Incoming American Hospital Association CEO Steve Walsh inherits the powerful trade group’s future at a pivotal time for hospitals.
Under Rick Pollack’s strong leadership, AHA effectively kept the lid shut on most of the sticky issues that threaten its Big Tent of hospital, outpatient and long-term care organizations. Three notable accomplishments:
- AHA successfully shielded hospitals from threatening legislation that would cut their revenues and margins e. 340B cuts, revisions to Stark Law that might enable physician owned hospitals to operate, site neutral payments, federal challenges to hospital consolidation and others. Notably, AHA’s Big Tent is aligned on these and other regulatory threats winning most challenges with rare losses on mandatory price transparency, reduction of the Inpatient Only list of services and a few others.
- AHA successfully adapted its services to adapt to the growing complexities facing its members via a vis its 8 Professional Membership Groups and 7 Institutional Membership Groups ranging from acute and long-term care facilities to community health hubs.
- In 2025, AHA created the Coalition to Strengthen America’s Healthcare “…to strengthen and protect patients’ 24/7 access to high-quality hospital care” as hospitals encountered pushback in Congress and negative media coverage. Its AHA-led Board includes representation of Children’s Hospitals, Association of American Medical Colleges, America’s Essential Hospitals, Federation of American Hospitals, Catholic Health Association along with leaders from major health systems, state hospital associations and Vizient, its preferred data vendor.
As a result of these, the Big Tent remained intact post-Covid and its biggest systems registered record operating margins.
To date, AHA’s focus has been on the perpetuals—issues unique to hospitals that require regulatory wins at the state and federal levels:
- Protecting Medicare and Medicaid funding for hospitals
- Pushing back against 340B program changes.
- Navigating CMS’ ever-changing value agenda.
- Modernizing the hospital workforce preparedness while implementing AI-enabled workforce reductions.
- Facilitating local integration and connectivity between public health programs and hospital services to increase coordination of care and access and reduced costs.
- Negotiating effectively with insurers to reduce administrative burdens and increase reimbursement.
- Enabling vertical and horizontal consolidation without unnecessary pushback.
- Navigating ‘meaningful use’ of health information technologies without paralyzing hospital operations.
- And others.
But the environment for hospitals has changed dramatically in the post-Covid era pushing 6 issues to the top of the list of perpetuals:
- Affordability: Affordability is the number one concern to Americans. They worry about food, fuel, housing and healthcare costs. Hospitals represent 30% of total health costs and have increased faster than inflation, wage growth and the CPI every year since Covid. AHA members think affordability is a legitimate concern but largely out of their control. AHA has placed blame on insurers and unnecessary regulation while independent studies show private equity ownership and local hospital consolidation complicit. 17 states including Massachusetts have formal health cost containment commissions in place to address affordability. AHA will have to do more.
- Price Transparency: Beginning April 1, 2026, hospitals must comply with new standardized templates and “actual allowed amounts” rather than estimates. CMS expects expanded audits and stricter oversight. Two administrations (Trump, Biden) and with bipartisan Congressional support have advanced hospital price transparency mandates. Five states have passed mandate laws (AZ, AR, CO, CT, FL) and 27 others including Massachusetts are in process per Hilltop Institute’s Price Transparency State Profiles. AHA’s pushback from the original Price Transparency Executive Order (2021) and its objections since have reinforced antagonist’ beliefs that hospitals prefer to operate in the dark sans transparency.
- Not for Profit Hospital Tax Exemptions: Last week, The House Ways and Means Committee passedthe “Tax Exempt Hospital Transparency Act” on July 1, advancing legislation that would require nonprofit hospitals to disclose more details on their IRS Form 990. The bill, known as HR 9504, drew immediate criticism from AHA and others citing its heightened burden of compliance a non-starter for hospital support. Meanwhile, lawmakers in 8 states including Massachusetts passed laws to examine nonprofit hospital tax exemptions in the context of their property taxes, community‑benefits, executive compensation, and high prices. And negative media coverage about executive compensation and profits in NFP systems– often sourced from hospital muckrakers West Health, Arnold Ventures, Lown Institute and others–. -has intensified. Massachusetts is home to several high profile, not for-profit mega-systems like Mass General Brigham (formerly Partners), Beth Israel Lahey, U Mass Memorial that dominate the state. It was also home to Cerberus Capital’s Steward Health—a private equity roll-up of 37 hospitals including 8 in Massachusetts that resulted in its bankruptcy in 2024 while its CEO created lavish wealth. AHA has endeavored to avoid conflicts between its investor-owned and not for profit systems. But increasingly, regulators, hospital workforces and media see differences that make a difference. AHA will have to referee the discussion. In some states, investor-owned hospitals have split ranks with NFPs over fundamental differences already. And tax exemptions for not-for-profit systems is an issue that’s not going away.
