Specialty medications are expanding what is clinically possible, but not without a price. The affordability gap on these therapies continues to widen, placing sustained pressure on health plan budgets. U.S. prescription drug spending reached approximately $467 billion in 2024, with projections exceeding $556 billion by the end of 2026. As costs rise, employers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) face increasing pressure to ensure that high-cost therapies remain both clinically appropriate and
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Health IT | News, Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
Health Catalyst to Divest Vitalware Unit for $147M to Med-Metrix
What You Should Know
Healthcare intelligence leader Health Catalyst has signed a definitive agreement to divest its mid-revenue cycle business unit, Vitalware, LLC, to Med-Metrix for $147M in cash.The transaction allows Health Catalyst to shed a non-core financial software asset and sharpen its corporate focus on driving cost, clinical, and consumer performance improvements.The $147M cash injection, combined with existing capital, will be deployed to fully repay and terminate Health
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Philips and WellSpan Health Launch 7-Year Strategic AI and Imaging Partnership
What You Should Know
Philips and WellSpan Health have announced a seven-year strategic alliance establishing a comprehensive research, co-development, and advanced imaging platform across Central Pennsylvania and Northern Maryland.Moving past standard vendor transactions, the agreement marks the first joint innovation and research strategy between Philips and a U.S. community health system.The research framework focuses on validating AI and digital tools to optimize hospital throughput, cost,
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Don’t Let Legacy Data Derail Your Health System’s Growth
As health systems continue expanding through acquisitions and partnerships, many find themselves racing to bring new practices onto shared EHR platforms. The motivation is clear: unify care, streamline operations, and unlock value across the enterprise. But beneath that strategic vision lies a messy operational reality – one that too often gets overlooked until it’s too late.
At the center of this challenge is legacy data.
For every practice or partner brought into the fold, there's a
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4 Critical Guardrails for Community Hospital Tech Procurement
Healthcare is moving toward models that reward outcomes, continuity, and population health management, yet disparities in access to specialized care continue to persist. And while community hospitals are central to closing this gap, they are being inundated with technologies that promise to transform care yet are structurally difficult to translate from large academic medical centers to smaller ones.
Rural hospitals operate with lower patient volumes and thinner margins, practical
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Rural Hospitals Are Collapsing Under Administrative Burden That AI Alone Cannot Solve
More than 180 rural hospitals in the United States have closed since 2005, according to the Chartis Center for Rural Health, while providers spend over $25 billion annually on claims adjudication, with nearly $18 billion of that tied to claims that are ultimately paid, according to Premier Inc.
That’s not a demand problem. It’s an administrative one. And increasingly, it’s a technology infrastructure problem tied to how work is managed, measured, and automated.
And for rural hospitals
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Bridging the Diagnostics Gap: Deloitte Research Exposes Core Mismatch Between Manufacturers and Providers
What You Should Know
A new survey by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions reveals that 62% of diagnostics manufacturer executives believe future growth depends entirely on adopting a business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) operational model.The research highlights an immediate strategic disconnect: while providers rank test ordering as their single greatest clinical friction point, manufacturers mistakenly over-index on results interpretation as the primary challenge.Rising
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Shifting the Interoperability Axis: Why Layered Extensions Fail Modern Hospital Core EHRs
Every year, there are roughly 33.5 million hospital admissions, 155 million emergency department visits, and hundreds of millions of outpatient encounters across the United States. At the same time, healthcare spending has reached $4.9 trillion annually. When patient data, especially for such a large number of healthcare consumers, is fragmented across multiple applications, vendors, and systems, the effect is exponential. It is multiplied across every encounter, every workflow, and every
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ŌURA Launches Oura Ring 5: Embedding Live Blood Pressure Signals and GLP-1 Tracking Into Wearable Tech
What You Should Know
Wearable technology leader ŌURA has officially launched Oura Ring 5, re-engineering its mechanical and electrical architecture to create a device that is 40% smaller than its predecessor.Moving past passive metrics, the latest software update introduces Health Radar, a clinical expansion featuring background tracking of blood pressure signals, nighttime blood pressure drops, and 30-day rolling respiratory data.For individuals managing anti-obesity medications, the
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Garner Health Secures $100M at $2.74B Valuation to Scale Clinical Quality Infrastructure
What You Should Know
Healthcare data navigation and quality platform Garner Health has finalized a $100M Series E funding round, valuing the company at $2.74B.Led by Index Ventures, the round features significant continuation backing from blue-chip institutional investors including Kleiner Perkins, Redpoint, Thrive, Sequoia, Founders Fund, and Kaiser Permanente Ventures.Garner's underlying financial infrastructure generates approximately $200M in gross annual recurring revenue (ARR), doubling
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