Despite the ongoing government shutdown, some 3,000 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services staff will be returning to the office just in time for Americans to begin looking for health coverage on the Affordable Care Act marketplace. The agency said the employees will be paid for the days they work. 

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston said the firings appear to be politically motivated and may exceed the authority of the executive branch. She sided against the Trump administration, issuing a temporary restraining order to stop 4,200 federal employees from being fired. 

The 2025 HLTH convention in Las Vegas, held at the Venetian Expo Center, brought together vendors, researchers and healthcare providers for four days of presentations, panels, awards and industry announcements. Here's a selection of news from the show floor. 

The ballot measure was recently sent to the state attorney general’s office for approval. Once cleared, supporters can begin collecting signatures for its inclusion in the 2026 elections. The proposed law has the backing of one of the largest labor unions in the state. 

A “cybersecurity incident” at Heywood Healthcare forced it to halt all emergency services at one of its hospitals. Details on what happened remain largely unclear. 

The incident at Methodist Homes is now over a year old but was only recently disclosed to the public. The nature of the data breach remains unknown; however, it has been confirmed that hackers accessed protected health information.

Such contract provisions are illegal in the state. However, doctors at Aspirus Health’s St. Luke’s Hospital said they’re being pressured to sign contract renewals with noncompete clauses under threat of termination.

Tennessee-based Ballad Health said it's tried for years to resolve the issues with the insurer but now has 'no choice' but to take legal action, as denied claims are leading to longer hospital stays and higher expenses.

Physician-founded Counsel Health said it will use the funds to hire more doctors as it expands the userbase for its AI, which allows patients to ask questions and get answers from a real doctor.

The two companies said their model for exchanging payer and provider data will be “easily replicable” and could be adopted across the healthcare space. The initial rollout of the system will be focused on automatically identifying Medicare Advantage patients.