Ascension, the largest nonprofit health system in the U.S., has announced a new joint venture with Australia-based hospital operator Ramsay Health Care Limited to create a global supply chain to reduce costs for Ascension’s 2,600 sites of care and the more than 230 facilities Ramsay operates in six countries.

Years of gains in insurance coverage since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are beginning to reverse, according to a new report from the Commonwealth Fund which found 15.5 percent of working age adults are uninsured, an increase of about four million people since 2016.

Median earned base-to-bonus ratio—measuring what proportion of compensation comes from incentives beyond base salary—rose for several job titles in 2017.

If the first quarter of the year is any indication, the frantic pace of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) among hospitals won’t be slowing down in 2018. Thirty transactions were announced between January 1 and March 31, an 11 percent increase over the same period in 2017, according to Kaufman Hall.

A new CMS proposal will require hospitals to post their standard prices for treatments online and aims to increase patient access to electronic health records (EHRs).

Higher deductible bronze-level plans were more popular on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges in 2018, but customers may not be aware that moving toward this coverage will leave them paying out of pocket for primary care until they hit their deductible—leading some to avoid primary care altogether due to the costs.

The wave of megamergers involving health insurers could place the greatest pressure on both not-for-profit and for-profit hospitals, according to a report from Moody’s Investors Service, if these new combinations steer patients away from hospital-owned facilities.

The report from the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) examined claims for people with multiple sclerosis (MS) from 2009 to 2015 covered by individual market, employer-sponsored or Medicare Advantage plans. It found total spending per MS patient rose from around $23,900 to $39,628 by 2015. During the same time period, the share of spending spent towards injectable and oral disease modifying therapies (DMTs) rose from 39 percent to 53 percent.

Prices across the healthcare sector rose 2.2 percent year-over-year in March 2018, the highest annual growth rate recorded by Altarum since January 2012, with the report warning rapid price growth is likely to continue.

A new bill introduced in California’s state legislature would put the state in charge of setting rates for medical services covered by private insurers, setting up a battle between consumer groups and the lobbyists for the healthcare industry.