Eight months after a signing a definitive agreement to merge, Edison, New Jersey-based systems Hackensack Meridian Health and JFK Health have finalized their combination into the largest health system in New Jersey.

HHS has now posted more than 12,000 public comments on its request for information (RFI) to loosen the standards for exemptions to regulations for religious and faith-based groups after initially only posting 80 which most back the administration’s efforts.

An extra year of experience for a physician can make an impact on patient mortality in a hospital, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine that found 30-day and hospital mortality rates were higher for hospitalists in the first year of practice than their second.

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) began 2018 with several new leaders, including president and board chair Diann Smith, MS, taking office along with a new speaker and three new board members.

One of the major shareholders in home health and hospice operator Kindred Healthcare has come out in opposition to its proposed sale to health insurer Humana and two private equity firms, arguing the proposed deal undervalues Kindred and there should be “no urgency to sell the company.”

For the first time, CMS has approved a 10-year extension of a Medicaid Section 1115 demonstration waiver allowing the state to provide family planning services to residents with incomes up to 194 percent of the federal poverty level.

While some of you, like us here at HealthExec, may have been enjoying a holiday break, healthcare news didn’t get a vacation. Here are five of the biggest stories you may have missed since clocking out just before Christmas.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers paid $1.3 billion less to Medicaid by receiving rebates on misclassified generic drugs, according to a report from the HHS’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG).