News Briefs
House Passes Funding Bill Extending Telehealth, Hospital-at-Home
The House passed the Department of Health and Human Services' funding bill, including the telehealth and hospital-at-home extensions. Under the proposal, Medicare telehealth flexibilities would be extended by two years, until Dec. 31, 2027, and the acute hospital care at home program would continue through Sept. 30, 2030, just under five years.
(Source: FierceHealthcare, 2026-01-23)
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House Approves Health Funding Package That Includes PBM Reforms
Congress has yet again reached a bipartisan agreement on a suite of policies targeting the business practices of the drug intermediaries known as pharmacy benefit managers. This time, House lawmakers are attaching the health provisions to a broader HHS appropriations bill.
(Source: Politico, 2026-01-21)
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Federal Officials Pull Back on Nursing Home Quality Measure
Federal officials have quietly withdrawn the only new nursing home quality measure that had been listed as "under consideration" for future years. In December, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it was considering adopting an advance care planning measure to help assess quality in nursing homes and other post-acute and long-term care settings.
(Source: McKnight's Long-Term Care News, 2026-01-21)
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HHS' OIG Lists Tackling Hospice Fraud as Top Priority
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office of the Inspector General has identified hospice fraud among top management and performance challenges. A major challenge for HHS is the "sizable" reduction in workforce and a slew of program changes instituted by the Trump Administration, the report indicated.
(Source: Hospice News, 2026-01-26)
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Investors Confident About Home Health Dealmaking
After several months of home health dealmaking uncertainty sparked by the largest-ever proposed cut to Medicare home health payments, a softer-than-anticipated final rule has paved the way for greater investor confidence in the sector in 2026. Meanwhile, the non-medical home care industry, which reported several strong quarters of dealmaking, experienced the slowest quarter of dealmaking in 2025, according to a report from M&A advisory firm Mertz Taggart.
(Source: Home Health Care News, 2026-01-20)
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M&A Deals Among Hospitals, Health Systems Declined in 2025
Hospital and health system merger and acquisitions slowed significantly in 2025 as financial strain and early policy uncertainty persuaded buyers and sellers to tread cautiously, according to Kaufman Hall's analysis. A total of 46 transactions were announced for the year, down from 72 in 2024, and the $18.5 billion in transacted revenue recorded was the lowest since the firm began tracking data, highlighting how uneven deal appetite was across the 12-month period.
(Source: HealthLeaders Media, 2026-01-23)
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ECRI Warns Use of AI Chatbots Can Result in Patient Harm
ECRI, the independent and nonpartisan patient safety organization, published its annual list of Top 10 health technology hazards. The safety group places artificial intelligence chatbots in healthcare atop its 2026 list, noting that large language models such as ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini, and Grok, which "produce human-like and expert-sounding responses to users' questions," are nonetheless not regulated as medical devices even as they're used more and more by patients and providers alike.
(Source: Healthcare IT News, 2026-01-26)
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OIG Urges HHS to Address Cybersecurity Threats in Health Sector
HHS must address the persistent cybersecurity threats facing the healthcare sector and adapt its approach to cybersecurity within the department in order to combat increasingly sophisticated cyberthreats, the Office of Inspector General, or OIG, suggested in a new report. When it comes to cybersecurity, OIG acknowledged that HHS faces persistent cybersecurity threats.
(Source: Tech Target, 2026-01-23)
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More Hospitals Offer Their Own Version of Medicare Advantage Plans
Although hospital-owned plans are only a sliver of the Medicare Advantage market, their enrollment continues to grow, reflecting the overall increase in Advantage members. Of the 62.8 million Medicare beneficiaries eligible to join Advantage plans, 54 percent signed up last year, according to KFF, the health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News.
(Source: KFF Health News, 2026-01-26)
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Healthcare Systems Seeing High Usage of Unauthorized AI Tools
Unauthorized -- or shadow -- AI tools and chatbots are widely used across U.S. hospitals and health systems, including for direct patient care, according to a survey from Wolters Kluwer Health. Forty percent of survey respondents have encountered an unauthorized AI tool in their organizations, and nearly 20 percent have used them, according to the national survey of more than 500 healthcare professionals and administrators.
(Source: Healthcare Finance News, 2026-01-26)
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Drugmakers Spent Record $38M Lobbying in Washington in 2025
The pharmaceutical industry, long one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington, is spending more than ever to influence the nation's capital. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which represents brand-name drugmakers, spent nearly $38 million on lobbying last year, up 22 percent from 2024 and the highest annual total on record.
(Source: Politico, 2026-01-23)
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