Read today’s Kaiser Health News
In other news:
About health insurance/insurers
10 states where people spend the most, least on health insurance FYI
Healthcare billing fraud: 10 recent cases FYI. Note these cases are federal and do not involve private companies.
The insurers gaining, losing individual market members FYI
Elevance Health cuts 2025 earnings guidance: Elevance Health is the latest insurer to cut its 2025 earnings guidance, citing elevated costs in the individual market and Medicaid.
The company reported its second-quarter earnings July 17. Elevance Health earned $2.4 billion in operating income in the second quarter, down from $2.8 million in the second quarter of 2024.
Elevance Health cut its earnings guidance to $30 per share, down from its previous estimate of $34.15 to $34.85.
About hospitals and healthcare systems
Buying across borders: 5 systems acquiring hospitals in a new state FYI
Trump’s Medicare agency to speed up clawback of $7.8 billion in hospital drug payments (Regarding the 340B Program): The Trump administration plans to claw back $7.8 billion in Medicare payments to hospitals a decade sooner than originally proposed, potentially sparking another legal challenge from the hospital industry.
President Trump’s Medicare agency also intends to send surveys to hospitals asking what their drug costs are, which could set the stage for the Trump administration to attempt to cut hospital drug payments again.
About pharma
Abbott falls on outlook cut, sees $200 million tariff impact: Abbott Laboratories announced full-year guidance that was down from its earlier expectations, which the North Chicago-based company said were formed before tariffs were announced.
Abbott’s shares fell as much as 8% this morning. Its shares had gained 16% this year, through yesterday's close.
Chief Executive Officer Robert Ford said on a call with analysts that the cost of tariffs will “be just under $200 million,” this year. The company said last quarter that it had considered raising its earnings guidance before tariffs were announced.
About healthcare IT
Healthcare data breaches jump 20% in 2025: Report: The healthcare sector reported 283 data breaches in the first half of 2025, up from 236 during the same period in 2024, according to a July 16 report from the Identity Theft Resource Center.
About health technology
23andMe is out of bankruptcy. You should still delete your DNA. Opinion from The Washington Post: Nearly 2 million people protected their privacy by deleting their DNA from 23andMe after it declared bankruptcy in March. Now it’s back with the same person in charge — and I still don’t trust it.
Nor do the attorneys general of California, North Carolina, Maryland and Connecticut, who each told me they still recommend people delete their accounts…
Here’s why: Bankruptcy made 23andMe the poster child for America’s lax privacy protections — and it hasn’t substantially changed its ways. As of this week, genetic data from the more than 10 million remaining 23andMe customers has been formally sold to an organization called TTAM Research Institute for $305 million. That nonprofit is run by the person who co-founded and ran 23andMe, Anne Wojcicki.
About healthcare finance
Waters to acquire BD flow cytometry business in a deal valued at $17.5 billion: Instrument maker will move further into biology in a merger with Becton, Dickinson’s biosciences unit.