Signals
Drug and coverage approvals, safety alerts, funding opportunities, and federal findings. 52 tracked. Everything here changes what someone does next week, without being a rule, a deal, or an enforcement action.
Approvals 8
- Jul 9, 2026 FDAisatuximab-irfc (Sarclisa Escena)
For multiple myeloma, across three combination regimens (with pomalidomide and dexamethasone, with carfilzomib and dexamethasone, and with bortezomib, lenalidomide and dexamethasone)
- Jul 14, 2026 FDAGedatolisib (Revtorpyk)
For HR-positive, HER2-negative, PIK3CA-wild-type locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer that progressed after prior treatment, used with fulvestrant, with or without palbociclib
Adults
- Jul 16, 2026 FDALipfendra (enlicitide)
For High LDL cholesterol in adults, including heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia
- Jul 13, 2026 FDALeqembi Iqlik (lecanemab-irmb) subcutaneous injection, at-home starting dose
For Early Alzheimer's disease with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia
- Jul 9, 2026 U.S. Food and Drug AdministrationSarclisa Escena (isatuximab-irfc)
For newly diagnosed and relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, in combination regimens
- Jul 8, 2026 FDAfirst BAFF/APRIL dual inhibitor
For primary immunoglobulin A nephropathy
adults at risk of rapid disease progression
- Jul 8, 2026 CMS
- Jul 1, 2026 FDA
Safety alerts 4
- Jul 22, 2026 Michigan Department of Health and Human ServicesCyclosporiasis outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce
Taylor Farms de Mexico iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell
7171 cases Michigan
- Jul 19, 2026 FDA
- Jul 16, 2026 FDA and CDCCyclospora contamination in shredded iceberg lettuce
Shredded iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico by Taylor Farms de Mexico, served at Taco Bell
1644 cases 0 deaths Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia
- Jul 9, 2026 FDA and CDCE. coli infection
GreenWise frozen organic blueberries recalled from Publix
12 cases Florida, Georgia
Funding 3
- Jul 23, 2026 SAMHSA and CMSCertified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) Medicaid Demonstration
Community behavioral health clinics in Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Washington and West Virginia meeting CCBHC certification criteria
- $206.9M Tennessee Department of HealthRural Health Transformation Program
Applications close Jul 20, 2026
eligible rural hospitals, federally qualified health centers, and nonprofits in Tennessee
- $281M SAMHSABehavioral health grants across 15 programs, including medication-assisted opioid treatment and school mental health
applications open on a rolling basis; no single close date announced
Findings 37
- Jul 25, 2026 VMG HealthASC sale multiples hit 7.9x EBITDA, the highest in at least 8 years
The median ASC transaction multiple reached 7.9 times EBITDA in 2025, the highest level VMG has tracked in at least eight years
- Jul 25, 2026 ComparitechHealthcare ransomware attacks rose 14 percent in first half of 2026
Ransomware attacks on healthcare linked organizations rose 14 percent to 410 in the first half of 2026, with attacks on healthcare businesses, drugmakers, device makers and billing vendors up nearly 35 percent, outpacing the 3 percent rise in attacks on hospitals and direct care providers.
- Jul 24, 2026 AM BestAM Best upgrades Delta Dental of California to A+ from A
Upgraded Delta Dental of California's Financial Strength Rating to A+ from A and Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating to aa- from a+, stable outlook
- Jul 24, 2026 CMS19.1%: the hospice live-discharge rate CMS uses as its fraud baseline
The national hospice live-discharge rate is 19.1%, the baseline CMS uses as an automated fraud screen, while suspended California hospices received letters citing rates in the mid-50s to 64%.
