Health

A culture growing on agar in a petri dish, lit from below in a laboratory.

One Research Firm Puts Regenerative Medicine at $41 Billion, Heading for $162 Billion. Dr. David Borenstein on Why the FDA Keeps Cracking Down on Unproven Clinics.

DelveInsight, a market-research firm, estimates the global regenerative medicine market at about $41 billion in 2025 and projects roughly $162 billion by 2034. The FDA has spent years pursuing clinics selling unapproved stem cell products, most recently in a January 2025 warning letter to a Pompano Beach, Florida manufacturer. Dr. David Borenstein, a physician who offers regenerative treatments, says patients should ask what a product is before they book.

By Thomas Gutierrez Just now

Rows of blood sample tubes with coloured caps in a laboratory rack.

Labcorp Will Pay $722 Million in Cash for the Core of BioReference Health, About 2.9 Times the Revenue It Expects. OPKO Gets Up to $150 Million More if One Prostate Test Sells.

Labcorp said on Thursday 15 October that it will buy select assets of BioReference Health from OPKO Health for $722 million in cash at closing, plus up to $150 million tied to revenue from the 4Kscore prostate test. Labcorp expects the businesses to bring in about $250 million in revenue in the first year after closing. The deal needs regulatory approval and has no stated closing date.

By Thomas Gutierrez 1 hour ago

Pope Leo XIV, in a white cassock and zucchetto with glasses and a pectoral cross, stands smiling with his hands clasped in front of a bronze sculpture in the Paul VI Audience Hall.

Pope Leo XIV Has Lung Cancer, the Vatican Says. Surgeons Removed Part of His Right Lung Without Complications.

Surgeons at Rome's Gemelli hospital removed the lower lobe of Pope Leo XIV's right lung on Tuesday 13 October, and a test during the operation confirmed lung adenocarcinoma, the Holy See Press Office said. The Vatican said the operation was successful with no complications. It has not said whether further treatment will follow.

By Thomas Gutierrez 47 hours ago

Aerial view of the Optum headquarters campus in Eden Prairie, Minnesota: low office buildings, a round brick tower and ponds with fountains beside a divided road.

UnitedHealth Reports Tuesday Against Expectations of About $4.15 a Share. Its Own Guidance Implies a Second-Half Medical Care Ratio Near 91 Per Cent.

UnitedHealth Group will report third-quarter results before the market opens on Tuesday 13 October, with an analyst call at 8:00 a.m. ET. TipRanks and MarketBeat put consensus at $4.12 to $4.15 a share on about $111.3 billion of revenue; the company does not issue quarterly forecasts. Nothing has been reported yet.

By Daniel Okafor October 11, 2026

A hospital building exterior

Private Equity Hospitals Charged $669 More Per Patient. Costs Did Not Fall.

A Campaign for Accountability analysis comparing seventy-one private equity-owned hospitals with seventy-one closely matched peers found that PE-owned hospitals collected $669 more in operating profit per patient after acquisition. Their operating costs per patient showed no statistically significant change.

By Margaret Holloway October 9, 2026

A healthcare professional reviewing patient data on a tablet

A Clinical AI Reads Every Patient's Chart Every Morning. Most Hospitals Don't.

Healthleap, which scans hospital patient records daily to flag undiagnosed conditions, raised $38 million and expanded from three hospital partners to more than fifty in a year. The malnutrition detection it started with is now the model for a broader class of clinical surveillance tools.

By Daniel Okafor October 9, 2026

Prescription medication bottles on a white surface

The Government Is Paying $50 a Month for Ozempic. Insurers Are Not Keeping Up.

Medicare launched its GLP-1 Bridge program in July, covering weight-loss drugs for certain enrollees at a $50 monthly copay. Meanwhile, commercial insurers have moved in the opposite direction — the number of people without coverage for Zepbound grew by 17 million in 2026. The gap between what the drugs cost and what payers will cover is widening.