- Physician Independence: The overwhelming majority of physicians—employed or otherwise-believe their clinical judgement is being compromised and their income is at risk. They blame their private equity and hospital owners, insurers and elected officials for the willful destruction of their profession. They are poised to push-back locally and nationally with growing support of Congress, state legislatures, employers and community leaders. For AHA, hospital-physician relationships have been a local matter. As Stark Laws are revisited, site neutral pricing is implemented, outpatient services expand and physician reimbursement is stressed, AHA will find itself in the crossfire of the profession’s existential war to exist.
- Board Preparedness: Most hospital Boards are inadequately prepared to address substantive changes in the hospital competitive environment 5,10 and 20 years from now. Most are not equipped to consider clinical innovations, capital market flows, technologies and regulatory policy shifts upon which the system’s future will operate. Most are not exposed to environmental assessment data that’s comprehensive, relevant and objective. And while the majority of directors believe the future for hospitals is not a repeat of the past, few deliberate about those possibilities and even fewer monitor signals necessary to adapting. AHA Trustee services are predicated on a local independent Board’s role in compliance. But 2 in 3 hospitals operates under a system board, and one in four is controlled by a proprietary system board whose obligation first and foremost is shareholder value. AHA’s Trustee Services must expand beyond ‘duty of service’ preparation to equip hospital boards to independently assess the hospital’s strategy. Most can’t.
- Trust: AHA’s campaign to “Strengthen America’s Healthcare” by protecting hospitals has had marginal impact on perceptions that many hospitals are profitable and operate as ‘Big Business’. Polling shows a steady decline in the public’s trust and confidence in its institutions including ‘the medical system’ which includes hospitals, insurers and drug companies. Trust in hospitals to provide “high quality care” remains relatively strong for most, but trust that prices are fair has tanked. For AHA, the familiar road sign ‘H’ must convey more than emergency services and sick care. In the evolving environment, it must convey ‘Health.’
In AHA’s 2025-2027 Strategic Plan, it vows “To advance the health of all individuals and communities. The AHA leads, represents and serves hospitals, health systems and other related organizations that are accountable to communities and committed to equitable care and health improvement for all.”
As Steve Walsh steps into the AHA leadership role, his experience in Massachusetts since 2017 will serve AHA well. It’s the petri dish for deciphering the future for hospitals.
- The state ranks 2nd for overall healthcare in the country (behind Iowa) and 1st for hospital quality (per WalletHub). But it’s also among the most expensive for healthcare in the country and dominated by big health systems and specialty care.
- It’s also a state where its public policies in healthcare carry national weight. For example, the Massachusetts Health Connector was the prototype for the ACA marketplaces (Healthcare.gov). And the Massachusetts Health Care Cost Growth Benchmark is closely watched as a barometer of spending constraint.
The task ahead for Walsh and the AHA Board is to refresh its strategy addressing the six issues above with fresh ideas, new solutions, new partners and a vision of the future that’s not constrained by its past.
Paul
PS: I wonder if health insurance will be around in 20 years. My experience with heart surgery and the role my insurance continues to play is instructive and sobering. I’m fortunate to have it and afford it, but it has consistently underperformed and complicated matters important to my health. It’s akin to another unforeseen event: on June 15, an Amazon delivery truck backed out of the driveway at 2004 Castleman Drive in Nashville and broadsided my six-week-old car. On July 1, I was informed it was totaled. Like my health insurance, I’m not sure what I will end up paying out of pocket but I’m glad I had it. Regardless of body repair or car repair, both incidents boil down to two fundamental flaws in insurance coverage: the protections benefit who gets paid more than the injured party, and both are expensive.
