News Briefs
Analysts Predict Increase in 2025 P.E. Healthcare Dealmaking
Following a steady, but modest, year of private equity dealmaking in healthcare, 2025 could see higher levels of activity as market conditions shift. Analysts forecast an increase in transactions due to falling interest rates, a more favorable regulatory environment under the Trump administration, and dry powder available to invest, according to a report by the Private Equity Stakeholder Project.
(Source: HealthLeaders Media, 2025-03-07)
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MedPAC Closer to Recommendation on Physician Fee Schedule
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission is inching closer to a recommendation on revising how doctors get paid through the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. While the members had suggestions about the nuances of physician pay and the language to describe it, there was general agreement on two draft recommendations to Congress.
(Source: Medical Economics, 2025-03-06)
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Lawmakers Reintroduce Long-Term Care and Transparency Act
Calls for transparency into the long-term care industry have continued into 2025 with the reintroduction of a bill to make the work of state long-term care ombudsmen public. U.S. Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-NY) has reintroduced the Long-term Care and Transparency Act (HR 10072 / S 4578) after it did not gain enough traction last year.
(Source: McKnight's Senior Living, 2025-03-04)
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Rise in Physician Unionization Spreading Across U.S.
In recent years, physician unionization has been focused on the West Coast, but it is now being seen on the East Coast and in the South, says Clark Bosslet, MBA, a partner at ECG Management Consultants. Bosslet expects the trend to grow and continue for the foreseeable future.
(Source: HealthLeaders Media, 2025-03-06)
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Proposed Standalone Health Policy Legislation Includes PBM Changes
Senate Democrats are introducing, as standalone legislation, a package of health policies, including changes to the pharmacy benefit manager industry that was left out of December's government spending bill. The effort, led by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and others, is an attempt to revive bipartisan reforms and funding extensions without trying to attach it to a continuing resolution.
(Source: The Hill, 2025-03-06)
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Healthcare Firms Received Fake Extortion Demand Letters
In late February, healthcare organizations across the U.S. started receiving extortion demands by mail, claiming that their organization's data had been stolen in a ransomware attack and giving them 10 days to respond. But the breaches never happened, and the letters are almost certainly fake. Targeting healthcare organizations, the strange incident is a reminder that ransomware today is really two industries: a larger one that carries out the serious ransomware attacks everyone hears about and a much smaller and less well-publicized one that tries to impersonate them.
(Source: CSO, 2025-03-05)
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Doctors Criticize Lawmakers' Decision to Allow 2.8% Medicare Cut
The American Medical Association and a chorus of physician groups decried what they say is a decision by the Republican-controlled Congress to allow a devastating cut in Medicare payments to physicians. A funding bill released by Republicans who control the U.S. House of Representatives will allow to go forward a 2.8 percent cut in payments physicians receive from the Medicare health insurance program to treat elderly patients.
(Source: Forbes, 2025-03-09)
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Mitigating Basic Cyber Risks for Rural Hospitals Could Cost $75M
It will cost upward of $75 million to address the cybersecurity needs of rural U.S. hospitals, Microsoft reckons, as mounting closures threaten the lives of Americans. Hospitals are routinely targeted by cybercriminals because system availability is acutely linked to mortality rates, and rural facilities are often the least secure with 93 percent of malicious activity stemming from phishing and ransomware.
(Source: The Register, 2025-03-06)
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55% of Healthcare Leaders Expect to Boost Cybersecurity Budgets
Healthcare leaders expect their cybersecurity budgets to rise in 2025, according to HIMSS survey data. About 55 percent of respondents to the "2024 HIMSS Healthcare Cybersecurity Survey" reported anticipating a cybersecurity budget increase this year, while just four percent expected a decrease and 21 percent said their budgets were likely to remain the same.
(Source: Tech Target, 2025-03-05)
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Companies Unveiling AI Tools in Their Efforts to Modernize EHRs
Health records companies are racing to weave artificial intelligence into multiple segments of their software, hoping that by streamlining clunky experiences they can attract clients and keep up with competitors doing the same. Some of the largest EHR vendors, including Epic and Oracle, have announced or accelerated modernization efforts in recent months.
(Source: Healthcare Dive, 2025-03-06)
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Rural Hospitals Sign Up for Microsoft Cybersecurity Program
A cybersecurity program Microsoft launched last year for rural hospitals has "exceeded projections" with nearly a third of the country's rural hospitals registering for free or low-cost support, the tech giant said. The Cybersecurity for Rural Hospitals Program is funded through philanthropic investment and, per last summer's unveiling, was rolled out in "close collaboration" with the Biden administration, the American Hospital Association, and the National Rural Health Association.
(Source: FierceHealthcare, 2025-03-07)
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