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U.S. hospitals are on track for a crisis come 2032 that may lead to hundreds of thousands of additional deaths each year. This is the warning of a study by researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), who found that hospitals are not only fuller now than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic—but are on track to exceed the critical threshold of 85 percent hospital occupancy within just seven years. (Randall, 2/19)

UnitedHealth Group’s insurance business is offering certain employees the option to accept buyouts if they agree to resign in the coming days, CNBC reported Wednesday. The healthcare conglomerate is making a voluntary program available to some full- and part-time employees in UnitedHealthcare’s benefits operations division who submit their resignation by March 3, according to the report. (Berryman, 2/19)

Health insurance customers in more parts of the country have new advocates in their battles against claims denials: state governments. States have long had regulatory authority over the individual and small-group health insurance markets, but a growing number of agencies is taking on a greater role assisting consumers as they transition out of a federal system and take matters into their own hands. (Tepper, 2/19)

Sutter Health will invest $1 billion to expand its services across Northern California's East Bay region, including a new flagship campus in Emeryville. The health system announced Wednesday that the campus will feature a new medical center with up to 200 beds as well as a regional destination for ambulatory care. The plans also leave room for future expansion, according to the announcement. (Minemyer, 2/19)

It’s been one year since the unprecedented Change Healthcare cyberattack crippled hospitals, medical groups, payers and pharmacies. For some providers, troubles linger. The industry continues to grapple with the aftermath of the breach of UnitedHealth Group's technology subsidiary, which exposed data on 190 million consumers. ... UnitedHealth is still working to bring at least three platforms fully online, according to its Change Healthcare status webpage Tuesday. (Berryman, 2/19)

The Federal Trade Commission’s legal action against the three largest pharmacy benefit managers will move forward after a federal judge rejected their bid to halt the case. In a court filing Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp denied a request by CVS Health’s CVS Caremark, Cigna’s Express Scripts and UnitedHealth Group’s OptumRx for a preliminary injunction in the FTC’s in-house case examining their influence over insulin costs. (Berryman, 2/19)

Just a week after an American Academy of Neurology (AAN) committee found "limited efficacy" for epidural steroid injections to treat chronic back pain, an international panel is going much further, calling for an end to these and a host of other common interventions. (Gever, 2/19)

Hims & Hers Health Inc. is expanding beyond its successful foray into providing copycat weight-loss drugs with the acquisition of a home blood-testing company. The telehealth provider purchased Sigmund NJ LLC, which uses a US-approved device for home testing of hormones, cholesterol and other markers of health, according to a statement on Wednesday. New Jersey-based Sigmund markets its services as Trybe Labs. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. (Muller and Lauerman, 2/19)

Four years after Apple announced a study to explore how its products could be used to support people with asthma, an application developed from that research is now available to the public. Called Asthma Tool, the free software allows users to track their symptoms and triggers and to use wearable devices to monitor vitals, like resting heart rate, for signs that asthma may be acting up. (Aguilar, 2/20)