Week in Review | March 31, 2018

In the latest example of an outside force making a move into healthcare, retail giant Walmart—the largest company in the world by revenue—is reportedly in preliminary discussions to acquire health insurer Humana, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Not far from any policy debate is the oft-repeated fact that healthcare makes up one-sixth of the U.S. economy. Newly published research took a deeper dive to investigate the impact of medical schools and teaching hospitals. And, as one would guess, they contribute a lot of the American economy, accounting for 3.1 percent of gross domestic product.

Accountable care organizations (ACOs) were supposed to result in savings for Medicare, but an analysis from Avalere said ACOs in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) have instead increased federal spending—an evaluation a national group of ACOs called “rather simplistic," ignoring positive impacts they've made on quality.

Drug-related deaths more than tripled between 1999 and 2015—and many of those can be attributed to opioids. But the numbers may be more alarming than previously thought, according to a new report from Kaiser Health News and Side Effects Public Media.

President Donald Trump announced long-embattled Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin will be replaced by White House physician Ronny L. Jackson, MD.

Jefferson Health and Einstein Healthcare Network, both based in Philadelphia, have announced they’ve signed a letter of intent to merge, the latest in a string of acquisitions by Jefferson.

The debate over the future of healthcare in the U.S. is really a discussion about inequity, according to America’s Essential Hospitals president and CEO Bruce Siegel, MD, MPH, saying disparities will still need to be addressed even if the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion remain in place.

Mergers and acquisitions that have consolidated healthcare markets in California have raised prices for procedures and insurance premiums, especially in the northern part of the state, according to a report from the University of California, Berkeley’s Petris Center on Health Care Markets and Consumer Welfare.

Two top executives from the largest nonprofit health system in the U.S. emphasized that developing new leaders isn’t the responsibility of the human resources department, but a system-wide necessity in their presentation at the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) Congress in Chicago.

An election year usually means little movement in Congress on major policies. That’s especially true for hot-button issues in healthcare, according to Tom Nickels, the American Hospital Association’s executive vice president of government relations, meaning major reforms may have to wait until after the midterm election—or perhaps after the next presidential race.