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July 25, 2024

MICHAEL MCAULIFF   

Envision Healthcare, a top private equity-backed emergency physician staffing company, is exiting California and avoiding a lawsuit that threatened the legality of its business model in the state.

The Nashville, Tennessee-based company had been battling the American Academy of Emergency Medicine, which sued in 2021 after Envision Healthcare won a contract that the American Academy of Emergency Medicine Physician Group previously held at Placentia-Linda Hospital in Placentia, part of the Orange-based University of California, Irvine Health system.

July 22, 2024

BROCK E.W. TURNER   
HAYLEY DESILVA   
GABRIEL PERNA 

Health systems and hospitals expect many applications, computers and other systems to be back online early this week after Friday’s global CrowdStrike outage.

On Sunday, large systems including Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Health, Cleveland Clinic and Renton, Washington-based Providence said their systems were fully functional, or they expected them to be by Monday.

July 17, 2024

ALEX KACIK  

Health systems are rethinking their use of noncompete agreements despite a Texas court ruling that may doom the Federal Trade Commission’s ban on those employment contract provisions.

Companies are girding for more litigation, regulation and legislation seeking to limit noncompetes, even if the FTC’s effort to eliminate those agreements falls short, attorneys said. Many healthcare employers are turning to nondisclosure and nonsolicitation provisions in place of noncompete clauses that restrict employees from working for a rival organization. If employers are still using noncompetes, physicians and other healthcare workers are increasingly pushing back, employment lawyers said.

June 27, 2024

BROCK E.W. TURNER   

The federal government is warning providers and public health entities about certain types of cyber attacks and advising them not pay ransoms.

An advisory issued this week by the Health and Human Services Department and the FBI said criminals are using social engineering campaigns to target healthcare, public health entities and providers. Phishing schemes are being used to steal login credentials that give bad actors access to payment information.

June 13, 2024

NONA TEPPER 

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has recalculated some Medicare Advantage star ratings for the 2024 plan year after two federal courts found it improperly modified how it assesses quality, the agency notified health insurance companies Thursday.

In addition to the possibility of revised scores and additional revenue for 2024, Medicare Advantage carriers whose star ratings are increased will be permitted to resubmit their bids for next year.

September 05, 2023

CAROLINE HUDSON   

Physician compensation is on the rise as provider organizations try to attract more doctors in a tight labor environment.

The industry is still responding to post-COVID-19 pandemic market dynamics, according to companies that responded to Modern Healthcare’s 2023 Physician Compensation Survey, which analyzes data from nine staffing and consulting firms. As patients return for deferred procedures, burned-out doctors are taking a step back from work and students are rethinking career options, creating supply-demand mismatches.

May 16, 2024

MICHAEL MCAULIFF   

A House subcommittee took the next steps Thursday to extend telehealth flexibilities and expanded remote patient monitoring rules due to expire at the end of the year. 

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health voted overwhelmingly to send to the full committee the Telehealth Enhancement for Mental Health Act of 2024, the Telehealth Modernization Act of 2024 and the Expanding Remote Monitoring Access Act of 2024.

April 29, 2024

NONA TEPPER  

A rural health system sued technology company MultiPlan and eight of the country’s largest insurance companies over alleged schemes to strongarm providers into accepting low out-of-network rates. 

At issue in the proposed class-action suit are MultiPlan’s repricing tools, which allegedly rely on insurers’ data to deflate their out-of-network reimbursement payments.

MultiPlan acts as an intermediary between insurers and providers to help negotiate pay when a contract does not exist and protect patients from being “balance billed,” or charged the difference between the hospital rate and insurer’s allowed amount.

April 24, 2024

Leah Nylen, Bloomberg

Business groups led by the US Chamber of Commerce sued the Federal Trade Commission Wednesday seeking to block a rule finalized this week that would outlaw non-compete provisions that prohibit workers from switching jobs within an industry.

In a complaint filed in Texas federal court, the nation’s largest business lobby argued that the antitrust and consumer protection agency lacks the authority to issue rules that define unfair methods of competition. The FTC Act, which established the agency, allows it to bring cases challenging particular practices, the group said, but not to write rules. The Chamber was joined by Business Roundtable and several Texas business groups in challenging the rule.

April 17, 2024

Lauren Coleman-Lochner, Bloomberg

Private equity-owned businesses accounted for a high number of bankruptcies in the healthcare sector last year, and another wave of distress looms, according to a new report from an advocacy group that monitors the sector.

PE-backed firms accounted for at least 17, or about a fifth, of the 80 bankruptcies of healthcare companies last year, the Private Equity Stakeholder Project said in a report due to be released Wednesday. It called 2023 a “record year” for large health-care bankruptcies. Also, venture-capital backed companies made up another 12, or 15%, of the filings, it said in a study that looked at companies with liabilities of more than $10 million.