A proposed merger between two major health insurance providers ended in a messy breakup after antitrust issues prohibited the roughly $50 billion transaction in 2017. Now, the two companies, Anthem and Cigna, are still disputing which company will foot the costs of the failed deal, Bloomberg Quint reported.

CivicaRx, the not-for-profit entity created last year by a group of health systems and hospitals, is planning to achieve its goals of lowering drug prices and addressing shortages in hospitals by working directly with pharmaceutical companies and buying drugs, Bloomberg reported.

Getting to and waiting for a doctor’s appointment will likely take longer than getting a car repair, according to a recent analysis of travel and wait times among professional services by Altarum. All that waiting and traveling adds up to a significant burden in the U.S.–– an average of $89 billion annually in economic costs from 2006 to 2017.

A group of hospital associations sent a letter to Congress outlining their joint position to utilize a new set of principles to protect patients from surprise billing.

The Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine, a new Pasadena, California-based medical school opening in 2020, will allow students to attend tuition-free for the first five graduating classes.

The healthcare sector will continue to eclipse more of the economy over the next several years, with national healthcare expenditures hitting 19.4 percent of GDP by 2027, according to the Office of the Actuary at CMS. From 2018 to 2027, healthcare expenditures will grow an average of 5.5 percent annually, hitting nearly $6 trillion.

Joseph J. Cappello, executive director of Are You Dense and Are You Dense Advocacy, spoke to Radiology Business about how it felt to finally see federal breast density notification requirements signed into law.

After acquiring Aetna for nearly $70 billion, CVS Health has taken a financial hit. During the three months ending Dec. 31, 2018, CVS Health lost $421 million in net income, according to its end-of-year financial results.