- Jul 24, 2026 Private Equity Stakeholder ProjectReport finds 500+ facilities run through PE-nonprofit joint ventures
More than 500 US healthcare facilities, including hospitals, hospice and home health providers, now operate through joint ventures between private equity firms and nonprofit health systems; 21.4% of PE-owned hospitals use such structures, and Apollo-owned LifePoint Health runs 61% of its hospitals as joint ventures
- Jul 24, 2026 Mertz TaggartHome-based care M&A volume falls 41% in Q2 2026
Home-based care M&A volume fell to 16 closed deals in Q2 2026, down 41% from Q1 2026's 27 deals and 45% from Q2 2025's 29 deals.
- Jul 23, 2026 DOL, HHS, and Treasury (tri-agencies)89 percent of health plans failed mental health parity paperwork on first try
76 of 85 comparative analyses requested from health plans received an insufficiency letter on first submission, an 89 percent failure rate, per the fourth annual MHPAEA report to Congress covering August 2023 through July 2025
- $16B Drug ChannelsBig Three drug wholesalers have spent 16 billion dollars buying physician practices since 2013
Cardinal Health, Cencora and McKesson have collectively spent more than 16 billion dollars since 2013 acquiring or taking stakes in management services organizations that run physician practices, concentrated in oncology, gastroenterology, ophthalmology and urology, with most of that spending landing between 2023 and 2025.
- $45.7M HHS Office of Inspector GeneralOIG audit finds Colorado's EVV system missed $45.7 million in improper Medicaid payments
Colorado did not verify that all personal care services visits were recorded in its electronic visit verification system before submitting Medicaid reimbursement claims, and OIG recommended the state refund $8 million in federal share immediately
- $19.5M HHS Office of Inspector GeneralOIG finds Novitas improperly paid $19.5 million for nursing home Medicare claims
Novitas Solutions improperly paid Medicare Part B claims for evaluation and management, psychotherapy, podiatry and wound care services provided to nursing home residents, with 91 of 150 sampled claims, a 60.7 percent error rate, failing to meet Medicare requirements
- Jul 22, 2026 HHS Office of Inspector GeneralOIG finds Medicaid fraud referral deadlines vary wildly by state
State contracts with Medicaid managed care organizations require fraud referral timeframes ranging from 1 to 270 days, with several states imposing no deadline or consequence for late reporting and giving plans little training on referrals
- Jul 22, 2026 Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai researchers, published in International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, PhysicsStudy finds two-thirds of US counties have no radiation oncology clinic
68.5 percent of US counties (50.8 million people) had no radiation oncology treatment site as of 2025, with 13.6 percent of counties experiencing a net loss of sites since 2018 concentrated in poorer, more rural, higher uninsured areas.
- Jul 21, 2026 JAMA Network OpenStudy finds more than fivefold gap in insurer payments for the same cardiac device implant
Commercial facility fee payments for implantable cardioverter defibrillator insertion ranged from a median of 6,674 dollars under Aetna to 36,269 dollars under UnitedHealthcare across four major national insurers, a more than fivefold difference for the same procedure.
- Jul 21, 2026 PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)MedAxiom CEO pushes back on private equity dominance narrative as PwC calls cardiology a hot deal target
Cardiovascular services is one of the two most sought after physician specialties for deal activity in the second half of 2026, even as MedAxiom's CEO argues private equity's actual footprint in cardiology remains smaller than commonly portrayed.
- $7.4B Rock HealthDigital health M&A hits busiest quarter since 2021
US digital health startups raised 7.4 billion dollars across 244 deals in H1 2026, but 115 corporate acquisitions closed, 71 in the second quarter alone, the busiest quarter for digital health M&A since 2021; mega deals of 100 million dollars or more were 8 percent of financings but absorbed 45 percent of capital.
