Attorney General Sessions doesn’t go as far as arguing the entire law would be invalid, but the provisions he deemed “inseverable” from the mandate include some of the ACA’s key protections, like not allowing insurers to charge more or deny coverage based on a consumer’s pre-existing conditions.

When President Donald Trump stopped payment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)’s cost-sharing reduction subsidies, or CSRs, insurers found a way to limit the impact of the resulting premium hikes by putting the entire increase on the ACA exchanges’ silver-level plans. This “silver loading” technique will be allowed to continue in 2019, HHS Secretary Alex Azar told a House committee.

As CVS Health move towards completing its $69 billion acquisition of Aetna, its announced the senior leadership team of the combined company, including Aetna chief financial officer Shawn Guertin becoming CFO for the expanded CVS.

The rapid expansion of UnitedHealth Group’s Optum division into patient care has continued, with Moody’s Investors Service identifying it as one of the acquiring firms of a physician staffing firm in Tacoma, Washington.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) estimated 8,000 deaths were prevented and $2.9 billion was saved between 2014 and 2016 through successful initiatives to reduce hospital-acquired conditions, including infections, injuries from falls and adverse drugs events.

A rumored White House Office of Management and Budget plan would move more of the federal government’s safety net programs, like food stamps, into HHS.

Kaiser Health News reports on one facility—a 26-bed hospital in Surprise Valley, California—that is $4 million in debt—and in desperate need of outside help. The community may have found reason for hope, in the form of a 34-year-old former bodybuilder named Beau Gertz. He’s proposing a plan to use telemedicine to help boost revenue.

Researchers, in a study published June 3 in the New England Journal of Medicine, reported women with early-stage invasive cancer could skip chemotherapy if they are at medium to low risk for recurrence—instead opting for hormone therapy after surgery.