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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is focusing on primary care and mental healthcare in its latest Medicare residency payments. CMS on Thursday released 200 new graduate medical education residency slots, many of which are set aside for students looking to pursue careers in primary care and psychiatry. (Early, 11/22)

As a child, 40-year-old Dontal Johnson dreamed of becoming a doctor, but never saw himself represented in the profession. "I had never seen a Black doctor growing up, and one of the crazier things is I never saw a Black doctor until I hit college," Johnson said. Johnson decided to apply to medical schools in Texas, but when a friend told him about a potential school in Nashville, Tennessee, full of Black students, he was in disbelief. (Duncan, 11/22)

UnitedHealth Group is paying many of its own physician practices significantly more than it pays other doctor groups in the same markets for similar services, undermining competition and driving up costs for consumers and businesses, a STAT investigation reveals. (Herman, Ross, Lawrence and Bannow, 11/25)  

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services must recalculate UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare Advantage Star Rating for the 2025 plan year and immediately publish its updated score on Medicare.gov, a federal judge ruled Friday. Judge Jeremy Kernodle, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, ruled CMS violated the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 by improperly reviewing the UnitedHealth Group subsidiary’s foreign language call center services. (Tepper, 11/22)

Strolling into the cardiac unit at Holy Family Hospital, the top executive of Holy Family’s new owner, Lawrence General Hospital, stood erect and listened intently as nurses in scrubs ran through their wish lists: more staff, more supplies, fresh paint — “a little lipstick,” in the words of one nurse — to brighten up the floor. Dr. Abha Agrawal assured the overburdened staff that she had begun hiring and restocking supply cabinets in the post-Steward Health Care era. (Weisman, 11/24)

Community Health Systems signed a definitive agreement to sell Florida-based ShorePoint Health System to AdventHealth for $265 million. The agreement involves two hospitals — ShorePoint Health Port Charlotte and certain assets of ShorePoint Health Punta Gorda — in addition to ancillary businesses such as physician clinics, outpatient services and a freestanding emergency department. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2025 and is subject to regulatory approvals, according to a Friday news release. (Hudson, 11/22)

Medically Home, Vivalink and Inbound Health are looking to make it easier for health systems to staff, monitor and manage patients getting hospital-level care at home through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver. More than 370 health systems have applied for the waiver over the past four years. However, some have not yet launched hospital-at-home programs in part because of cost, staffing shortages and logistical problems, among other challenges. Some may also be waiting to see if Congress will extend the waiver, which is set to expire at the end of December. (Eastabrook, 11/22)

A large rural health system is banking on a 60,000-square-foot building to take its virtual care efforts to the next level. Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based Sanford Health on Tuesday rolled out its new $40 million virtual care center. With an eye towards rural patients, the center will help train clinicians use telehealth while accelerating development of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. (Turner, 11/22)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Anti-Fraud Efforts Meet Real-World Test During ACA Enrollment Period

Unauthorized switching of Affordable Care Act plans appears to have tapered off in recent weeks based on an almost one-third drop in casework associated with consumer complaints, say federal regulators. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which oversees the ACA, credits steps taken to thwart enrollment and switching problems that triggered more than 274,000 complaints this year through August. (Appleby, 11/25)

Medical care can be wearying and time-consuming, especially for seniors. Researchers are beginning to quantify the burdens. (Span, 11/23)

An IV bag dangled from a curtain rod, pumping fluids into the patient. A paramedic drew a blood sample as an Olympic women’s rugby match blared on the television facing the woman’s bed. Lucia Louis was home. Not that long ago, she lingered in an emergency room, stricken with a painful salmonella infection. Rest in the ER proved elusive. Doors slammed, and a patient profanely told a nurse to shut up. Urine drenched a shared toilet. Louis yearned to lay on her reclining Sleep Number king-size mattress rather than a flimsy hospital bed that made her back ache. (Nirappil, 11/25)