Smoking costs the U.S. more than $300 billion a year when taking into account elements like medical care and lost productivity, according to a Jan. 12 analysis by WalletHub.

In a recent article, hospital leaders said that CMS' price transparency rules puts them at a competitive disadvantage — a justification several readers argued is not persuasive in a Jan. 11 Wall Street Journal opinion piece. 

Collaborative Health Systems, one of the largest multistate accountable care organization operators, named Brian Steele, MD, as its first CMO. 

The United Church of Christ has eliminated $3.9 million in medical debt for 2,900 families in Arkansas and Tennessee, the Tennessean reported Jan. 11.

Bloomington-based Indiana University Health's five-year price freeze isn't enough to get its prices to national averages, Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economics Research, wrote Jan. 9 in the Star Press.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Jan. 8 announced a proposal for a $2.7 billion COVID-19 emergency response package, which includes an investment in testing, vaccinations and front-line worker support.

COVID-19 hospitalizations of unvaccinated adults cost $13.8 billion from June to November 2021, according to a recent analysis by Kaiser Family Foundation.

Below are 10 hospitals and health systems that recently posted job listings seeking CFOs.

CMS approved a new payment code for the administration of remdesivir, an antiviral drug authorized to treat COVID-19, in an outpatient setting.

Revenue cycle management company R1 RCM plans to acquire Cloudmed in an all-stock deal worth about $4.1 billion, including debt, the organizations said Jan. 10. 

Galesburg (Ill.) Cottage Hospital closed Jan. 8 and its workers were told via email that their employment was terminated, according to The Register-Mail.

Hospitals across the U.S. are seeing labor costs rise and are increasingly bringing in contracted workers to keep their facilities staffed. 

Seven hospitals in seven states closed in 2021. That was a significant decline from a year earlier when more than 20 hospitals across 14 states shut down. 

Although the U.S. nonprofit hospital sector remains stable, these facilities will face operating headwinds as "significant ongoing" expense and revenue pressures will likely continue throughout 2022, according to a new report from S&P Global Ratings. 

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration announced that it will follow Florida's law that prohibits private employers from enforcing COVID-19 vaccination mandates, except if broad exemptions are allowed.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced a plan Jan. 5 to give $111 million in funding to public hospitals and a $27 million loan to safety-net hospitals as they struggle with the COVID-19 omicron variant surge, the New York Daily News reported.

For years, healthcare organizations have underinvested in digital technology and the supply chain and are now paying for it as they struggle to meet customer demand, according to two executives at KPMG, based in the Netherlands.

Medicare and Medicare Advantage coverage policies resulted in more than 5.6 million claim denials between 2014 and 2019, according to a new study published in the January issue of Health Affairs.

Low-income parents (those at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level) are three times as likely to forgo some sort of medical care over parents at 400 percent of the federal poverty level, according to a Jan. 5 Urban Institute study. 

HHS has certified eight organizations to serve as independent dispute resolution entities in federal billing disputes between providers and payers.