Ups and downs in healthcare kept Modern Healthcare reporters plenty busy in 2024, and 2025 is shaping up as a critical year for the industry, particularly as a new administration takes over in Washington, D.C. Our reporters this year did what Modern Healthcare excels at — bringing readers the news along with the context and analysis our audience needs to stay ahead.
Get ready for 2025 by catching up on some hot topics during 2024.
Medicare Advantage 2024 enrollment: Winners and losers
Medicare Advantage was in the news plenty during 2024. More competition, along with a less-than-favorable regulatory environment, heightened the drama this year, and led to some some startups gaining market share. That said, UnitedHealthcare and Humana continued to dominate the market but their growth rate slowed.
How Epic is courting customers outside of hospitals
Epic is the dominant player in the electronic health record game, and this year it sought to extend its reach by creating a virtual showroom for its customers to learn about its other products and services that work with its EHR. The strategy is a way for it to attract non-hospital and health system customers.
Meet the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare in 2024
Our honorees this year for the most influential people in healthcare included plenty of new faces — 27 in fact — in a reflection of the growing importance of the wide range of executives who are helping reshape the industry. The list will most certainly change for 2025, too, as new government leaders take over and consolidation in some parts of the industry continues.
Why Walmart, Walgreens struggle to make healthcare profitable
It has not been a particularly good year for retailers that ventured into healthcare with plans of disruption and taking patients away from traditiona providers. Walgreens is pulling back and Walmart pulled out.
How CMS prior authorization rule will affect insurers
Prior authorization has definitely been one of 2024's hot topics and it started early in the year when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finalized a rule that set timelines for preapproval requests. Providers largely welcomed the policies, as did most insurers.
Ozempic is huge. Here's who's jumping into telehealth to sell it
One analysis predicted the market for glucagon-like peptide agonists would surpass $100 billion in revenue by 2030. It might be an undercounting considering what transpired this year. Telemedicine programs have taken off at pure play telehealth companies as well as at more traditional providers.
Why private equity-linked sales of physician groups have slowed
Higher borrowing costs, along with some regulatory challenges, have slowed efforts by private-equity owners to flip physician practices to buyers. Delays in the planned exit strategies have annoyed physicians, who expected to benefit financially after taking pay cuts when private equity firms took over.
Health insurers retreat from ACO Reach
ACO Reach encountered struggles, with some participants scaling back their participation and others pulling the plug. This was the first year in the pilot program’s four-year history that regulators said there was a year-over year drop in the total number of ACO organizations.
Why Labcorp, Quest Diagnostics are buying hospital labs
Independent lab companies were on the hunt for acquisitions this year and they found them, buying select assets from a number of large systems. The move to expand began during the COVID-19 pandemic and shows little sign of slowing down, given the potential advantages to providers.
Trump faces lengthy healthcare regulation to-do list
It's going to be a busy start for the incoming Trump administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as they figure out which proposed rules to finalize, tweak or scuttle. That work, along with the potential for executive orders, is likely to cause plenty of uncertainly for the healthcare industry.
