 This year was already shaping up to be pivotal in healthcare before the novel coronavirus bulldozed onto the scene, with high-stakes controversies over stopping surprise billing and lowering drug prices, among others.
Then the pandemic hit, accelerating some existing trends exponentially while pressing pause on others. Here, Healthcare Dive has collated our top trend stories of the year in this special newsletter edition. They include pieces on COVID-19's potential effects on value-based care, its dire ramifications on primary care providers, hospital efforts to ramp up vaccine distribution and how one multi-billion dollar deal could spell a new chapter in digital health M&A.
At this historic year's close, we here at Healthcare Dive want to give you a massive thanks for supporting our publication. If you've valued our content this year, please consider sharing our newsletter with your teammates and colleagues to help them stay more informed in the new year. Share this link to get them signed up: https://www.healthcaredive.com/signup/insiders/?signup_referred_by=5f93078d7aa51972095c9316
Have a safe and happy holiday season,
 Rebecca Pifer
Reporter, Healthcare Dive
E-mail Deep Dive From ultra-cold storage capabilities to extra security staff, facilities are bracing now for their pivotal role in vaccine distribution. |
Independent practices have resisted selling to hospitals amid years of provider consolidation, reimbursement cuts and more, leaving them with razor-thin margins. Now, they worry COVID-19 could send them off the financial cliff. |
Despite some initial investor skepticism, some experts say the tie-up could usher in bigger deals for the virtual care space. |
This series of stories examines how healthcare has changed during the course of the novel coronavirus in the United States, half a year after HHS declared a national public health emergency. |
Deep Dive Healthcare Dive's findings revive concerns that greater examination of hospital finances is needed before divvying up COVID-19 rescue funding allocated by Congress. |
"This is not about managing a population. This is about doing everything you can to keep these people alive," Dean Ungar, vice president of Moody's Investors Service, said. |
Deep Dive The nation's largest private payers stuck by their earnings outlooks for the full year, raising questions about why executives are confident about their prospects despite being in the middle of a public health crisis. |
Justice Neil Gorsuch seemed skeptical over plaintiffs' injuries and what they want reprieve from. "I guess I'm a little unclear who exactly they want me to enjoin and what exactly do they want me to enjoin them from doing?" |
The magnitude of the crisis has all but stopped some efforts, like a ban on surprise billing. But other policies are forging ahead, including price transparency requirements for hospitals beginning Jan 1. |
The move was expected — rumors swirled for weeks amid public comments from top health IT officials and a proposed rule with a title hinting at deadline extension — but is a significant increase in the timeline for compliance. | | |
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