The healthcare industry took the lead as the largest employer in the United States in 2018, with high rates of job growth continuing through the end of the year, according to recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Health insurers have been inflating cost estimates for providing prescription-drug benefits to more than 40 million Medicare beneficiaries, allowing them to cash in $9.1 billion in extra payments from 2006 to 2015, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

A federal judge has intervened in the planned payment cuts to the 340B drug pricing program that enables outpatient facilities to purchase certain drugs at a lower cost.

Several Democratic states have filed notice to appeal the recent court ruling that declared the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, The Hill reported.

The Affordable Care Act will remain in place after a judge declared the healthcare rule was unconstitutional in late December. The judge, U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor, has since stated the ACA will remain in effect while the case goes through an appeals process.

CMS has finalized changes to the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) that “dramatically redesigns and sets a new direction” for Medicare accountable care organizations (ACOs). The final rule, as outlined in the proposed rule announced in August, will force ACOs to take on more risk at a quicker pace.

After a delay, Cigna has closed its $67 billion acquisition of Express Scripts, the company confirmed on Dec. 20.

The shift to value-based care made significant headway in 2017, according to a new survey from the Health Care Transformation Task Force that found nearly half of their business was in value-based payment arrangements by the end of the year.