Read today’s Kaiser Health News
In other news:
Strata Performance Trends Report- Market Insights from Q1 2025: The following report combines financial, operational, and claims data from hospitals, health systems, and other healthcare organizations across the country. Key findings include:
—Medical supply and drug expenses saw steady growth over the past two years, and that growth could accelerate due to the impacts of tariffs on imports.
—U.S. health systems saw growth in charity and bad debt deductions in recent years, including a more than 20% increase in charity deductions from Q1 2023 to Q1 2025.
—Medicaid accounts for more than 12% of revenue for most hospitals nationwide, with percentages ranging from 11.1% for hospitals in the Midwest to 14.4% for those in the West.
—Operating margins for U.S. health systems narrowed slightly to 0.9% in March, falling below 1% for the first time in 15 months after holding steady at 1% for both January and February.
—Patient demand was up nationwide across most metrics in March, following decreases in February, as growth in outpatient visits outpaced inpatient admissions.
About pharma
Polypill Approved for Hypertension, Including as Initial Therapy: The FDA approved a polypill containing telmisartan, amlodipine, and indapamide, known as Widaplik, for the treatment of hypertension in adults, including as initial treatment.
This marks the first time that a triple combination medication has been indicated for initial therapy in patients who are likely to need multiple drugs to achieve blood pressure goals, manufacturer George Medicines noted in their announcement of the approvalopens in a new tab or window.
Initial monotherapy has historically been the default for hypertension. However, this often leads to suboptimal results, due to treatment inertia.
Comment: PBMs typically do not approve such combinations as first or second line therapies. Physicians who want to use this pill will face push-back.
About the public’s health
Firearm Laws and Pediatric Mortality in the US: Excess mortality analysis found that a group of states with the most permissive firearm laws after 2010 experienced more than 6029 firearm deaths in children and adolescents aged 0 to 17 years between 2011 and 2023 and 1424 excess firearm deaths in a group of states with permissive laws. In the most permissive states, the largest increase occurred in the non-Hispanic Black pediatric population; among all states, 4 states had statistical decreases in pediatric firearm mortality during the study period, all of which were in states with strict firearm policies.
About healthcare personnel
New Oregon law sets nation’s strictest limits on corporate control of medical practices: State law mandates that physicians hold at least a 51% stake in most medical practices, but supporters of the new legislation say that companies have taken advantage of a loophole by employing their own physicians and putting their names down as clinic owners, according to the report.
The legislation limits the control companies can have in a clinic’s operations and also bans noncompete agreements that prohibit physicians from taking a position at a different practice, the report said. The bill does not take effect immediately and has a three-year adjustment period for facilities to comply with the new restrictions.
Hospitals, tribal health facilities, behavioral health programs and crisis lines are exempted from the legislation, according to the report.