Health System

Health system executives say Medicaid cuts, payer disputes, and misaligned incentives are driving the affordability crisis in 2026.

Pharmacy eases lung cancer costs; pediatric cancer erases 40% income; BTKis widen CLL access; hospitals lag on translated aid; MN mandate ends NGS denials.

In a cross-sectional study of US hospitals, patient financial assistance and billing policy documents averaged 10th-grade readability scores, with variation significantly associated with several attributes.

Hidden costs, travel, and dilation can derail DME care, but clinicians can build adherence plans that keep working adults on vision-saving therapy.

Pharmacy deserts affect 1 in 7 Americans, and hospital-owned specialty pharmacies can help close the gap in medication access.

Greater reliance on travel nurses may be associated with more hospital complications.

Coverage denials delay care, drive patients into debt, and erode trust in insurers—yet nearly half of affected patients never appeal.

Implementation of surgeon-led Musculoskeletal Quality Collaborative protocols reduced high-cost consumable utilization without compromising patient safety. Systemwide collaboratives can reduce high-cost consumable utilization while maintaining low infection rates.

A cross-sectional study of online financial documents among hospitals in linguistically diverse core-based statistical areas found that nonprofit and system-affiliated hospitals have superior language access.

Health plan infrastructure and patient reporting are underutilized, powerful tools for identifying food insecurity, Jonathan Wrathall, PhD, argues.

Private equity reshapes care—new evidence links staffing cuts to patient safety risks; ACP urges regulatory oversight to defend clinical autonomy.

This review will appear in the June issue of Evidence-Based Oncology.

Women’s Health Month highlights major 2026 shifts in menopause care, brain health, abortion access, doula coverage, and wearable tech.

US News & World Report reveals caregivers—often sandwich generation—face full-time hours, rising costs, burnout; CareYaya weighs in on demographics.

Private equity’s growing influence on American health care has outpaced regulatory oversight. Stronger policies are necessary to safeguard patients, providers, and care delivery.

Hospitals increasingly pursue integration strategies to contain costs, yet evidence remains limited. This study examines the effects of 3 forms of integration on hospital costs.

The authors assessed charitable care spending for a 1-month supply of medications at discharge. One-third of the cost was spent on medications for which a more sustainable coverage method exists.

A new Commonwealth Fund report finds persistent racial health disparities nationwide despite coverage gains, with major gaps in care, access, and outcomes.

House lawmakers questioned hospital CEOs over rising health care costs, consolidation, opaque billing, Medicaid cuts, and site neutrality.

This article presents a microcosting analysis of resources needed for the implementation and sustainment of the Massachusetts model evaluated in the PROUD trial.

The authors updated a diagnosis list to identify low-acuity emergency department visits by veterans and applied it to examine trends and predictors of veterans’ low-acuity utilization.

EBO Editor in Chief Sucharu "Chris" Prakash, MD, addresses the role of nutrition in cancer prevention and treatment.

Outpatient electronic health records at an academic medical center showed that only 1% of visits by tobacco users were associated with a bill for cessation counseling.

A program in Detroit identified hundreds of patients with chronic kidney disease.

Analysis of billing codes before and after implementation of a care process for weight-focused visits revealed increased primary care revenue for these encounters.