For-profit hospital giant HCA has entered into discussions to acquire Mission Health, a nonprofit six-hospital system based out of Asheville, North Carolina, in a deal Mission admitted may result in some jobs being eliminated.

CMS Administrator Seema Verma, MPH, offered some hints at the agency’s priorities in its annual rulemaking for Medicare this year, suggesting a slew of new policies on price transparency, interoperability and physician self-referral laws.

In a proposed rule, CMS would loosen requirements for states with Medicaid managed care programs on analyzing and monitoring access to care, a move the agency said would provide additional relief on “burdensome” regulations finalized by the prior administration.

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.

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.

The proposed $67 billion acquisition of pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) Express Scripts by insurer Cigna isn’t just about acquiring a PBM, according to Cigna CEO David Cordiani, as he defended the deal from the lukewarm response from Wall Street on CNBC’s “Mad Money.”

A study from the Rhode Island Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner said the state’s residents would see increases in insurance premiums if Boston-based Partners Healthcare acquires Care New England, thanks to Partners likely using its regional market clout to gain better prices from insurers.