Sections in this report:
- Quotables
- Economy
- Hospitals
- Insurers
- Polling
- Population Health
- Regulation
Quotables
AHA response to HR 9504 Tax-Exempt Hospitals Transparency Act: “We specifically note the removal of the highly burdensome parallel for-profit tax calculation, the inclusion of standardized definitions and the extension of implementation deadlines. Furthermore, the committee’s decision to establish statutory carve-outs to exempt critical access, rural emergency and small community hospitals from the advanced reporting mandates demonstrates an understanding of the resource constraints many of our nation’s hospitals face. These changes represent steps toward a slightly less burdensome framework than the version in the original discussion draft.
However, the AHA maintains serious concerns and questions regarding the substantial administrative and financial burdens imposed by the remaining provisions, which would impact, to one extent or another, nearly two-thirds of all hospitals. We believe the focus on financial assistance, to the exclusion of other critical components of community benefit — like Medicaid shortfall — disregards tax-exempt hospitals’ already extensive reporting and the many other ways hospitals serve their communities. While the statutory carve-outs protect small facilities from the advanced requirements, these hospitals, which are often among the most financially vulnerable, must still eventually implement new reporting requirements.
Additionally, while we understand the interest in facility-level transparency, delineating system-wide overhead and “non-clinical programming” from spending at individual facilities within a health system presents a cost-accounting hurdle. Mandating that certain health systems first develop a health service line reporting structure and then subsequently map their internal cost structures to an entirely new federal Health Service Line Taxonomy will also entail substantial administrative costs and operational challenges.
We also again submit that utilizing tax documents as a vehicle for 340B reporting is inappropriate because the 340B program is not a federal tax issue and has no bearing on 501(c)(3) or 501(r) status.”
Statement of the American Hospital Association for the United States House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means “Tax-Exempt Hospital Transparency Act”
| Morning Consult on consumer sentiment trend: “The single most important pattern in nine months of data is the growing gap between what people did and how they felt. Sentiment peaked in the fall, slid through a brief holiday reprieve, dropped sharply in January, and settled into spring 5–13 points below where it began — a decline visible in literally every category. Consumption, by contrast, proved resilient: it wobbled with the calendar but ended the period roughly flat and even firmed into early summer.
This is the defining feature of this consumer. A widening wedge between behavior and confidence is the macro signature of a population spending out of necessity and habit rather than optimism. It is also fragile: when behavior is propped up by habit while sentiment falls, the risk of a delayed step-down in discretionary categories rises. The aggregate masks it; the wedge reveals it.” |
The Central Divergence: Consumption Held, Mood Eroded links.morningconsult.com
STAT Investigation on MAHA alcohol policy: “STAT’s investigation finds that the Trump administration has downplayed alcohol’s risks and actively derailed efforts to understand and prevent drinking-related harms, all while doing favors for the expansive alcohol industry.
Even Kennedy, who has professed a deep interest in fixing the nation’s patchy addiction-treatment infrastructure, has offered no plan for dealing specifically with the country’s favorite drug. Most of his investments so far focus on opioids or specifically on homeless Americans, and pay little attention to excessive alcohol use in the broader population.
To date, the administration’s most noteworthy actions on alcohol have consisted of burying a report that concluded light drinking poses risks; eliminating over half the staff at a federal agency focused on substance use; closing the alcohol program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and altering dietary guidelines to eliminate suggested drinking limits. That erasure is rippling through government: The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism removed information about the health risks of moderate drinking from its website in January, according to archived versions of the page.”
Why MAHA and Trump have ignored alcohol’s health risks | STAT
Incoming AHA CEO Walsh on future for hospitals: “To write the next chapter will require creative leadership, hard-earned trust and the willingness to bring unlikely partners to the same table. I am a true believer that hospitals and health systems must be the ones to define that future for the nation given their unique connection with patients and communities. Building bridges, building trust and building momentum will drive AHA’s successes in the years ahead.”
American Hospital Association Names Steve Walsh as President and CEO | AHA
Washington Post on SCOTUS birthright citizenship: “The Supreme Court on Tuesday affirmed the principle that almost everyone born on U.S. soil is a citizen, a major decision that rejects a push by President Donald Trump to fundamentally redefine who is American in ways not seen for more than 150 years. The justices struck down an executive order by the president that said citizenship would not be granted to children born to parents who are in the country illegally or those on temporary visas for work, travel, school or humanitarian reasons.”
Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, ruling against Trump’s order – The Washington Post
Economy
1Q 26 GDP Revision: The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) last week issued its third and final reading of U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) for Q1 2026, reporting the economy grew at a 2.1% seasonally-adjusted annual rate—up from. the BEA’s second estimate of 1.6% released last month. Overall growth in Q1 was led by business investment—particularly computers and peripheral products related to AI-related spending―exports, and government spending.
https://www.bls.gov/
Q2 Healthcare corporate earnings: “The healthcare sector (XLV) jumped about 8.22% in Q2, lagging the broader markets amid concerns over drug pricing and policy uncertainty. The sector performed better than energy (XLE), marking the second-to-last position among 11 S&P 500 sectors. Broadly, the U.S. government’s proposed increase in 2027 Medicare Advantage payments eased margin concerns and improved investor sentiment toward managed care companies. Healthcare Sector Scorecard:
- Sector Return: +8.22%
- Best Performer: Humana (HUM) (+129%)
- Worst Performer: Zoetis (ZTS) (-39%)
- Top Theme: Managed Health Care
Humana, Centene lead healthcare rally in Q2 over Medicare Advantage optimism | Seeking Alpha
BLS June Jobs Report: Both total nonfarm payroll employment (+57,000) and the unemployment rate (4.2%) changed little in June, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment continued to trend up in professional and business services, social assistance, and health care. Leisure and hospitality lost jobs.
In June, employment in health care continued its upward trend (+22,000) but at a slower pace than the average monthly gain over the prior 12 months (+38,000). In June, hospitals added 9,000 jobs.
Per Axios: “Hiring lost momentum after months of surprising strength — a sign that economic uncertainty might be weighing on employers. Jobs growth in June was roughly half the 115,000 job gains that economists expected. And the labor market looks weaker than first appeared in previous months: The Bureau of Labor Statistics said payrolls in April and May were a combined 74,000 lower than initially estimated. Notably, the labor market participation rate — those with a job or looking for one — fell 0.3 percentage point, as workers left the labor market in June.
The big picture: The worse-than-expected jobs report comes after a string of reports that suggested that the hiring slowdown in 2025 appeared to be in the rearview mirror.”
Jobs report shows weaker-than-expected hiring in June
The Economist on Jobs Report: “After three months of strong employment growth, America’s economy added just 57,000 jobs in June, well below analysts’ expectations. The slowdown was particularly prominent in leisure and hospitality, suggesting the World Cup recruitment spree has petered out. Unemployment fell to 4.2%, down from 4.3% in May. The news makes it less likely that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates this year.”
The World in Brief: America’s jobs market slows
| Morning Consult on AI and Data: “What’s clear by now is that AI doesn’t just speed up the work — it changes its nature. Customer intimacy without years invested. Creativity and actionability without an army of analysts. This is a different reality for creating, curating, and acting on insights than anything I’ve seen in three decades.
But one thing hasn’t changed, and never will: it still comes down to the data. AI-native tools are only as good as what feeds them. They require data that’s accurate and continuously refreshed, granular enough to support views across audiences and regions, and broad enough to capture both the macro picture — economic and cultural context — and the category-specific detail on pricing, advertising, distribution, and brand perception. They also require frameworks that guide the exploration underneath, grounded in validated findings about how people actually think, feel, and act. Strip away either of those, and the risk isn’t a worse answer — it’s a confidently wrong one. I’ve seen early drafts of our own AI-generated recommendations point toward a competitive set that hadn’t existed in the data for over a year; nothing about the output looked wrong, it would have read perfectly fine to anyone using it. The model wasn’t broken. The data feeding it was stale. And that may be the biggest surprise of the first half of 2026: in the middle of all this change, the old maxim about speed, quality, and cost as an unavoidable tradeoff has finally died. But the importance of building syndicated and custom data assets that meet all three of those dimensions simultaneously has never been higher. Reflections on AI and Where Market Research is Heading links.morningconsult.com
Hospitals The AHA Strategic Plan 2025-2027. The AHA’s Strategic Plan is rooted in four primary disciplines, which define our approach to providing value to members and advancing our goals.
