President Trump sent letters Thursday to 17 of the world's largest drug companies, telling them to take more steps to slash the prices of prescription drugs to match the lowest price in certain foreign countries. The letters represent an escalation of the administration's push for lower drug prices by launching a 'most favored nation' model, which ties the prices of prescription medicines in the U.S. to the lowest found among comparably wealthy nations.
Fitch Ratings has revised UnitedHealth Group's outlook to negative from stable while affirming the insurer financial strength ratings of its subsidiaries at 'AA-'. The rating agency maintained UnitedHealth's long-term issuer default rating and senior unsecured notes at 'A', along with United HealthCare Services, Inc.'s issuer default rating at 'A'. The outlook change follows UnitedHealth's second quarter earnings call on Tuesday, where the company provided guidance indicating significantly reduced operating performance for the remainder of 2025. This performance decline suggests the company will meet its financial leverage downgrade sensitivities for the year, with only a partial recovery expected in 2026.
Nursing homes will see a 3.2% increase in their Medicare Part A payments next fiscal year, CMS announced late Thursday. That's a jump from a pay rule proposed in April, in which CMS proposed a 2.8% increase for fiscal 2026. The final rate amounts to an increase in SNF PPS payments of $1.16 billion over fiscal 2025, CMS said. It is based on final SNF market basket of 3.3%, plus a 0.6% market basket forecast error adjustment, and a negative 0.7% productivity adjustment.
CMS on Thursday issued a final rule that would increase Medicare inpatient prospective payment system rates by a net 2.6% in fiscal year 2026, compared with FY 2025, for hospitals that are meaningful users of EHRs and that submit quality measure data. This 2.6% payment update reflects a hospital market basket increase of 3.3% as well as a productivity cut of 0.7%. This update also reflects CMS' proposal to rebase and revise the market basket to a 2023 base year. In addition, the rule includes a $2 billion increase in DSH payments and a $192 million increase in new medical tech payments. Overall, it would increase hospital payments by $5 billion in FY 2026 as compared to FY 2025.
While competitors continue to struggle with spiraling healthcare costs, Aetna and CVS are celebrating an 8.4% increase in second-quarter revenues. The insurer is achieving this through nimble management and making tough decisions, said David Joyner, president and CEO of CVS Health. In a conference call with Wall Street analysts, Joyner explained how CVS is transforming Aetna via technology. 'We enhanced our operations using technology to automate and streamline processes that improve service and reduce friction for our members and healthcare professionals,' he said. 'We're starting to see the results of these efforts delivering better experiences while also allowing us to better navigate this elevated utilization environment.'
The financial cost of care for retirees has gotten higher than ever, with new research from Fidelity Investments indicating Americans are ill-prepared to cope with the financial toll of medication, medical care, and health insurance in retirement. According to Fidelity's 24th annual Retiree Health Care Cost Estimate, a 65-year-old retiring this year will need an average of $172,500 to cover healthcare and medical expenses throughout retirement. The figure marks a more than 4% increase from last year's estimate and continues a steady rise since the company's first projection of $80,000 in 2002.