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More rural hospitals have closed or are planning to close their labor and delivery units in 2025 than in 2024, bringing the total number of closures since the end of 2020 to 116, according to the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform (CHQPR). In a November report, the policy center outlined 27 completed or planned closures this year. That’s beyond the 21 of 2024 and the second-highest single-year total within the past five years behind 2023’s 34 closures. (Muoio, 11/11)

Diana Coleman died of a stroke last year. But up until her last breath, the 73-year-old Townsend woman was battling Genesis HealthCare, a massive nursing home company, over the death of Coleman’s mother, Viola Whittemore, who died in 2020 after falling in one of Genesis’ Massachusetts nursing homes. Now, Coleman’s 43-year-old daughter, Jillian Allen, is carrying the family’s lawsuit forward. But it will be more challenging than Allen had ever imagined. (Lazar, 11/11)

For Sarah Reilly, the letter she received from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts was alarming: she could lose access to her doctors by Jan. 1 because of a contract dispute between her health insurer and the UMass Memorial Health system. Reilly, 32, of Whitinsville, had come to rely on those UMass-affiliated physicians, for navigating everything from her life-threatening complications during pregnancy to her daughter’s heart condition. (Bartlett, 11/11)

As part of a class called “Winter is Coming” at the children’s hospital, nurses put on oxygen masks for five minutes as respiratory therapists adjusted the fit and pressure. Some called the experience claustrophobic. The exercise encouraged staff to empathize with their young patients who may need to wear them to provide enough oxygen to lungs suffering from flu or COVID-19 this winter, said Tina Humbel, nurse manager of the Pediatric Critical Care Unit at the University of Maryland Golisano Children’s Hospital. (Hille, 11/11)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Health Care Costs Jump To The Fore As Candidates Jockey To Be California Governor

California’s gubernatorial election is a year away, and the field of primary candidates is still taking shape. But one persistent issue has already emerged as a leading concern: the cost of health care. At a forum Nov. 7 in the Inland Empire, four Democratic candidates vying to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed to push back against Republican cuts to health care programs and to improve people’s access to medical care, including mental health services. But while some floated taxes, candidates were light on details about how they would bring down health care costs. (Boyd-Barrett, 11/10)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: A Few Good Things From 2025 (Really)

Massive cuts to medical research and Medicaid. Waves of layoffs across the Department of Health and Human Services. Ongoing uncertainty around federal subsidies to buy health insurance on Affordable Care Act marketplaces. 2025 has been a rough year for federal health programs. But meanwhile, in the states, there were some wins for health care access. “An Arm and a Leg” host Dan Weissmann examines how lawmakers from across the political spectrum accomplished meaningful reforms. This episode takes listeners to Nebraska, which instituted aggressive new restrictions on prior authorization, and Virginia, where lawmakers banned wage garnishment and capped interest rates for certain medical debts. (11/12)