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Two North Carolina-based university health systems plan to construct the state’s first standalone children’s hospital — an undertaking that its boosters said will change lives physically and economically for decades to come. UNC Health and Duke Health on Tuesday revealed the agreement to build the proposed 500-bed pediatric hospital in the state’s Research Triangle region, which includes Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. (1/29)

Philips will sell its emergency care business to investment firm Bridgefield Capital for an undisclosed amount. The deal is expected to close later this year, the companies said Tuesday. The emergency care business, part of Philips connected care segment, sells products including automated external defibrillators and emergency care devices for professionals and consumers. Sales in the connected care segment were flat in the third quarter, totaling about $1.36 billion. (Dubinsky, 1/28)

Providers are bypassing Medicare requirements to set up scaled-down hospital-at-home programs they say save money by reducing hospitalizations. ... Providers say the programs free up hospital beds for sicker patients and save money by keeping some patients in risk-based care plans out of the hospital. However, most of the in-home hospital programs don’t have the rigorous guardrails mandated in the Medicare waiver program. (Eastabrook, 1/28)

Bain Capital Private Equity proposed to buy the remaining shares of Surgery Partners, an ambulatory surgery center provider in which the private equity firm already has a 39% stake. Under the nonbinding proposal, Bain would buy out Surgery Partners for $25.75 a share, according to a Tuesday Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Surgery Partners’ stock price closed at $21.25 Monday and jumped nearly 20% Tuesday morning. (Kacik, 1/28)

Medical technology company Stryker plans to sell its U.S. spinal implants business to investment firm Viscogliosi Brothers for an undisclosed amount, the company announced Tuesday. The deal is expected to close in the first half of this year, creating an independent company called VB Spine. Once complete, the new company will have exclusive access to Stryker’s Mako Spine robotic-assisted surgical device and Copilot surgical assistance technology for use with VB Spine’s implants. (Dubinsky, 1/28)

Healthcare supply chain costs are expected to rise 2.3% from July 2025 to June 2026, according to a Jan. 28 Vizient's "Winter 2025 Spend Management Outlook." The predicted increase would be driven by sustained high prices for raw materials, freight and shipping costs and the effects of tariffs on medical-surgical products manufactured in China, according to a news release from the healthcare performance improvement company. (Murphy, 1/28)

Customers at some CVS stores will no longer have to push a button and wait for a clerk to unlock one of those glass cabinets to get the products they want to buy. A new app will allow them to open the cabinets themselves, the company said on Tuesday. That feature of the new CVS Health app has been available in three stores in New York City as part of a pilot program that began in August, said Tara Burke, a CVS Health spokeswoman. She said there are plans to roll out the “smart locks” at approximately 10 stores on the West Coast early this year. (Hauser, 1/28)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Listen To The Latest '�鶹Ů�� Health News Minute'

This week on the �鶹Ů�� Health News Minute: Stable housing is scarce for a rapidly increasing number of homeless seniors, and insurers sometimes deny coverage for prosthetic limbs by deeming them experimental or not medically necessary. (1/28)