Healthcare advocacy groups and other stakeholders are speaking out against the Trump administration’s decision to allow short-term healthcare insurance plans to extend up to three years.

More than 200 health services deals were reported in the second quarter of 2018, continuing the ongoing streak of mergers and acquisitions in the sector, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Hospices will see a 1.8 percent, or $340 million, payment increase in 2019 after CMS finalized its annual payment update.

The family of Melanie Smith, a mother of two who died in 2015 at the age of 40, was awarded $3.5 million by a jury this week after an emergency room (ER) physician reportedly failed to diagnose Smith’s stroke in time, leading to her death, the Staunton News Leader has reported.

The individual health insurance marketplace experienced a 12 percent decline in enrollment during the first quarter of 2018 compared to the same time period last year.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced this week that it is unveiling CT scanners at airports throughout the United States to scan carry-on luggage and improve the detection of “critical explosives and other threat items.”

Considering healthcare will be a central topic in the run up to the 2018 mid-term elections, “Medicare for all” is a concept that is gaining traction among left-leaning politicians. A recent study, though, found that implementation of such a program would cost $32.6 trillion over 10 years.

Alan Andrew Beauchamp, Dallas-based Forest Park Medical Center’s co-founder and former manager, pleaded guilty in a $200 million healthcare fraud case. Beauchamp recruited high-volume specialty doctors and paid them $40 million in bribes and kickbacks to perform surgeries.