An expert Q&A on the challenges facing private equity in healthcare, with a focus on key federal antitrust issues, state regulation of PE health care arrangements, including material transaction notice requirements, and changes to the corporate practice of medicine rules.
Elevance Health closed its acquisition of Indiana University Health Plans, adding to its growing portfolio of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield operations. The company Tuesday said IU Health is "known for its local brand awareness, community involvement, high-touch customer service, and extensive product offerings." Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed. The bulk of the IU Health Plans business is in the company's Medicare Advantage plans with 19,000 seniors in 36 Indiana counties enrolled. Another 9,600 health plan members are in "fully-insured commercial plans for employers," Elevance said.
Nearly 900 people aboard cruise ships were sickened from gastrointestinal disease in December amid an escalation in both the frequency and severity of outbreaks, according to data from the CDC. In 2024 there were 16 outbreaks on cruise ships, from norovirus, salmonella, e. coli or other unidentified pathogens that cause gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea or vomiting. That's the largest number of cruise ship outbreaks in 12 years. Five of those outbreaks occurred in December. The most recent incident involved the British ocean liner Queen Mary 2, where nearly 13% of passengers and over 5% of crew aboard were infected. This is happening amid a nationwide surge of norovirus, a fast-moving virus often transmitted through fresh food or water contaminated with tiny particles of infected feces or vomit. It can also be transmitted through surfaces and human contact, with most outbreaks happening in places like hospitals, restaurants, and long-term care facilities.
Drugmakers plan to raise prices on at least 250 branded medications including Pfizer COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid, Bristol Myers Squibb's cancer cell therapies and vaccines from France's Sanofi at the start of 2025, according to data analyzed by healthcare research firm 3 Axis Advisors. Nearly all of the drug price increases are below 10% - most well below. The median price increase of the drugs being hiked Jan. 1 is 4.5%, which is in line with the median for all price increases last year. The increases are to list prices, which do not include rebates to PBMs and other discounts.
Lawmakers rushed a hospital oversight bill to Gov. Maura Healey on Monday, agreeing on policy responses to the Steward Health Care crisis that aim to better regulate private equity firms and stiffen penalties for entities that fail to submit required information. The healthcare market reform bill would give state health regulators and Attorney General Andrea Campbell more regulatory oversight and enforcement authority over transactions involving private equity investors, health care real estate investment trusts and management services organizations.
Nearly 300 primary care physicians at MGB who petitioned the National Labor Relations Board in November to let them vote to form a chapter of the Doctors Council of the Service Employees International Union. They have cited overwhelming workloads, insufficient pay for the hours they worked, a shortage of office staff, and lack of a voice in decisions made by MGB. The unionizing effort is part of a flurry of labor organizing by attending physicians and doctors in training at several large health systems in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Just last year, doctors approved, or took steps toward approving, unions at Salem Hospital (which is part of MGB), Cambridge Health Alliance, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Brown University Health and Care New England, both in Rhode Island. The mobilizing mirrors a national trend. Between 2014 and 2019, the number of physicians belonging to unions grew by 26%, from 46,689 to 67,673, although they still only represent a small fraction of all doctors, according to Dr. Kevin Schulman, a professor of medicine at Stanford University in California, who has studied the issue. And the trend has only accelerated since then.