The Ledger

9.8 billion dollars: that is Medtronic’s revenue for its fiscal first quarter, a 13.7 percent jump that beat Wall Street and pushed the world’s largest medical device maker to raise its full-year profit guidance. Medtronic reported fiscal 2027 first-quarter results September 1, 2026 for the period ended July 31, 2026: revenue of 9.8 billion dollars, up 13.7 percent both as reported and organically, roughly 200 basis points above the company’s own guidance midpoint, with non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of 1.45 dollars, ahead of Wall Street’s 1.39 dollar consensus estimate, and GAAP diluted EPS of 1.14 dollars. The company raised its fiscal 2027 organic revenue growth guidance by 50 basis points to a range of 7.25 to 7.75 percent and lifted its non-GAAP diluted EPS guidance to 5.94 to 6.00 dollars for the year. Growth was broad based: cardiovascular revenue grew 18.9 percent organically, with the newer Cardiac Ablation Solutions business up 88 percent worldwide, while diabetes revenue grew 14.9 percent; the quarter also included Medtronic’s acquisitions of Scientia Vascular and SPR Therapeutics. For hospitals and physician groups that buy Medtronic devices, from cardiac ablation catheters to insulin pumps, the results signal a supplier with pricing and volume momentum heading into fall capital budgeting season. Confidence: High. This run reviewed Medtronic’s own SEC filing and earnings release directly. Sources: Medtronic Reports First Quarter Fiscal 2027 Financial Results, SEC Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1.

75: that is how many full-time nurses lose their obstetrics jobs as a for-profit hospital chain shuts down labor and delivery at three Chicago-area hospitals it bought for more than 370 million dollars 18 months ago. Prime Healthcare, a California-based for-profit system, announced around September 1, 2026 that it is suspending obstetrical services at Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, Mercy Medical Center in Aurora, and Resurrection Medical Center in Chicago, three of the eight Ascension Illinois hospitals Prime acquired for more than 370 million dollars in March 2025. Prime said “many years of financial distress, changes in ownership, declining birth rates and volumes, with less than one delivery a day,” made the units unsustainable, and it is putting 1 million dollars toward new “Centers of Excellence for Maternal Care” at Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital in Chicago and Olympia Fields Hospital, where deliveries will be consolidated; the company says it is offering each of the roughly 75 affected full-time nurses another position, citing more than three times that many open roles elsewhere in its Illinois network. The Illinois Nurses Association called the move a case of Prime prioritizing profits over care in Joliet, the state’s third-largest city, and the closures land amid an existing pattern of scrutiny from Illinois’s US senators over service cuts following the 2025 Ascension purchase. For hospital corp-dev teams, the sequence, an acquisition followed by service-line consolidation 18 months later, is a repeatable Prime Healthcare playbook worth watching in its other markets. Confidence: High on the closures and figures, drawn from Prime Healthcare’s own news release as reported by local outlets; Medium on the precise effective date, which was not specified in Prime’s release. Sources: Prime Healthcare plans to suspend obstetrical services at 3 Illinois hospitals, consolidate care, Daily Herald, 3 prominent Chicago-area hospitals to suspend OB services, Prime Healthcare announces, NBC Chicago.

572 million dollars: that is what a publicly traded healthcare real estate investment trust just paid for six senior living communities, the first tranche of an 873 million dollar, eight-property portfolio deal. American Healthcare REIT announced and closed September 1, 2026 the acquisition of the first six of eight senior housing communities, totaling 464 units, from Kensington Senior Living for 572 million dollars; the full eight-community, 745-unit portfolio carries an aggregate purchase price of roughly 873 million dollars, with the remaining two communities under definitive purchase agreements expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026. Kensington Senior Living will stay on as manager of the properties under what the two companies called a long-term partnership, a structure that lets the REIT add senior housing operating properties without taking on direct operating risk. The deal adds to a strong year for American Healthcare REIT, which raised its full-year 2026 same-store net operating income growth guidance to 9 to 12 percent companywide, including 15 to 19 percent for its senior housing operating portfolio segment, at its second-quarter earnings. Confidence: High, drawn from American Healthcare REIT’s own SEC filing and press release. Sources: American Healthcare REIT Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1, US Securities and Exchange Commission, AHR, Kensington Senior Living Announce Long-Term Partnership After $572M Portfolio Acquisition, Senior Housing News.

1,700: that is how many medical procedure codes the country’s largest health insurer is about to stop requiring prior approval for, part of a public pledge to cut a practice that has drawn years of provider and patient complaints. UnitedHealthcare said it will remove prior authorization requirements from 1,700 procedure codes effective October 1, 2026, across its commercial, Medicare Advantage, individual exchange, and Medicaid plans, covering outpatient procedures including lesion excisions, fracture treatments, joint injections, arthroscopies, colonoscopies, endoscopies, biopsies, hernia repairs, and soft tissue tumor removals, plus a large share of genetic and molecular testing codes; the insurer, a UnitedHealth Group subsidiary, says the move advances its public commitment to eliminate 30 percent of prior authorization volume by the end of 2026. UnitedHealthcare separately began notifying provider groups September 1, 2026 of their eligibility status for its Gold Card program, which lets qualifying groups submit advance notification instead of full prior authorization starting the same October 1 date. For hospitals and physician groups, the changes cut administrative overhead on a specific list of high-volume outpatient codes but leave the bulk of prior authorization, including most imaging, specialty drugs, and inpatient admissions, untouched. Confidence: Medium-High. This run reviewed UnitedHealthcare’s own provider-facing Gold Card update page directly; the 1,700-code figure and specific procedure list rely on trade press reporting from Becker’s Hospital Review and Fierce Healthcare. Sources: Gold Card eligibility status, UHCprovider.com, UnitedHealthcare, UnitedHealthcare to drop prior authorization requirements for 1,700 services, Becker’s Hospital Review, UnitedHealthcare to nix prior auth on 1,700 services on Oct. 1, Fierce Healthcare.

THE DEAL SHEET

This run’s scan of FTC and DOJ merger actions and state transaction-review dockets found no new healthcare antitrust complaints or consent orders in the last 24 to 48 hours. This run’s earnings and filings scan across the major public payers found only Humana reaffirming its full-year 2026 guidance of at least 6.52 dollars in diluted earnings per share and at least 9.00 dollars in adjusted diluted earnings per share ahead of a month of investor meetings, consistent with the guidance it issued July 29; UnitedHealth Group, CVS Health, Elevance Health, Centene, Cigna, Molina Healthcare, Clover Health, and Oscar Health had no new 8-K disclosures in the window. A frontier check on healthcare ransomware and breach disclosures, a Ledger branch not touched in the last three issues, found no new incident dated to this window; worth checking again as second-half 2026 breach totals are compiled. An open-ended scan surfaced UnitedHealthcare’s prior authorization changes, covered above, as the window’s most consequential operator-facing story outside the Deal Sheet.