When it comes to dealmaking, the health-care industry defied belief in 2015 with $605 billion of takeovers. While 2016 may be a good year, it's unlikely to beat that record. "We entered 2015 with what I would characterize as almost a perfect M&A environment: a generally stable economy, lack of volatility in the equity markets, low interest rates, tons of cash on companies' balance sheets," said Jeff Stute, head of health-care investment banking at JPMorgan Chase & Co. His firm is hosting its annual conference next week in San Francisco, where health-care executives flock to hold court with top investors.
The House voted Wednesday to repeal key provisions of Obamacare and strip federal funding from Planned Parenthood, sending the bill to the White House and kicking off the 2016 election season with a symbolic action intended to highlight ideological differences between Republicans and Democrats. The House voted 240-181 to approve the legislation, which is sure to be vetoed by President Obama. The Senate passed the legislation last month, but neither chamber has enough votes to override a veto. It takes two-thirds of the House and Senate to override a veto, and Democrats have enough votes to block the legislation.
Libraries, universities and even zoos have national accreditation standards they must meet. But public health departments -- the very agencies that oversee disease outbreaks and the sanitation of restaurants and drinking water -- don't. There is, however, a movement to change that. A national accreditation board for state and local public health departments was officially formed in 2011, but the process is currently voluntary. Since then, 96 agencies across the country (out of 2,615) have received accreditation, with an additional 253 in the process. If all 253 attain accreditation, that still only makes 13 percent.
A Kansas hospital group has gathered state lawmakers, health care officials and business leaders in an effort to widen support for Medicaid expansion before the start of the 2016 legislative session. The Wichita Eagle reports that presentations at the Tuesday forum hosted by the Kansas Hospital Association had highlighted possible savings such an expansion to the KanCare Medicaid program might generate. According to a student from Manatt Health solutions, the savings could equal $218 million in 2017. Former state Senate president Dave Kerr said even with a 50 percent margin of error, the state general fund still profits.
Under pressure to control skyrocketing health care costs, the University of Maryland Medical System and St. Agnes Healthcare have joined forces to share doctors and other resources, executives from both institutions announced Wednesday. The partnership comes amid a wave of similar arrangements and consolidation among hospitals that are experiencing financial pressures stemming from efforts to revolutionize health care. University of Maryland and St. Agnes administrators had discussed partnering for several years. The two hospitals see many of the same West Baltimore patients who use their services frequently. They can now collaborate on improving patient care and combining services to decrease costs and save money, officials said.
Officials with Indiana University Health Arnett in Lafayette say a USB flash drive containing information from more than 29,000 patients has gone missing. The hospital says the unencrypted drive disappeared Nov. 20 from its emergency department. Norma Gilbert, the hospital's director of quality and clinical excellence, said the hospital system hadn't received any patient reports of fraudulent activity as of Tuesday. The drive had spreadsheets with information of emergency department patients dating to November 2014, including patient names, birth dates, diagnoses and medical record numbers. Gilbert said the spreadsheets did not contain Social Security numbers, credit card or other financial information.