When Cigna closed its $67 billion acquisition of Express Scripts in December, less than a year after the companies agreed to combine, it marked the creation of a greater than $140 billion revenue healthcare colossus. How did the companies combine so quickly?
Despite all the good economic news, earnings growth is expected to slow to a crawl this year for large U.S. companies. It may also surprise you that the health-care sector is seen as one of the exceptions. During the first quarter of 2019, earnings per share declined from a year earlier for six of the S&P 500’s 11 sectors.
Walmart continues to scale back its payroll with another round of layoffs. This time the ax fell on the retail giant’s health and wellness division. Walmart spokeswoman Marilee McInnis told Talk Business & Politics the cutback involves roughly 3 percent of those employed in pharmacy and related positions.
A Michigan church said it raised enough money to pay off the medical debt of nearly 2,000 struggling families. Sam Rijfkogel, pastor of Grand Rapids First in Wyoming, Michigan, said the church purchased more than $1.8 million worth of medical debt for “less than a penny on the dollar” through a nonprofit group.
US healthcare spending is maddeningly high. As in: fifty percent higher than what other wealthy countries spend, with no evidence we’re getting any bang for all those additional healthcare bucks. In 2014, the state of Maryland took direct aim at this profitless profligacy, enacting a bold (dare I say European?) approach: it gave hospitals fixed budgets to cover the costs not only of inpatient hospital care, but also outpatient care and emergency room services.
Clinical diagnostic laboratory tests range from routine chemical measurements like blood glucose or sodium to complex examinations for cancer, infectious diseases, or rare inherited disorders. The information they provide is among the most important data doctors use to diagnose and treat patients. Medicare spent over $7 billion on laboratory services for beneficiaries in 2017, making it the country’s largest purchaser.