Bipartisan Senate bill aims to boost mental health access, improve worker shortages
The legislation comes as the Biden Administration aims to tackle the country’s worsening mental health crisis, which was exacerbated by the pandemic.
Watchdog faults FDA for rushing COVID tests to market by easing emergency use rules
The HHS Office of Inspector General found that by loosening emergency use authorization requirements to bring COVID-19 tests to market faster, the agency allowed inaccurate tests to be distributed.
Will the healthcare labor shortage fuel more consolidation?
J. P. Morgan’s head of healthcare corporate client banking lays out trends to consider as private equity firms snap up physician groups.
Centene to pay Texas $166M in latest state settlement
Of the settlements made public, the insurer’s settlements so far total at least $462.7 million.
Emotional exhaustion worse for healthcare workers in second year of pandemic, research finds
Nurses reported feeling more emotionally exhausted during the pandemic, with physicians also noticing an increase. The report comes as some nurses fight for better working conditions.
Majority of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable, CDC says
Mental health conditions were the No. 1 cause of pregnancy-related mortality, the agency said.
HHS ‘roadmap’ aims to tackle nation’s mental health crisis
The initiative prioritizes integrating behavioral health services into primary and other specialty care areas as well as community-based settings like schools.
Doctor, hospital lobbies move to dismiss lawsuit over surprise billing ban
The groups hinted that another lawsuit may be on the way despite the bid to dismiss the original claims.
Judge denies DOJ’s move to block $13B UnitedHealth, Change deal
The judge’s ruling follows a bench trial in which the DOJ argued that UnitedHealth’s bid for Change would disadvantage rivals and result in higher costs, lower quality and less innovative commercial health insurance.
Fitch cuts Lifespan’s outlook to negative after weak Q3
The credit rating agency’s downgrade for Rhode Island’s largest health system is another sign of mounting financial pressures on hospitals.