Federal Report Highlights Private Equity, Consolidation Concerns

Modern Healthcare / By Hayley DeSilva
 
Three federal agencies on Wednesday said "more effective and vigorous" enforcement is needed to protect patients harmed by healthcare's continued consolidation.
 
In a report released just days before a new administration takes over, the Health and Human Services Department, Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department said comments they sought earlier this year on the state of the industry made clear that worries about access to services and costs have intensified as consolidation and private equity's role have grown.
 
"It is clear from the commentors that the Agencies’ past actions have not sufficiently addressed the harms inflicted by anti-competitive activity in the health care sector, and more effective and vigorous antitrust enforcement is necessary to stop or reverse the trend of consolidation," the agencies wrote.
 
The report stems from the agencies' request for information in March about how market transactions have affected consolidation, patient safety, affordability, employee wages and safety as well as taxpayer burden. The agencies received comments from more than 2,000 patients, physicians, health systems, insurers, industry associations, labor unions and academic researchers. 
 
Merger and acquisition activity, particularly among hospitals and involving private equity firms, dominated many of the responses. Many hospitals and health systems have turned to mergers and acquisitions, sometimes with private equity firms, to ease financial pressures…

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Dementia Cases Expected to Double by 2060: Study

The Hill / By Filip Timotija
 
Alzheimer’s disease is expected to spike nationwide in future years, and according to new data released by the Alzheimer’s Association, there is a significant shortage in the dementia care workforce.
 
Dementia cases in the U.S. are expected to double by 2060 when around 1 million Americans are projected to develop the memory-losing condition every year, according to a new study that was published Monday in the medical journal Nature Medicine. 
The study found that the risk of developing dementia after turning age 55 is around 42 percent. Dementia is a group condition that includes loss of concentration, judgment and memory. 
 
The collaborative study was funded by the National Institutes of Health to NYU Langone. It relied on the data garnered from the ongoing Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Neurocognitive Study, which began in 1987 and has tracked the cognitive function and vascular health of participants. 
 
“Our study results forecast a dramatic rise in the burden from dementia in the United States over the coming decades, with one in two Americans expected to experience cognitive difficulties after age 55,” said Josef Coresh, the study’s senior investigator and epidemiologist. 
 
The researchers discovered that a lifetime risk of suffering from dementia for men after turning 55 is 35 percent while it is 48 percent for women. For the most part, the higher risk among women is because of their lower death rates, according to researchers. 
The study also found those who had a variant of the APOE4 gene are at a higher risk of developing dementia. 
 
Blood pressure control and preventing diabetes are one of the ways to slow down cognitive decline and prevent dementia, according to researchers…

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RFK Jr. Faces Mounting Bipartisan Criticism

The Hill / By Nathaniel Weixel

 Pressure is mounting on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as critics squeeze senators from both sides of the aisle to oppose President Trump’s pick to be the nation’s top health official. 
Kennedy’s bipartisan opponents, including liberal advocates and an organization founded by former Vice President Pence, argue the nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services secretary isn’t fit to serve.  
 
Liberals point to Kennedy’s longtime advocacy against vaccines and his role as the founder of the prominent anti-vaccine organization Children’s Health Defense.  
 
Democratic-aligned group Protect Our Care is spending roughly $1 million on a campaign to highlight how Kennedy could endanger the nation’s health system, running television and digital ads about his record, releasing reports using Kennedy’s own words, and holding events in the districts of key lawmakers.  
 
In a likely preview of what Kennedy will face from Democrats in the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) last week pressed him in a letter to answer 175 questions on a range of topics including vaccines, his shifting positions on reproductive rights, his pledge to gut the National Institutes of Health, drug pricing and the Affordable Care Act, among many others.  
 
“Given your dangerous views on vaccine safety and public health, including your baseless opposition to vaccines, and your inconsistent statements in important policy areas like reproductive rights access, I have serious concerns regarding your ability to oversee the Department,” Warren wrote.  
 
In many cases, Warren quoted Kennedy directly and asked him to explain his comments, such as when he wrote in his 2023 book about vaccines that “[t]here is virtually no science assessing the overall health effects of the vaccination schedule or its component vaccines.” …

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6 Behaviors You Must Unlearn to be a Relevant Leader in 2025 

Forbes / By Glenn Llopis

Leadership today isn’t what it used to be. Gone are the days when a title or a corner office automatically commanded respect. Today, business leaders need more than authority, they need relevance. But being a relevant leader is not just about adopting new behaviors; it’s about unlearning bad habits. Especially those that do more harm than good. ... Here are six behaviors you must unlearn that once felt relevant and now may be holding you back. I’ve also included the six behaviors you must relearn.

1. Stop Controlling Everything ...
2. Transactional Leadership ... "leadership is more than ticking items off a to-do list. Your team needs presence." ...
3. Always Need to Lead ...
4. Playing It Safe ...
5. Separating Work and Emotion ...
6. Holding On to Bad Habits ...

Being a relevant leader is about being curious, adaptable, and grounded in reality. Leadership is not static. It’s a continuous process discovery plus action…

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