The health care ecosystem should …
Re: Affordability, the AHA plan includes 11 strategies it deems necessary to “providing coverage and care that is affordable” including
American Hospital Association 2025-2027 Strategic Planhttps://www.aha.org/system/files/media/file/2025/01/2025-AHA-Strategic-Plan-20250106.pdf CMS Proposed Rule to be Published in the Federal Register July 7, 2026 “This proposed rule would revise the Medicare Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) and the Medicare Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) payment system for calendar year 2027 based on our continuing experience with these systems. We also describe the changes to the amounts and factors used to determine the payment rates for Medicare services paid under the OPPS and those paid under the ASC payment systems. In addition, this proposed rule would update and refine the requirements for the Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting Program and the Ambulatory Surgical Center Quality Reporting Program. There are no changes to the Rural Emergency Hospital Quality Reporting Program. We propose to expand the prior authorization requirement to include additional Botulinum Toxin Injection services. We also propose to implement certain provisions of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026, for off-campus outpatient departments of a provider. In addition, this proposed rule announces notices of closure of teaching hospitals and opportunities to apply for available slots. This rule also requests information regarding potential approaches to improve comparability and standardization, particularly for complex contracting methodologies, of the HPT information reported in machine-readable files and consumer-friendly displays. We propose hospital AOs with deeming authority to assess compliance with certain Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) administrative requirements during accreditation and reaccreditation surveys. Finally, we are soliciting comments on a potential separate payment under the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) for domestic procurement of personal protective equipment and essential medicines. “Medicare Program: Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment and Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment Systems; and Quality Reporting Programs; including the Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting Program and Ambulatory Surgical Center Quality Program; Request for Information on Strengthening the Standardization and Comparability of Hospital Price Transparency (HPT) Data; Prior Authorization; Accrediting Organization (AO) Deeming for Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA); and Notices of Closure of Teaching Hospitals and Opportunities To Apply for Available Slots” 2026-13656.pdf 340B status in states: “As of April, 21 states have passed laws blocking drugmakers from restricting 340B discounts at contract pharmacies, such as by denying 340B-priced sales or declining to ship 340B medications to contract pharmacies, according to the National Association of Community Health Centers. A dozen states have enacted laws increasing 340B reporting requirements for providers, according to the National Academy for State Health Policy, a nonpartisan think tank. As of 2025, 29 states have enacted legislation to regulate PBMs in 340B, the National Academy for State Health Policy reported. These laws set parity requirements, such as blocking PBMs from reimbursing 340B providers or contract pharmacies at lower rates than other providers and pharmacies in their networks, or banning PBMs from refusing to contract with 340B participants.” 340B drug pricing: How states are regulating the program – Modern Healthcare
Insurers Georgiou Study: MA Ownership impact on member experience: Background: Former UnitedHealth executive Archelle Georgiou analyzed 157 Medicare Advantage contracts covering 12 million MA enrollees to arrive at a Friction Index () for each. Plans with a Friction Index below 1.40 make it easier to get care. In plans with a FI above 1.40, beneficiaries experience more prior authorizations, denials and subsequently, delays in care. Since publishing that analysis, one question has come up more than any other. “When I analyzed the Friction Index by insurers’ tax status, for-profit Medicare Advantage plans have a weighted Friction Index of 1.60. Nonprofit plans average 1.10, roughly 31% lower. I re-analyzed the data after segmenting the nonprofit plans into two groups: • those with a traditional provider network model. These 29 organizations include several regional Blue Cross Blue Shield plans, Medica, Point32Health, Healthfirst, PacificSource, and Capital District Physicians’ Health Plan, • those with an integrated delivery system where the health plan and care delivery system operate together. These 23 insurers include Kaiser Permanente, Intermountain Health, HealthPartners, Priority Health, Baylor Scott & White, Wellsense and NYC Health + Hospitals. The results change the story. Nonprofit plans operating in a traditional network model have a Friction Index of 1.70 – essentially the same as for-profit plans (1.60). Whereas integrated plans have a Friction Index of just 0.60. The lesson from this analysis is not that every health system should become integrated like Kaiser or Intermountain. Nor is it that nonprofit ownership is inherently better, or that for-profit ownership is inherently worse. Instead, the data suggest something more practical. More coordinated care and lower friction both emerge when financial incentives and clinical information move together….So no, nonprofit status alone doesn’t explain why some Medicare Advantage