WORKWEEK

New York officially granted nurse practitioners (NPs) Full Practice Authority (FPA), allowing them to provide a wide range of services without supervision. NPs in 25 states now have FPA. The FPA granted to NPs may help increase access to healthcare as the U.S. faces a formidable physician shortage. “Full Practice Authority” means NPs can provide the full scope…

A new Rock Health report shows that digital health funding in Q1 2022 slowed down compared to the previous quarter. Is venture funding correcting itself from a prior funding explosion year? The Deets Q1 saw $6B in funding across 183 deals and an average deal size of $32.8M. Generally, Q1 isn’t a blockbuster quarter, but it usually beats the…

UnitedHealth Group subsidiary Optum will acquire home health and hospice company LHC Group for $5.4B. The acquisition highlights a growing trend in healthcare of shifting care from the hospital to the home.  The Deets Optum is UnitedHealth Group’s health services arm, which is a behemoth of a company. You’ve probably used their services and didn’t even realize…

National healthcare expenditures (NHE) are expected to have grown 4.2% in 2021 compared to 9.7% in 2020, a major slowdown in healthcare spending. Decreased federal funding for programs like the Provider Relief Fund and decreased public health activity likely slowed healthcare spending in 2021. However, a rebound in patient visits as the pandemic settled likely increased private…

Business Mark Cuban’s New Pharmacy Mark Cuban launched an online pharmacy offering common, life-saving medications that are half the price compared to elsewhere. The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company (MCCPDC) achieves such cost savings by removing health plans and outside middlemen, known as Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs). How it Works MCCPDC cuts out third-party PBMs by…