Friday Fve: Top 5 healthcare business news items from the MCOL Weekend edition

Every business day, MCOL posts feature stories making news on the business of health care. Here are five we think are particularly important for this week:

Premiums for popular ACA health insurance dip for the first time

The average price tag for the most popular level of insurance sold in the Affordable Care Act’s federal marketplaces is dropping slightly, the first time the rates have stopped going up since the health plans were created a half-dozen years ago.

Washington Post

Friday, October 12, 2018

Prescriptions for Millions of Opioid Pills Lead to Charges Against 5 Doctors

It was not hard to tell when the doctor was in at the Staten Island office of Carl Anderson. Noisy crowds of people, some with visible signs of drug addiction, stood in long lines at all hours of the night, seeking prescriptions for oxycodone pills, the authorities said Thursday.

The New York Times

Thursday, October 11, 2018

CVS Health and Aetna $69 Billion Merger Is Approved With Conditions

The Justice Department’s approval of the $69 billion merger between CVS Health and Aetna on Wednesday caps a wave of consolidation among giant health care players that could leave American consumers with less control over their medical care and prescription drugs.

The New York Times

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Trapped by the ‘Walmart of Heroin’

The first time Mark shot up “Philly dope” was in the summer of 2017, with his girlfriend, Sarah. They had been on their way from Massachusetts to South Carolina, hoping to get clean there and find someplace cheap to live. The plan was to detox slowly on the way. In New Jersey, they needed to buy more drugs, just enough to make it to Myrtle Beach.

The New York Times

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Cross-market hospital mergers continue despite rising regulatory scrutiny

The proposed tie-up between Dallas-based Baylor Scott & White Health and Houston-based Memorial Hermann Health System poses an increasingly important antitrust question given the prevalence of cross-market hospital mergers, regulatory experts said.

Modern healthcare

Monday, October 8, 2018

These and more weekly news items on the business of healthcare are featured in the MCOL Weekend edition, along with the MCOL Tidbits, and more, for MCOL Premium level members.