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Telehealth is about five times less expensive than in-office care for common conditions that can be treated by both types of visits, according to a new study from Philadelphia-based Penn Medicine. The researchers analyzed over 160,000 visits — both virtual and in-person — billed to insurers across four months in 2024, focusing…

Willingness among older adults to drive more than an hour for medical care varies by social demographics, according to a study published Feb. 23 in JAMA Network Open.  Researchers from Los Angeles-based University of Southern California surveyed 2,650 adults ages 65 and older through a nationwide internet-based survey called the…

Workflow optimization is the fastest-growing skill in healthcare, according to a Feb. 24 LinkedIn News post. LinkedIn News analyzed year-over-year growth in skills based on skill acquisition — the growth of a given skill being added to LinkedIn user profiles — and hiring success — the growth of a given…

Among U.S. cities, the hardest-working Americans live in Cheyenne, Wyo., according to an analysis by personal finance website WalletHub.  To determine the hardest-working cities, WalletHub compared 116 of the most populated cities across two dimensions, direct and indirect work factors. Analysts evaluated those dimensions using 11 metrics, ranging from average…

Enhabit, a home health and hospice provider with 249 home health locations and 117 hospice locations across 34 states, has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by private equity firm Kinderhook Industries in an all-cash transaction valued at about $1.1 billion. Five things to know: 1. Under the…

California has the most top-rated home health programs, according to U.S. News and World Report’s inaugural ranking. Three states and Washington, D.C., do not have any. U.S. News evaluated more than 12,000 Medicare-certified home health agencies across the country using CMS data. Home health programs were rated based on quality…

If Mark Cuban bought a hospital, he says he would run it like a startup: eliminate unnecessary overhead, prioritize radical transparency, pay physicians well and use AI to root out inefficiencies. Speaking on “The Healthcare Bridge” podcast with Nathan Kaufman, managing director and founder of Kaufman Strategic Advisors, Mr. Cuban…

When Michael Kupferman, MD, became CEO of Hershey, Pa.-based Penn State Health in late June 2025, he brought a special background that not all health system executives have: decades of work as a physician.  Dr. Kupferman began practicing medicine in 1999, and is a trained head and neck surgeon. In…

As funds begin flowing to states through the five-year, $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program, hospital leaders are confronting a central question: Will the initiative meaningfully stabilize struggling providers — or will it fall short of offsetting an estimated $137 billion in Medicaid cuts to rural communities over the next…

Healthcare wage growth weakened in the six months leading up to December across most categories analyzed, according to a Feb. 20 research brief from Indeed’s Hiring Lab. Here are six things to know from the fourth-quarter healthcare labor market update: 1. Wage growth in most healthcare categories — including personal…

Medical experts believe measles-related hospitalizations in South Carolina are significantly higher than reported, since the state does not require hospitals to report admissions for the virus, ProPublica reported Feb. 20.  South Carolina is experiencing the nation’s largest measles outbreak since the virus was declared eliminated in 2000. More than 970…

Health systems are responding to fragmented behavioral healthcare delivery in different ways: expanding telepsychiatry in rural states, building pediatric health hubs that integrate mental and physical health on one campus, launching behavioral health urgent cares, and investing in navigators and data infrastructure to keep patients connected after discharge. In West…

The largest nurses strike in New York City has ended after 41 days, with the final group of striking nurses voting to ratify a contract with NewYork-Presbyterian. The final group of nurses voted Feb. 21 to ratify a new three-year contract and began returning to work Feb. 23, according to…

Challenges such as emerging technology, government regulations, workforce shortages and increasing labor costs have driven a number of health system strategic leaders to pivot their approach for 2026. Faced with these challenges, leaders are creating new ways to empower frontline staff and upgrade patient care while trying to increase system…

The hardest work ahead for CFOs isn’t finding opportunities for growth. It’s narrowing them. In a recent conversation with “Becker’s Healthcare Podcast,” Sophia Holder, executive vice president and CFO of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, described the next phase of leadership as one defined by discipline and discomfort. “Our hardest work…

Medicare Advantage now covers about 55% of eligible beneficiaries nationwide — more than 35 million people — but health systems are confronting a question that until recently felt almost taboo: What happens when participation in the country’s fastest-growing Medicare program no longer makes financial sense? Over the past three years,…

After exiting the World Health Organization in January, the Trump administration is proposing to spend $2 billion annually on a U.S.-run replacement, The Washington Post reported Feb. 19. The effort would replicate systems provided by the WHO, including laboratories, rapid-response systems and data-sharing networks, three administration officials briefed on the…

The American Hospital Association is suggesting that hospitals and health systems consider deploying “zero trust” architecture to improve their cybersecurity. The National Security Agency recently released implementation guidelines for zero trust, a strategy that assumes no users or devices are safe and they must always be verified, according to a…

Jason Caron, MD, has stepped into his role as president and CEO of Sanford Health in Bemidji (Minn.). “After more than 20 years in this hospital, one thing remains clear: rural health care works best when the community and the hospital support each other,” he wrote in a Feb. 13…

New York City-based NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi | North Central Bronx unveiled a new $2 million MRI suite at its North Central Bronx campus. The upgrade includes renovated rooms and new MRI machines, which the system said offer faster scan times and clearer, more distinct images to improve diagnostic capabilities…

Walgreens is laying off hundreds of employees in two states as its new private equity owner looks to cut costs, Bloomberg reported Feb. 19. The company is eliminating 469 jobs in Illinois, where it is based, and plans to cut another 159 positions in Texas, where it is closing a…

The Lown Institute Hospitals Index named the top 10 hospitals for cost efficiency. The institute used clinical outcomes and cost Medicare fee-for-service claims for patients hospitalized from 2020 to 2022. The cost efficiency metric includes sub-metrics for 30- and 90-day cost efficiency, and measures risk-standardized hospital mortality rates against cost…

NYC Health + Hospitals has appointed Svetlana Lipyanskaya as the next CEO of Maimonides Health, pending formal approval of the partnership between the two New York City-based health systems. Ms. Lipyanskaya has served as CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/South Brooklyn Health since 2020 and is part of the leadership…

Members of the California Nurses Association have called off their one-day strike planned for Feb. 19 after reaching a tentative labor contract with AHMC Seton Medical Center in Daly City, Calif. The union — which represents about 300 nurses at the hospital, according to a Feb. 18 CNA news release…