Downers Grove, Illinois-based Advocate Health Care and Milwaukee’s Aurora Health Care have gotten the final approval needed to close their merger, which will create the 10th largest nonprofit, integrated health system in the country.

The $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill released on March 21 includes boosts in funding for HHS, the National Institutes of Health and efforts to fight opioid abuse. What was left out were measures aimed at stabilizing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges with funding for additional reinsurance and restoring the law’s cost-sharing reduction subsidies.

Robert Redfield, MD, has been named the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But before his appointment, a top Senate Democrat said complaints about his past work as an HIV/AIDS researcher would make him an unsuitable public health leader.

The implementation of an automated notification system improved tests pending at discharge (TPAD) follow-ups by five days, according to a study published March 12 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Wolters Kluwer Health acquired Firecracker, an adaptive learning and study-planning application used by 20 percent of medical students, following a March 5 announcement of a signed agreement.

The University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) in Baltimore has been cited for several violations on patient rights and hospital regulations after leaving a patient wearing only a hospital gown at a bus stop in January.

The global budgeting, all-payer program adopted for most of Maryland’s hospitals has succeeded in keeping the growth in hospital revenue and Medicare expenditures below the rest of the nation through its first three years, while also reducing readmissions and complications.

Christopher Dawes, MBA, announced he’ll be retiring as president and CEO of both Stanford Children’s Health and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford in Palo Alto, California, saying health concerns led him to leave the post immediately.

A Los Angeles City Council committee approved plans for a $542 million expansion of Providence Tarzana Medical Center that will include a new patient wing with a pediatric intensive care unit and new surgical facilities, along with renovations to the emergency department, patient rooms and lobby.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a hot topic across medical fields, from handling information technology to its impact in imaging. In an interview with Forbes, Nuance Communications executive vice president and general manager Satish Maripuir discussed its potential to affect various areas in healthcare.