Late Saturday, Congress avoided a government shutdown by approving a broadly bipartisan bill less than three hours before the fiscal year closed. The bill keeps federal agency funding at fiscal year 2023 levels for the next 45 days and includes $16 billion for disaster relief…

In my adopted hometown of Washington, DC, all eyes are on Congress this week as lawmakers face down a deadline to pass the fiscal year 2024 spending bills. If the two parties don’t find agreement, hundreds of programs will lapse, impacting the global economy, the United States’ reputation abroad (and among lawmakers’ constituents), and, of course, the American people…

The federal government has unveiled the initial group of 10 medications for which Medicare can negotiate prices starting in 2026. This list includes a diverse range of drugs with varying price points and patient populations…

It’s been a quiet August here in Washington, DC. Members of Congress are out of town and will remain out on recess for a few more weeks. Healthcare news, however, reflects the fact that lawmakers will have plenty to examine if they choose to do so, when they return. 

Physician staffing firm American Physician Partners (APP) will close operations at the end of this month, becoming the second staffing group to go bankrupt in recent months. According to Bloomberg, the shutdown will involve transitioning existing contracts to current competitors starting July 31…

Top of the list of developments: brace yourselves for a bumpy end to 2023 and beginning of 2024 in healthcare. Lurking in the shadows of what has been an improving inflation picture are more cracks in the foundations of the commercial real estate markets, which could unleash havoc upon the U.S. economy. While Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has attempted to calm recession fears, a broad downturn would affect hospitals and clinics and so would a collapse in corporate real estate. Healthcare has often enjoyed a certain immunity to recession, but this time we may see bigger reverberations considering the struggles our industry has been facing.

Summer has officially begun, and while we are enjoying small respites like a recent Pride Month celebration in Washington, D.C. (check out my MedPage article exploring how clinicians must commit to creating more supportive and inclusive environments), work has not stopped. That is especially true in the nation’s capital where, free from debt ceiling drama, lawmakers are now returning to other matters, including how to rein in pharmacy benefit managers.

Welcome to another edition of ABIG Health’s list of top things to know in healthcare, a biweekly newsletter where we examine the news and trends that are shaping the industry. June is Pride Month and we are eager to mark this event. We need this celebration even more this year given the legislation we are seeing at the state level that threatens care for LGTBQIA+ individuals.

On May 15, Envision Healthcare submitted a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. As a result, nearly all of the organization's financial obligations, with the exception of a revolving credit line designated for operational capital, will be eliminated. This amounts to an approximate debt reduction of $5.6 billion for the company.

Welcome to another busy week in healthcare news!  I wanted to start by flagging my latest piece for MedPage Today, which discusses the underlying causes of the potential Envision bankruptcy. (Hint: there’s more to this story than one company’s decisions. Way more.) Thanks to MedPage Today for hosting my regular column, Prescriptions for a Broken System. I am also grateful to the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business and the Institute for Private Capital, for hosting a  recent research symposium that explored the impacts of private equity on the healthcare industry. 

What a busy week! This week MedPage Today launched my new column “Prescriptions for a Broken System,” where I dive into various healthcare business topics. I also chatted with Jared Dashevsky of Healthcare Huddle about the significant role private equity plays in the healthcare sector. Additionally, I was featured on Scripps News, providing expert analysis on the implications of the Supreme Court’s latest (but not last) ruling on Mifepristone.

The ABIG Health team attended the Becker's Hospital Review 13th Annual Meeting in Chicago last week. What an exhilarating experience! It was refreshing to be surrounded by like-minded professionals, sharing insights on the future of digital healthcare. The talks on AI and its impact on physician and nurse staffing were absolutely mind-blowing! And I was humbled to have the opportunity to speak about recruitment and retention strategies for hospitals. We could not be more excited about where digital healthcare is heading. Being at the Becker's Hospital Review 13th Annual Meeting has confirmed our belief that we need to push the boundaries in AI, use technology to address the physician and nurse staffing shortage, and constantly innovate to improve patient outcomes!

The ABIG Health team has been on the road. Next week, we’ll be in Chicago for Becker’s Conference (where I will speak on healthcare workforce shortages) and we were just in the Windy City for the ACHE Congress. These events come at a time when Congress is more focused on hospital financing, physician mental health, clinician shortages, and workplace pressures. We tackle those issues in this week’s newsletter, along with: the significance of CVS buying Signify Health, healthcare claim rejections, what the failure of Silicon Valley Bank means, why patients are excited about Iron Health, and the question of whether AI can replace clinicians.

Welcome back to our newsletter. As usual, we cover a lot of ground this week. We examine where private equity is placing most of its money, changes in federal antitrust rules, what a big bank failure could mean for healthcare investment, President Joe Biden’s annual budget offering, and a new Best Buy (yes, the big box store) play in the healthcare space. We also provide an update on the FTC’s proposed rule for employee non-competes, warn readers about coming oversight of nonprofit hospitals, explore the future of telehealth (especially for behavioral health, administering prescriptions, and obesity treatment), and take a look at some options for bipartisan healthcare legislation in Congress.