plans create less friction than others. Integration does. And that’s a far more useful thing to know — because unlike tax status, integration is something any plan, for-profit or nonprofit, can actually choose to build.” (10) Are Nonprofit Health Plans Lower Friction? HHS: Impact of Subsidy cuts on ACA Plans coverage: Per HHS announcement Friday, nearly 4 million people who signed up for Affordable Care Act plans this year have already dropped their coverage after the loss of subsidies resulted in sharply higher costs. The shift boosted many ACA policyholders’ premiums up to 100% or more. Note: an estimated 19.2M people are enrolled in ACA plans as of February. That would represent a drop-off of more than 16% from approximately 23M who signed up for ACA coverage during this year’s open enrollment period. CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/03/aca-enrollment-enhanced-subsidies-lapse-fraud.html Study: MA-PDP crossover: “The stand-alone prescription drug plan (PDP) market in Part D of Medicare has become increasingly dominated by a few insurers with a significant presence in the Medicare Advantage (MA) market. In 2025, 78.4% of PDP enrollees were in plans offered by 5 insurers that, combined, accounted for 66.3% of MA enrollment nationally. This has raised concerns about potentially distortionary incentives that insurers have to encourage their PDP enrollees to switch into plans in the more profitable MA sector… Among Medicare beneficiaries switching from stand-alone PDPs to MA-PD plans, insurers retained more enrollees than expected from their MA market share or the share of switchers they attracted from other insurers’ PDPs. The implications of this finding for the PDP market’s performance are unclear. The ability to retain switchers may encourage MA insurers to induce switching from PDPs to the more profitable MA market, perhaps by charging higher PDP premiums or lowering PDP quality. Moreover, the enhanced profitability of PDP enrollees for MA insurers (conferred by the prospect of retaining switchers) may motivate MA insurers to undercut other (non-MA) insurers in the PDP market, posing a barrier to entry and degrading competition. However, the same incentives may have upsides. To gain a strategic advantage from maintaining a presence in the PDP market and growing a pipeline of potential MA-PD enrollees, MA insurers must attract new PDP enrollees; undercutting the competition requires offering lower-cost or more generous PDPs.” |
Polling
You Gov/Economist poll on opinions about America: The You Gov/Economist surveyed 1500 U.S. adults between June 13th-15th 2026. Excerpts:
Pride: “less than half of respondents are “very proud” to be American. Republicans over 45 are the most likely to agree with Mr. Greenwood: 82% say they are very proud, compared with just 19% of Democrats of the same age.”
Direction: “Yet after 250 years almost 60% of respondents believe the country has strayed from its founding principles, including majorities of both Republicans and Democrats….
Issues: “We asked Americans whether they would rewrite parts of their constitution. The most popular change, supported by 72% of respondents, would require the government to balance the federal budget each year (although we didn’t ask whether respondents would support the tax rises or spending cuts that might entail). The most polarizing issue was birthright citizenship: 59% of Republicans want to repeal it, compared with just 7% of Democrats. Proposals on gun rights and the electoral college also sharply divided opinion. Unfortunately for Mr. Trump, the least popular constitutional change we tested was allowing presidents to serve more than two terms…
Outlook: We then asked our group of Americans to look into the future. More than two-thirds thought the country would either grow stronger or remain as strong as it is now over the next 50 years. Young Americans were the most optimistic: more than half of those aged 18 to 29 thought the country would grow stronger, while another 34% thought it would maintain its current strength. But optimism faded with respect to longer time horizons. Only 17% of respondents were “almost certain” that America would live to see its 500th birthday.”
How Americans see their country’s past, present and future
KFF on vaccine information trustworthiness: “Adults who have a relationship with a trusted health care provider are less likely than those who don’t have such a relationship to believe or lean toward believing vaccine falsehoods. For instance, nearly half (46%) of adults who say they do not have a health care provider they trust to answer questions about their health say it is “probably” or “definitely true” that more people have died from COVID-19 vaccines than from the virus, which is nearly twice the share among those with a trusted provider (24%). While younger adults, Hispanic adults, and uninsured adults are more likely than their counterparts to say they don’t have a trusted provider, the connection between lacking a trusted provider and belief in vaccine myths holds even when controlling for factors like age, race and ethnicity, education, partisanship, and insurance coverage.”
KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust: Update on Common Vaccine Myths June 30, 2026 https://www.kff.org/public-opinion/kff-tracking-poll-on-health-information-and-trust-update-on-common-vaccine-myths
Population Health
CDC Mortality Data Update: Per new data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics:
The death rate fell 4.6% last year, to 689.2 deaths per 100,000 people, down from 722.1 in 2024 despite increases in influenza and pneumonia deaths. The death rate declined across every age group and nearly every demographic group.