By Margaret Holloway October 9, 2026

An empty hospital ward with beds and medical equipment

The Obesity Drug War Just Entered Its Third Act

Eli Lilly's new amylin combination delivered 23.3 percent weight loss in mid-stage trials, the strongest result yet against Novo Nordisk's stumbling pipeline. The obesity drug race is no longer about GLP-1s. It is about whatever comes after them.

By Cory Chamberlain October 8, 2026

An aerial view across a broad green valley in Chihuahua, with cultivated fields and scattered low buildings in the foreground and a long mountain ridge on the horizon.

Beyond Dental Work, Mexico Is Drawing a Different Kind of Medical Tourist

Medical tourism to Mexico was built on procedures that finish in a day. A smaller set of centers is now selling residential stays of several weeks to patients with chronic illness, on a model that trades speed for duration and sits largely outside the conventional evidence base.

By Cory Chamberlain September 24, 2026

Gloved hands drawing a dose from a small glass vial into a syringe.

Pennsylvania Has 693 Measles Cases, 133 Hospitalisations and a Third Death Under Review

The state health department reports 693 confirmed measles cases across 38 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties, with 133 hospitalisations and two confirmed deaths. A third death reported by a county coroner on Sunday is under review. Fewer than one percent of cases were in vaccinated people.

By Cory Chamberlain September 15, 2026

A white diesel generator in a utility room beneath wall-mounted electrical units.

Gaza's Hospitals Run Entirely on Generators. Their Diesel Is Funded Until Saturday.

Gaza's Health Ministry says the World Health Organization will stop supplying diesel to more than 20 hospitals and health centres from 19 September because of a funding shortfall. The WHO has not commented. Gaza's hospitals have run on generators since the power was cut in October 2023, and the generators were already running on oil changed a quarter as often as they should be.

By Thomas Gutierrez September 14, 2026

A young child held by her mother while receiving an injection at a clinic.

Fifty Thousand Measles Cases, and the Thousandth Child Has Died

Bangladesh has recorded more than 50,000 confirmed or suspected measles cases this year and child deaths have passed a thousand. Measles is the most contagious disease routinely encountered and one of the most completely preventable, which makes an outbreak of this size a measurement of a delivery system rather than of a virus.

By Thomas Gutierrez September 9, 2026

A pharmacist in a white coat reaching up to take a labelled medication carton from a dispensing shelf behind a pharmacy counter.

The FDA Approved It. Whether You Can Get It Depends on a Different Document.

Updated 2026-27 COVID vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and Novavax have FDA approval and target the circulating XFG variant. Eligibility guidance has narrowed to those 65 and over and younger adults with qualifying conditions. Insurers say they intend to cover. Three different documents, and only one of them is the one a pharmacy reads.

By Thomas Gutierrez September 8, 2026

Shelves of labelled pharmaceutical containers in a dispensary.

One Contract Pharmacy in 1995. Thirty-Two Thousand Five Hundred Now.

The 340B discount programme was built so safety-net hospitals could buy drugs cheaply for their own patients. It ran through a single contract pharmacy in 1995 and through 32,528 of them by 2024. Two bills now in Congress propose opposite explanations for how that happened.

By Thomas Gutierrez September 7, 2026

A pharmacy technician at work in a military treatment facility.

The Expensive Shortage Ended. The Cheap One Is Still Running.

Tirzepatide came off the FDA shortage list in December 2024 and semaglutide in February 2025. Ifosfamide, a decades-old chemotherapy used in curative regimens, is three months into a shortage the FDA expects to run into autumn and European regulators into 2027. Same country, same regulator, same manufacturing base.

By Thomas Gutierrez September 5, 2026

An auto-injector pen used to treat diabetes.

The Trial Showed It Was Not Worse. The Label Now Says It Cuts Risk.

The FDA has approved tirzepatide to reduce major cardiovascular events in adults with type 2 diabetes. The trial behind it compared the drug not with placebo but with dulaglutide, an older GLP-1 that already had the indication — and the result was non-inferiority, with an 8 percent lower event rate.

