Seeing Record M&A Activity
Merger, acquisition, and affiliation activity continues to trend at "record levels" in the not-for-profit senior living and care sector, according to a 2025 midpoint update on such activity from specialty investment bank Ziegler. Common drivers for the activity include workforce challenges, CEO turnover, and expense pressures due to an uncertain economic environment, according to a blog post from Cathy Owen, vice president of senior living research.
(Source: McKnight's Senior Living, 2025-08-04)
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Programs Aim to Accelerate Path to Medical Degree
By 2036, the United States is predicted to be short as many as 40,000 primary care physicians, in part because of an aging population, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. Thirty-three programs offer the option to compress four years of medical school into three for students who know they want to go into general medicine.
(Source: CBS News, 2025-07-29)
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