Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, a New Hampshire-based health system that serves 1.9 million people across New England, and GraniteOne Health, a network of New Hampshire hospitals, have signed a letter of intent to merge.

Mandating pharmaceutical companies to disclose drug prices as part of Direct-to-Consumer Pharmaceutical Advertising (DTCPA) may reduce consumer interest in high-priced drugs. But the inclusion of modifiers indicating consumers will have zero out-of-pocket costs weakened the finding, according to the results of a behavioral experiment published in JAMA Internal Medicine. 

Five major pharmaceutical companies could each lose $500 million or more in revenue per year if a proposal from the Trump administration to reimburse Medicare Part B drugs based on an international pricing index (IPI) is finalized.

Hospitals are now conducting wealth screenings with software that culls public data to see which patients are most likely to donate to the healthcare organization, The New York Times reported. The practice is increasingly common across hospitals, particularly large systems.

Deal volumes broke records in 2018 across the health services sector, and deal activity is likely to remain high in 2019 thanks to a number of positive market factors, according to PwC’s latest health services deals insights.

Media spotlighting of extraordinarily high hospital bills can pay off for patients on the hook for thousands of dollars after a hospital visit. Such is the case for one San Francisco resident who was stuck with a bill for more than $20,000—after her insurance paid its part—following a bicycle accident.

In an effort to curb “unexpected and outrageous bills,” President Trump invited patients and others to the White House to discuss their experiences with such pricing, Kaiser Health News reported. The discussion is part of Trump’s overall goal to impact drug prices and transparency in healthcare.

Walgreens Boots Alliance has settled two fraud cases with the Department of Justice, shelling out $269.2 million. In both cases, which arose from whistleblowers, Walgreens admitted and accepted responsibility for conduct alleged by the government in its complaint under the False Claims Act.