By Thomas Gutierrez September 4, 2026

Chemotherapy drugs in vials beside an intravenous bottle.

One Plant, One Drug, and a Regulator Choosing Which Failure the Patient Gets

Ifosfamide has been in critical shortage for about three months. It is a decades-old chemotherapy used in curative and salvage regimens for sarcoma and testicular cancer, and American supply ran overwhelmingly through one contract plant in Germany, which the FDA had cited in March for recurrent microbial contamination.

By Thomas Gutierrez September 3, 2026

Shelves at the medino online pharmacy warehouse in London, United Kingdom. Shelves are full of pharmacy, health and beauty products such as suncream, toothpaste and skin lotion.

Health Costs Are Rising 11 Percent. Employers Will Report 8.2.

A survey of more than 1,800 employers puts the 2027 increase in health benefit costs at 8.2 percent, the steepest since 2003. That figure is what remains after the changes employers plan to make, and the largest of those changes is asking employees to pay more.

By Thomas Gutierrez September 2, 2026

An ambulance and crew outside a hospital at night.

Indiana Takes Away the Emergency Department's Release Valve

Hospitals across the state have agreed to stop turning ambulances away when the emergency department fills up. Diversion was never extra capacity. It was a way of moving a full department's problem onto the ambulance and the patient inside it.

By Thomas Gutierrez September 2, 2026

A pharmacist reaching for a box of injectable medication on a hospital pharmacy shelf.

The Permission to Make the Drug Expires the Moment It Works

A would-be maker of a scarce cancer drug may produce it only while the drug is officially in shortage. Succeed at ending the shortage and the permission ends with it, which is a rule that guarantees nobody builds durable capacity.

By Thomas Gutierrez September 1, 2026

A surgeon in gown, mask and cap operating alongside draped imaging equipment in a theatre.

The Hospital Runs on a Supply Chain With One of Everything

A hospital can substitute a drug, a surgeon and a shift. It usually cannot substitute the single-source device a procedure was built around, and nobody notices which items those are until one of them stops arriving.

By Thomas Gutierrez August 30, 2026

A pharmacy technician reaching along a shelf of white medication bottles in a hospital dispensary.

The Drug Shortage Is a Manufacturing Problem Wearing a Pharmacy Uniform

The medicines that run short are almost never the expensive new ones. They are decades-old generics made on thin margins in a handful of plants, where a single inspection failure removes a meaningful share of world supply.

By Thomas Gutierrez August 29, 2026

Victoria hospital emergency entrance sign with building

The Emergency Department Hires Security Before It Hires Nurses

Assaults on hospital workers are frequent enough that security has become a standing cost, and the spending competes directly with the staffing whose absence contributes to the problem.

By Thomas Gutierrez August 27, 2026

Dental Clinic

Dentistry Is the Part of the Body Insurance Forgot

Dental coverage sits outside major medical for reasons that are historical rather than clinical, and the consequences arrive in emergency rooms that cannot treat teeth.

By Thomas Gutierrez August 27, 2026

A doctor in a white coat and stethoscope talking with a patient across a desk in a clinic consulting room.

The Interpreter Is the Part of the Visit Nobody Budgets For

Federal rules oblige providers to offer interpretation and no payment mechanism accompanies the obligation. What fills the gap is a family member, which is where the errors start.

By Thomas Gutierrez August 26, 2026

Computers, medical equipment, testing and treatment devices, St Francis Hospital, Federal Way, Washington, USA

The Hospital Bought a Device With a Software End Date

Imaging systems and infusion pumps are capital assets depreciated over a decade or more, running software the manufacturer stops supporting long before the hardware wears out.

By Thomas Gutierrez August 25, 2026

A motorcycle ambulance with an enclosed sidecar cabin parked on tarmac outside a single-storey hospital building.

The Ambulance Is the Last Surprise Bill

Federal rules ended most balance billing for out-of-network care. Ground ambulance rides were excluded, which leaves the one service nobody selects still able to bill the difference.

