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HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has removed the two vice-chairs of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an expert panel that provides clinical preventive health recommendations to Congress, an HHS official confirmed to Becker’s May 21. John Wong, MD, and Esa Davis, MD, led the task force. The group…

Jacksonville-based Mayo Clinic in Florida has received a $75 million gift to support its expansion initiative. Four things to know: 1. The donation from Paula and Randy Ringhaver will support the Lee Ringhaver Tower, a newly expanded hospital tower named in honor of the couple’s son, Randal “Lee” Ringhaver Jr.,…

John Dubis, who spent more than 36 years in healthcare leadership, including as president and CEO of Edgewood, Ky.-based St. Elizabeth Healthcare, died May 14. He was 71. During his tenure at the six-hospital system, Mr. Dubis was known for his integrity, compassion and vision, guiding the organization through continued…

The Civica Foundation has received a $3.2 million grant to launch a program aimed at expanding access to generic medications for rural hospitals in nine states. The Civica Rural Hospital Program will support rural and critical access hospitals in Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota and…

Mona Baset, vice president of digital engagement at Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Health, is stepping down from her role. Ms. Baset announced her departure in a May 20 LinkedIn post. She has served in the role since April 2022. Ms. Baset said she will take a career break. The post…

Cleveland-based MetroHealth System plans to deploy smart technology at 500 patient rooms across five hospitals. The public, safety-net health system intends to bring Artisight’s virtual nursing, virtual sitting and AI-powered fall monitoring and voice-command capabilities to its new Glick Center in Cleveland, hospitals in Brecksville, Cleveland Heights and Parma, and…

The National Council of State Boards of Nursing found the District of Columbia has the most licensed nurses per capita, while Utah is the state with the fewest for the second year in a row. The organization created a course of nursing licensure statistics in the U.S. and its territories.…

CMS’ latest proposal to cap certain state Medicaid payments has drawn immediate pushback from hospital groups, which argue the plan will further decrease access to care and destabilize hospitals that rely on supplemental Medicaid funding. The agency proposed a rule May 20 that would create new limits for Medicaid state-directed…

At its heart, improving the patient experience is all about communication. Feedback from patients consistently and overwhelmingly points us to this focus. More than anything, patients and families want compassionate and clear communication with every person they interact with. They also want coordinated communication from the team so that they…

Fifty-nine percent of healthcare executives said in a recent survey that physician specialists are the most difficult clinical job to fill, but the specialty that is most difficult for systems varies by state. Hospitals and health systems are grappling with a national physician shortage. Across all physician specialties in the…

Carl Cameron was promoted to executive vice president and COO of Holyoke, Mass.-based Holyoke Medical Center and Valley Health Systems, according to a May 20 news release shared with Becker’s. Mr. Cameron joined Holyoke Medical Center in 2001 and has held roles including COO, vice president of operations, CIO and…

In 2026, the U.S. prescription drug market is predicted to exceed $1 trillion for the first time, and GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic, Zepbound and Wegovy are the primary drivers of this growth.   GLP-1s accounted for 14% of U.S. drug spending last year, with these drugs costing $131.9 billion of…

Cardiovascular service lines are growing fast—and so are the data streams they are expected to manage. The remote monitoring landscape—once confined to pacemakers and ICDs—has diversified to include Holter monitors, MCTs, loop recorders, and FDA-approved wearables. Yet, this proliferation of third-party vendors introduces a critical challenge: each new input demands…

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin has vetoed two bills that would have created a prescription drug pricing system in the state, arguing similar models in other states have failed to lower drug costs. The legislation, House Bill 483 and Senate Bill 271, would have established a prescription drug affordability board in…

States are advancing legislation to restrict how pharmacy benefit managers operate. In doing so, they are targeting practices such as steering patients to PBM-owned pharmacies, spread pricing, and opaque rebate arrangements that critics say inflate drug costs while squeezing independent pharmacies. The push spans every region, and it is happening…

CMS on May 20 proposed a rule that would cap certain state Medicaid payments and align them more closely with Medicare rates.  The proposed rule would create new limits for Medicaid state-directed payments and certain fee-for-service payments to reduce Medicaid spending by more than $775 billion over 10 years, including…

Clinicians across the U.S. are increasingly seeking union representation, arguing that organizing can help address staffing shortages, burnout and retention challenges that they say ultimately affect patient care. At least 10 groups at hospitals and health systems nationwide have announced plans to unionize or voted to join unions so far…

Providence will shutter most of its insurance business beginning in 2027, ending more than 40 years as a regional payer with 440,000 members. “We are doing this because changes in the healthcare environment, including state and federal regulation, have made it increasingly difficult for regional, not-for-profit health plans like PHP…

U.S. News & World Report said May 20 that it has made significant refinements to its Best Hospitals methodology to reflect changes in care delivery, data availability and measurement science. Six things to know, per U.S. News: 1. Risk-adjusted outcome measures will carry more weight in determining adult specialty rankings…

Fifty-two healthcare companies landed on Forbes’ ninth annual list of America’s Best Employers for New Grads. The ranking, published May 19, was created in partnership with market research firm Statista. It is based on survey responses from more than 100,000 professionals with less than a decade of work experience who…

Most of the top-paying states for nurses, adjusted for cost of living, are in the Midwest or the West, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Becker’s used the latest BLS data, released May 15 and up to date as of May 2025, to determine the hourly pay rate by…

Twenty-three healthcare employers were featured on LinkedIn News’ city-specific top companies lists. The lists use LinkedIn data to analyze key markers of career progression, including ability to advance, skills growth, company stability, external opportunity, company affinity, gender diversity, educational background and employee presence in the city, according to the May…

Celina, Texas, was the fastest-growing U.S. city in the year ending July 1, 2025, with its population increasing 24.6%, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Dallas-based Methodist Health System met that growth with the spring 2025 opening of the 51-bed Methodist Celina Medical Center — the city’s first hospital and…

Flint, Mich., is the most affordable U.S. city to buy a home, according to a recent ranking from personal finance website WalletHub. Median home sales prices jumped from $313,000 in the first quarter of 2019 to $403,200 in the first quarter of 2026, according to a May 19 WalletHub ranking. …