News Briefs
Hospitals Lose Supreme Court HHS Payment Case
The U.S. Supreme Court sided with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in a lawsuit brought by more than 200 hospitals that serve low-income populations that had challenged the government’s method of determining the hospitals' compensation. In a 7-2 opinion authored by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the majority held that HHS' method of determining when to provide additional Medicare reimbursement to hospitals that serve disproportionately low-income populations was in line with Congress' intent.
(Source: Reuters, 2025-04-29)
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Canada Actively Recruiting U.S. Doctors Amid Political Turmoil
Facing a dire physician shortage, Canada is capitalizing on U.S. political turmoil to lure U.S. physicians northward. The province of British Columbia has fast-tracked credentialing procedures and launched a recruitment campaign.
(Source: Medscape (free reg. req'd), 2025-05-01)
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Hospitals Already Feeling Impact of Trump's Tariffs
Hospitals across the country are starting to reckon with the effects President Trump's tariffs are having on medical supplies like syringes and PPE, and in some cases freezing spending and making other contingencies. A global trade war could bring a return to pandemic disruptions if imported goods that health systems purchase in high volumes from China can't be replenished. And there's still the prospect of Trump's tariffs on pharmaceuticals.
(Source: Axios, 2025-05-01)
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Trump Says Drug Firms Moving Operations Back to U.S. Get Reprieve
Donald Trump has hinted at a tariff reprieve for pharmaceutical companies, which are braced for fresh sector-specific import taxes. He reiterated at a meeting of pharma, tech, and industry bosses in the White House, that if companies moved their operations to plants in the U.S., they would face no tariffs, but he suggested that they would get "a lot of time" to make the switch before facing levies.
(Source: The Guardian, 2025-05-01)
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Survey Finds Nursing Shortage Reaching Critical Levels
A sweeping new study by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing is sounding the alarm about a critical shortage in the U.S. nursing workforce, with researchers warning that nearly two in five nurses plan to leave the profession or retire within the next five years. The survey reveals that while the emergency phase of the COVID-19 pandemic has passed, the strain it placed on the healthcare system continued to impact the nursing field in 2024.
(Source: News9, 2025-05-05)
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CMS Launches Fraud Detection Operation Center
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has launched the Fraud Detection Operation Center to fight waste, fraud, and abuse, the agency announced. The FDOC leverages the Fraud Prevention System, a system developed, built, and operated by federal contractor Peraton.
(Source: FierceHealthcare, 2025-05-01)
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ACP Urges Physicians to Use Collective Power to Take on Problems
Using unity and strength in numbers may be a way for physicians to counterbalance the burdens dragging down American healthcare, according to the American College of Physicians. "Empowering Physicians Through Collective Action: A Position Paper From the American College of Physicians" outlines the current workplace and economic conditions contributing to doctors' frustrations with healthcare, and it also explores options for physicians to improve those through advocacy, organizing, and collective bargaining.
(Source: Medical Economics, 2025-04-29)
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Lawmakers Introduce Rural Patient Monitoring Access Act in House
Senators Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Mark Warner, D-Va., introduced a bill that would increase reimbursement for remote monitoring in rural areas. Representatives David Kustoff, R-Tenn., Mark Pocan, D-Wis., Troy Balderson, R-Ohio, and Don Davis, D-N.C., also introduced the Rural Patient Monitoring Access Act in the House, which would expand access to remote patient monitoring in rural areas, where low payment rates discourage providers and RPM companies from providing services.
(Source: FierceHealthcare, 2025-05-01)
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Survey Outlines Top Priorities for Physician Practices
Improving patient payments and payer reimbursement rates is a top priority for physician practices, according to a new survey from AdvancedMD. The survey found that high priority issues for survey respondents this year included improving patient payments and payer reimbursement rates; automating claims' preparation processes (e.g., claim scrubbing, eligibility verification and submission workflows); and spending more time learning about current health IT capabilities to use existing platforms to their full capabilities.
(Source: Tech Target, 2025-04-30)
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Hospital Revenues and Expenses Up, While Margins Declined to 0.9%
Hospitals across the U.S. are seeing both higher revenues and higher expenses, and operating margins have begun to contract slightly, according to March data published by Strata. After holding steady at one percent in both January and February, operating margins for U.S. health systems narrowed slightly to 0.9 percent in March, while non-labor expenses rose faster than other expenses, due in part to double-digit increases in both drug and supply expenses versus the same month last year.
(Source: Healthcare Finance News, 2025-05-02)
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One in Three Insured Americans Postpone Care Due to Costs
More than one in three insured American adults say they've skipped or postponed necessary medical care or medications in the past 12 months because of cost, according to a new national survey commissioned by Imagine360. The findings underscore a worsening affordability crisis that physicians, employers, and policy experts have long warned about.
(Source: Medical Economics, 2025-04-30)
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