By Thomas Gutierrez August 25, 2026

Volunteer pushes trolley in hospital corridor

Nursing Homes Are a Real Estate Problem Wearing a Care Uniform

Separating the property from the operation made nursing homes financeable. It also created a fixed obligation that does not move when occupancy does, and that is where the failures start.

By Thomas Gutierrez August 25, 2026

Hospital waiting room chair

Nobody Asks Who Owns the Practice Until Something Goes Wrong

Independent physician practices have been bought at scale by hospital systems, insurers and investment firms. Patients are largely unaware, and the ownership determines more than the medicine does.

By Thomas Gutierrez August 22, 2026

14-1011-039 print 8x10 b&w "D" Ward, US Naval Hospital, Quantico, VA. [Ward][Nurses][Corpsmen][Patients] Navy Medicine Historical Files Collection - Facilities

Travel Nursing Was Supposed to Be Temporary

Hospitals brought in contract nurses to cover a crisis and have not been able to stop. The rates came down, the dependency did not, and the permanent staff who remain now work beside colleagues paid differently for the same shift.

By Thomas Gutierrez August 21, 2026

A stack of paperwork photographed flat on a desk.

Both Sides Automate Prior Authorization, and the Wait Stays the Same

Insurers deployed software to process approval requests faster. Providers deployed software to submit more of them. The volume rose, the staffing did not fall, and the patient is waiting roughly as long as before.

By Thomas Gutierrez August 20, 2026

Empty hospital corridor with benches and doors

The Delivery Room Is the First Thing a Rural Hospital Closes

Obstetric units require staffing around the clock for a volume that cannot pay for it. Hospitals keeping the lights on elsewhere are shutting maternity first, and the distances patients travel are becoming the clinical problem.

By Thomas Gutierrez August 19, 2026

A nurse smiling with an elderly patient in a room at home

Home Health Becomes the Contested Ground

Every payer wants care delivered at home because it is cheaper. The workforce that would deliver it is the least stable in the industry, and the two facts have not yet been reconciled.

By Cory Chamberlain August 15, 2026

$An empty hospital corridor seen through propped fire doors$

Primary Care Confronts Its Labor Math

The physician shortage in primary care is no longer a projection. The response taking shape reorganizes who does what, rather than waiting for doctors who are not coming.

By Cory Chamberlain August 10, 2026

A doctor's hand completing a patient's medical records

Hospital Price Data Finally Finds Its Users

Transparency rules produced enormous files that consumers never opened. Employers and their advisers did, and the negotiating conversation has changed as a result.

By Margaret Holloway August 8, 2026

Two colleagues in conversation during a workplace counselling session

Workplace Mental Health Programs Face the Spreadsheet

After a spending boom, employers are auditing what their mental health benefits actually deliver, and the results are separating clinical substance from wellness decoration.

By Alison Acosta August 5, 2026

A physician writing on a patient's chart during a consultation

The Return of the Company Clinic

Employers battered by health costs are reviving an old idea: putting the doctor inside the workplace, and the modern version is outperforming its ancestor.

By Cory Chamberlain August 2, 2026

A pharmacy storefront with a prescriptions sign in the window

The Pharmacy Desert Spreads Past the Rural Counties

Chain closures have moved the access problem into cities, where the affected neighborhoods have transit rather than distance working against them. The economics behind the closures are not local.

By Thomas Gutierrez August 1, 2026

A grocery store aisle stocked with fresh produce

Food as Medicine Moves From Pilot to Payment Code

Produce prescriptions and medically tailored meals are entering mainstream insurance coverage, backed by the least surprising research finding in healthcare.

By Thomas Gutierrez July 31, 2026

Two people comparing smartwatches on their wrists

Wearables Enter the Exam Room, on the Doctor's Terms

After a decade of patients arriving with watch data their doctors ignored, clinical workflows are finally being built to use it, selectively and skeptically.

By Daniel Okafor July 26, 2026