Giles Bruce
21 health systems warn of MyChart ‘Medicare Kit’ scam
A phishing scam impersonating MyChart is targeting patients at health systems across the country, with fraudulent emails and texts dangling a “MyChart Medicare Kit” or “Senior Health Package” to trick recipients into clicking malicious links or handing over personal information. The messages, which use subject lines such as “Your MyChart…
Gen X is delaying retirement. Here’s what it means for hospital CHROs
Hospitals and health systems are bracing for a potential wave of baby boomer retirements. Meanwhile, many Generation X workers could stay in their roles longer, according to an Aug. 19 Korn Ferry article. Professionals in their mid-50s used to be eyeing “one more move and a 10-year runway,” Renee Whalen,…
Costco enters Medicare market through insurer partnership
SCAN Health Plan and Costco will roll out insurance products for older adults in the coming years, according to an Aug. 18 news release. The Wall Street Journal reported that the companies would begin by selling jointly branded Medicare Advantage products in two states, as well as a Medicare supplement…
What 14,000 Gen Zers say would make them pursue leadership
Higher pay, flexible work arrangements and a clearer path to the top would make Gen Z and millennial workers more likely to pursue leadership roles, according to Deloitte’s 2026 Gen Z and Millennial Survey. The findings are based on responses from 14,384 Gen Zers and 8,211 millennials across 44 countries,…
Childhood vaccination rates continue to decline: CDC
Vaccination coverage among the nation’s kindergartners slipped again in the 2025-26 school year while the share of children claiming exemptions climbed to a record 4.2%, new CDC data shows. Coverage for the MMR vaccine fell to 92.4%, down from 92.5% a year earlier and below the 95% threshold public health…
What drives a US News Honor Roll hospital: 4 operational themes from 6 execs
U.S. News & World Report put greater weight on patient outcomes in its 2026-27 Best Hospitals rankings, released Aug. 4. Twenty hospitals made the Honor Roll, which recognizes hospitals for performance across specialty rankings and procedures and conditions ratings. This year, maternity care was also incorporated into Honor Roll scoring.…
83% of employers say rising healthcare costs are squeezing pay raises
More than 8 in 10 employers say rising healthcare costs are cutting into wage and salary increases, according to a survey conducted by The National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions. The 2026 Pulse of the Purchaser survey, released Aug. 12, includes responses from 408 employers in May and June. Four…
6 Penn Nursing studies on what staffing headcounts miss
A year of University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing research points to a consistent finding: the staffing numbers hospitals track most closely to predict patient safety are less reliable than nurses’ own read. Here is what Penn Nursing’s recent work has found: 1. A nurse’s read on staffing can beat…
9 takeaways from 3,700+ ranked hospitals
More than 3,700 hospitals — roughly 85% of U.S. acute care and critical access hospitals — received a score from at least one of five major hospital rankings this year. Becker’s compiled and compared the 2026 results of U.S. News & World Report‘s Best Hospitals, the CMS Overall Hospital Quality…
Who leads the workforces of US News’ top 20 hospitals?
The 20 hospitals on U.S. News and World Report’s 2026-27 Best Hospitals Honor Roll collectively employ hundreds of thousands of workers across some of the most competitive healthcare labor markets in the country. The HR and administrative leaders overseeing those workforces include longtime executives and leaders who stepped into their…
4 shifts in US News’ cardiology hospital rankings
U.S. News and World Report’s 2026-2027 rankings for cardiology, heart and vascular surgery look different from last year’s list in more than just the order of names. Here are four of the biggest shifts between this year’s ranking and the 2025-2026 edition. The methodology changed from a composite score to…
States with highest, lowest mortality for 10 chronic diseases: CDC
Mississippi appears in the top five states for highest mortality across eight chronic conditions, the CDC found. The CDC calculated mortality rates from 10 chronic diseases in every state. Mortality rate is the number of deaths per 100,000 total population and is age-adjusted. The most recent data for 2024 was…
10 best states for healthcare: US News
U.S. News & World Report released its annual Best States rankings July 28, evaluating all 50 states on how they best serve their residents across eight categories: healthcare, education, economy, infrastructure, opportunity, fiscal stability, crime and corrections, and natural environment. Utah ranked No. 1 overall for the fourth consecutive year.…
8 things to know about healthcare spending trends
More data is pointing to concerns of skyrocketing healthcare costs in the upcoming years. Steeper medical utilization is one cause for concern, according to several sources. Meanwhile, HR 1 is radically reshaping Medicaid, and the expiration of ACA enhanced subsidies risk more people going uninsured. Here are eight things to…
10 states with the most hospital closures, biggest net gains
A total of 743 general acute-care hospitals have closed across the United States since 2000, according to a July 22 news release from the Health Care Affordability Lab at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., and shared with Becker’s. The closure data is tracked through June 1, 2026. Hospital beds…
10 fastest-growing large cities for jobs: LinkedIn
San Francisco is the fastest-growing large U.S. city for jobs and talent, according to a July 22 list from LinkedIn News. It was created by identifying the U.S. cities with the strongest job market momentum and net positive migration, focusing on areas with more than 2.5 million LinkedIn members. Dallas…
1 in 4 US workers stay in jobs for health insurance: Gallup
Nearly 1 in 4 U.S. workers (24%), the equivalent of about 23 million adults, are staying in jobs they want to leave to keep their employer-sponsored health insurance, according to a July 21 report from the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare in America. The share marks an 8-percentage-point rise since…
States ranked by ED physicians per capita
Emergency medicine physicians per capita vary more than fourfold across the U.S., from 51.32 per 100,000 residents in the District of Columbia to 11.55 in Alabama, according to data from KFF and the U.S. Census Bureau. Becker’s used KFF’s count of professionally active emergency medicine physicians, sourced from Redi-Data as…
States ranked by surgeons per capita
The District of Columbia has the highest concentration of general surgeons in the U.S., with 71.79 general surgeons per capita, according to a Becker’s analysis of state-level general surgeon counts from KFF and 2025 U.S. population estimates. Idaho has the lowest concentration of general surgeons per capita at 9.66. The…
10 best, worst cities for renters
Scottsdale, Ariz., is the best place in the U.S. to rent, largely because of its quality of life, according to a July 7 ranking from personal finance website WalletHub. To develop the list of the best local rental markets, WalletHub compared 182 U.S. cities, including the 150 most populated and…
States with the most, fewest physicians per capita
The District of Columbia, New York and Massachusetts have the most physicians per capita, while Mississippi, Alabama and Nevada have the fewest, according to Bureau of Labor statistics and Census data. Becker’s used the bureau’s latest data — 2025 statistics — to find the total number of physicians and used…
Nurse practitioner workforce growth to far outpace physicians, physician assistants: Study
The nurse practitioner workforce is projected to grow 11% annually through 2030, far outpacing projected growth for physician assistants and physicians, according to workforce estimates published in Health Affairs. Researchers from Columbia University, Brandeis University, George Washington University and New York University forecast physician supply will continue growing about 1%…
Nurse AI adoption outpaces hospital strategy: Survey
Nurse AI adoption is accelerating faster than hospitals are building strategies to support it, a report from Incredible Health found. Healthcare staffing company Incredible Health released its 2026 Annual State of Nursing report July 7. The findings are based on a national survey of 2,240 U.S. nurses. The report also…
23% of organizations are not prioritizing clinician burnout: Poll
Among organizations, 23% said clinician burnout is not a current focus, compared to 17% that reported its their No. 1 concern. In a LinkedIn poll, Becker’s asked, “Where does clinician burnout rank among your organization’s top operational concerns heading into the second half of 2026?” The poll received 323 votes…


