Healthcare finance news for hospital and health system leaders

More than 300 rural hospitals are at risk of closure, conversion or service reductions due to Medicaid cuts in HR 1, which are estimated to reduce federal Medicaid spending in rural areas by nearly $140 billion, according to a recent…

The most dangerous AI coding error isn’t an obviously wrong answer. It’s a convincing one. A system reads a medical record, recommends a code, assigns it high confidence, and moves on. Everything looks right. Until someone discovers a missing modifier,…

South Bend, Ind.-based Beacon Health System is laying off several social workers as it moves behavioral health crisis screening in its Beacon Kalamazoo (Mich.) emergency department to telehealth, CBS affiliate WWMT reported Oct. 22. “As Beacon Health System continues evaluating…

The share of working-age Americans without health insurance has risen to 11.2% this year, according to the Commonwealth Fund’s Biennial Health Insurance Survey published Oct. 22. The survey is based on interviews with more than 9,300 adults conducted from May…

Covered employees on average contributed $7,471 toward their family coverage in 2026, 9% more than they did in 2025.  KFF published its annual benchmark health benefits survey of employers on Oct. 22. Davis Research carried out fieldwork between January and…

Hospitals and health systems considering consolidating revenue cycle management vendors should prioritize cash flow protection, transition costs and operational continuity rather than assuming fewer vendors will lead to savings, according to an October 2026 Black Book Research report shared with…

Roughly 43% of U.S. hospitals are operating at a loss, up from about 33% before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Kaufman Hall’s August 2026 “National Hospital Flash Report,” published Oct. 13.  The latest month of data shows the pressure is…

There are more than 400 birth centers in the U.S., and the number varies widely by state, from 92 in Texas to none in 10 states, according to Oct. 15 data the American Association of Birth Centers shared with Becker’s.…

As Elevance Health prepares to implement new site-of-care billing requirements, revenue cycle leaders are raising concerns about additional administrative burdens, potential payment delays and growing complexity across payers. “My broader concern is growing variation across payers, which adds cost and…

Elevance Health executives detailed how the company is using AI and tighter claims review to manage costs during the company’s Oct. 21 earnings call. “We are strengthening Medicaid cost management really by acting directly on the utilization and the payment…