The drop was attributed to lower drug overdose and Covid 19 deaths declines. Note: influenza and pneumonia stood out—moving from 11th to eighth place in all age groups—with 56,511 deaths in 2025 compared with 48,139 in 2024– the first-time influenza has been in the top 10 since 2020.
CDC National Center for Health Statistics
Study: Association between state spending on LTC and independent living: Researchers examined the association between higher state allocation of long-term care spending to home- and community-based services (HCBS) and the likelihood of group quarters residence, coresidence with adult children, Medicaid enrollment, and migration among older adults with and without independent living difficulties. Results:
“Of the 7.35 million older adults in the sample, 17.1% had independent living difficulties. Those with independent living difficulties were older (mean [SD] age, 80.44 more likely to be female (66.7% vs 53.9%), less likely to be married (33.9% vs 59.6%), and less likely to be born in the US (83.9% vs 86.3%). Regression results indicated that a 20–percentage point increase in state HCBS share was associated with a 2.6–percentage point lower likelihood of group quarters residence (95% CI, −3.23 to −1.87), 0.8–percentage point lower likelihood of coresidence with an adult child (95% CI, −1.11 to −0.49), a 1.0–percentage point higher likelihood of residential continuity (95% CI, 0.64 to 1.29), 0.8–percentage point lower likelihood of within-state migration (95% CI, −1.08 to −0.43), and 0.2–percentage point lower likelihood of out-of-state migration (95% CI, −0.28 to −0.14) among older adults with independent living difficulties compared with those without.
The results of this cross-sectional study suggest that higher shares of HCBS spending are associated with a higher likelihood of aging in place among older adults with independent living difficulties without markedly increasing Medicaid enrollment, supporting the targeted expansion of HCBS services
Regulatory
SCOTUS decisions in June: Recap: The Supreme Court (SCOTUS) issued 36 decisions in June including 3 of major significance to the healthcare regulatory environment:
- Trump v. Slaughter (25-332) re: Presidential Power Over Independent Agencies This 6-3 decision expands the President’s power to remove members of federal independent agencies like HHS, FDA, CDC, et al. Expands presidential authority over independent agencies; partially overturns Humphrey’s Executor (1935).
- Trump v. Cook (25A312) Federal Reserve Removal Attempt: This 5-4 decision denied the administration’s request to stay an injunction protecting Fed Governor Lisa Cook from removal and expands presidential authority over independent agencies; partially overturning Humphrey’s Executor (1935).
Notable healthcare reg’s that took effect July 1:
- Federal student loan caps for PA and CRNA programs.
- Washington begins penalizing hospitals for missed meal and rest breaks.
- Florida’s tighter PBM rules.
- Iowa restrictions on AI use in prior authorization decisions.
House Legislation that advanced:
- R. 5347, the Health Care Efficiency Through Flexibility Act, allows Medicare ACOs (Medicare Shared Savings Program) to continue to collect quality data through three types of measures — electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs), Merit-Based Incentive Payment System clinical quality measures, and Medicare clinical quality measures — through performance year 2029. Previously, ACOs were supposed to begin using only eCQMs starting last year, according to a regulation issued by CMS in 2024. The measure, which was passed by a voice vote, also requires CMS to establish a pilot program to test other digital reporting methods for ACOs. Status: Passed by voice vote in the House; companion legislation in Senate as part of budget resolution anticipated.
House Education and Workforce bills that advanced after committee passage Thursday:
- Bob Onder’s (R-Mo.) Health Data Access, Transparency, and Affordability Act, that amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to require that employers that sponsor self-funded health plans have more access to anonymized employee health claims data.
- Ryan Mackenzie’s (R-Pa.) Putting Patients First by Strengthening Provider Accountability in FECA Act, which would amend the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act to allow the Labor Secretary to suspend payments to medical providers if they have been convicted of fraud.
- Rick Allen (R-Ga.) and Rep. Lucy McBath’s (D-Ga.) Health Care for Energy Workers Act, which would update the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program — which provides care for those who worked in the nuclear weapons industry
States challenge Medicaid work requirement: Democratic officials from 26 states filed suit against sued the Trump administration Monday in Massachusetts federal court in a bid to strike down new Medicaid work requirements for “medically frail” enrollees
