Hospitals across the country are starting to reckon with the effects President Trump's tariffs are having on medical supplies like syringes and PPE, and in some cases freezing spending and making other contingencies.
Sutter Health agreed this week to pay $228.5 million to settle a lawsuit accusing the Sacramento-based hospital system of anticompetitive practices. The case, originally filed in 2012, accused Sutter of attempting to amass monopoly power in northern California through all-or-nothing contracts, requiring insurers to include all of its hospitals and physician groups in health plans.
There are 55 nonprofit hospitals in Massachusetts. Those hospitals receive tax benefits totaling more than $1.9 billion a year. In exchange for the tax breaks, the hospitals are required to provide financial assistance to patients who need it and give free care to the poor. But, some patients said they are in debt because they didn't get the help they were entitled to.
Federal officials are circulating a draft budget proposal that would make dramatic additional cuts to federal health programs and serve as a roadmap for more mass firings. Though it's preliminary, the document gives an indication of the Trump administration’s priorities as it prepares its 2026 fiscal year budget proposal to Congress. The document indicates plans to deepen job and funding reductions across much of the federal government.
States facing budgetary pressures have few good options to keep millions of people from losing health coverage if Congress lets federal funding for Obamacare expire at the end of the year. That isn't stopping health officials from trying. California, Colorado, Maryland, Washington and others are all scrambling to avoid a fiscal cliff that could sharply increase healthcare costs for their residents.
The deal to save the Crozer Health system in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, is on the brink of collapse. An attorney for Prospect Medical Holdings, which owns Taylor Hospital and Crozer-Chester Medical Center, told the judge on Tuesday an additional $9 million is needed by 4 p.m. Wednesday to keep the hospitals open, or Prospect attorneys said they'll pursue a closure motion with the court for an orderly closure. At this point, if that money does not come through, a Prospect attorney told the judge the hospitals would go on diversion starting Thursday morning.