In his first congressional testimony since being confirmed as HHS Secretary, Alex Azar argued the department’s proposed budget would extend the life of Medicare while making HHS more efficient by cutting nearly $18 billion in funding.

Between 1996 and 2015, the number of emergency department (ED) visits per individual paid for by Medicare increased at a greater rate than those paid for by private insurance or Medicaid. The annual increases in per-visit expenditures, however, were greater for private insurance than either of the federal programs.

The budget proposed by President Donald Trump involves several major cuts to Medicare payments for hospitals, reductions that are “unsustainable” and “staggering,” according to the Federation of American Hospitals (FAH) and the American Hospital Association (AHA).

An era of low inflation in healthcare prices may be winding down, judging by the results of Altarum’s latest health sector economic indicator reports, which said hospital prices grew by 2.2 percent in December 2017, the fastest growth rate in four years.

The fiscal year 2019 budget proposal from President Donald Trump’s administration would cut nearly $18 billion in funding to HHS, while relying on repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and turning Medicaid into a state-administered block grant program to reduce healthcare spending by the federal government by $675 billion by 2028.

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) received a $500 million commitment from the Helen Diller Foundation to help plan and build a new hospital, according to a Feb. 8 release from the university.

President Donald Trump is expected to release a budget proposal Monday, Feb. 12. This move is more of a wish list from the chief executive, because Congress controls federal spending, but the budget can convey priorities and policy ideas.

CVS Health president and CEO Larry Merlo downplayed the threat to its pending $69 billion acquisition of Aetna from the recently announced healthcare partnership between Amazon, JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway, saying “what that group aspires to is what we're going to deliver.”