With profit margins on core services shrinking, nonprofit hospitals will rely more heavily on income from outpatient specialty drugs, but that strategy poses risks, according to a new report from Moody's Investors Service.

Cincinnati-based Bon Secours Mercy Health plans to acquire a majority stake in Charleston, S.C.-based Roper St. Francis Healthcare, a joint venture formed by three systems 21 years ago.

Lorraine Lutton, president and CEO of Charleston, S.C.-based Roper St. Francis Healthcare, plans to step down for a new role at Cincinnati-based Bon Secours Mercy Health, according to The Post and Courier.

Alkermes, an Irish drugmaker with operations in the U.S.,is cutting 160 jobs to lower expenses after losing $54 million last quarter, according to Boston Business Journal.

Mike Nagowski, CEO of Cape Fear Valley Health System, is on temporary medical leave, according to The Fayetteville Observer.

The FDA issued a draft guidance Oct. 23, that would require breast implant manufacturers to include cancer warnings on their product packaging.

About 4,000 mental health clinicians of Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente are prepared to hold a five-day strike in November at more than 100 clinics and medical facilities statewide, the union that represents them announced.

Biogen CEO Michel Vounatsos told CNBC he remains "confident" the company's Alzheimer's drug will receive FDA approval.

Some Massachusetts hospital leaders are expressing concerns about proposed healthcare legislation that would address surprise medical bills, limit when hospitals can charge a facility fee at a hospital outpatient department and require hospitals and insurers to increase spending on behavioral health and primary care, according to The Boston Globe.

U.S. senators have introduced legislation they say would "fix a glitch" in the Medicare formula used to reimburse rural providers in ACOs.

Ambulance services across the U.S. are shutting down as rural response teams made up almost entirely of volunteers are unable to sustain services, putting about 60 million Americans at risk of losing access to care in a medical emergency, according to NBC News.

Donate Life America and the Fresenius Medical Care Foundation have partnered to launch a universal living donor kidney registry and an at-home living donor testing kit to reduce wait times for those on the national kidney transplant list, the organizations announced in an Oct. 22 news release. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released an update Oct. 18 of its 1998 guidelines for infection control and prevention in healthcare settings, with new recommendations about the Americans with Disabilities Act and emergency response personnel. 

Aveanna Healthcare, a home healthcare company owned by two large private-equity firms, has been cited for numerous safety violations, with at least seven children dying in its care over the past year in states where the company largely conducts business, Bloomberg News reports. 

A Pennsylvania woman with measles has been quarantined by court order, with the local health bureau expected to provide her with necessities, according to NBC Philadelphia.

EHR satisfaction among physicians casts a wide range across specialties, with hospital medicine specialists reporting highest experience scores, according to a recent KLAS Research report. 

Saeed Hassanpour, PhD, a computer scientist at Lebanon, N.H.-based Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center, will use a $1.5 million grant to develop machine learning approaches that use data from medical records to predict lung cancer patients' responses to targeted therapies.

Leidos Health, an EHR consulting company, will rebrand as part of health IT recruitment and management firm Ettain Group's practice.

Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis researchers developed algorithms that can pull data on cancer patients' symptoms taken in EHRs to help clinicians manage and treat symptoms that negatively affect patients' health and quality of life.

Medical technology company Ivenix will begin using software to support data sharing between its infusion pump and Meditech EHRs.