- $712M AM BestAM Best finds medical liability insurers posted second straight underwriting loss in 2025
Medical professional liability insurers posted a $712 million combined underwriting loss in 2025, up from $546 million in 2024, even as direct premiums written grew 3.6 percent to $9.4 billion and favorable reserve development shrank to $155 million
- Jul 19, 2026 HHS Office of Inspector GeneralOIG issues first favorable opinion on a food as medicine produce voucher program
A federally qualified health center's produce box and voucher program for chronically ill, low-income patients does not trigger sanctions under the Anti-Kickback Statute or Civil Monetary Penalties Law
- Jul 18, 2026 Association of Organ Procurement Organizations53 of 55 organ procurement organizations propose new CMS quality measures
53 of the nation's 55 organ procurement organizations proposed an eight-measure quality framework, covering referral rate, approach rate, authorization rate, donation rate, donor management, organs recovered per donor, organ utilization rate, and safety, to replace CMS's current two-metric decertification system, arguing the current metrics do not account for regional differences.
- Jul 18, 2026 U.S. Government Accountability OfficeGAO finds clinician AI use for notes and coding jumped from 21% to 28%
The share of clinicians using AI tools to draft medical notes or generate insurance billing codes grew from 21 percent to 28 percent in two years, and GAO warned that unverified AI errors could trigger patient harm or over- and under-billing, while independent verification of these tools' accuracy remains limited.
- $7.7B Kaufman HallHospital M&A more than doubles in Q2 2026
Hospital and health system M&A hit 18 deals in Q2 2026, more than double the 8 a year earlier, with transacted revenue rising to $7.7 billion from $1.4 billion, the lowest Q2 total since at least 2018.
- $2.6B Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal OfficePennsylvania budget delays $2.6 billion in Medicaid managed care payments
Pennsylvania's new state budget uses a 'cycle roll' accounting maneuver that delays roughly $2.6 billion in Medicaid managed care payments over two years without setting a repayment date, which the IFO warns could strain managed care organizations' cash flow.
- Jul 18, 2026 Employer benefits consultants (cited in Forbes reporting)Specialty drugs now top 60% of drug spend at many employer health plans
Specialty drugs, led by GLP-1 weight loss and diabetes medicines, now account for 60 percent or more of total drug spending at many employer health plans.
- Jul 17, 2026 U.S. Government Accountability OfficeGAO finds at least 160,000 unauthorized ACA marketplace enrollment changes in 2024
CMS lacks sufficient controls to verify consumer authorization for agent and broker enrollment or plan changes; confirmed unauthorized-enrollment complaints grew more than fourfold since 2023, and at least 160,000 federal marketplace applications in plan year 2024 had likely unauthorized changes
- Jul 15, 2026 AAOS 2026 Annual Meeting research80 percent of spine surgery prior authorization denials reversed on appeal
Prior authorization delayed elective spine surgery without producing payer cost savings, and 80 percent of denials examined were reversed on appeal
- $7.4B Rock HealthUS digital health funding hits $7.4 billion in H1 2026, mega-deals dominate
US digital health startups raised $7.4 billion across 244 deals in H1 2026; mega-deals of $100 million or more captured 45% of the capital in just 8% of the deals; 115 digital-health M&A exits closed, concentrated in revenue cycle management and metabolic health
- Jul 14, 2026 Bloomberg LawCONMED shares jump 10 percent on unconfirmed takeover interest report
CONMED is reportedly working with advisers on a possible sale after drawing private equity takeover interest; no bidders or formal process have been disclosed and CONMED has not confirmed a sale is underway
- $7.7B Kaufman HallHospital M&A posts strongest Q2 since 2018 with $7.7 billion in deals
Hospital M&A had its strongest second quarter since 2018, with 18 transactions and $7.7 billion in transacted revenue, more than five times the $1.4 billion recorded a year earlier; nearly all buyers were nonprofit systems rather than private equity or for-profit chains
- Jul 14, 2026 Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy InstituteNeiman study finds 12,940 wRVU workload tipping point for radiologist turnover
Practice turnover among radiologists rose 61% from 2013 to 2022, with job change likelihood climbing fastest at 12,940 annual wRVUs overall, 13,380 for non academic radiologists and 8,820 for academic radiologists
- $5.56B HHS Office of Inspector GeneralOIG Spring 2026 report: $5.56 billion in expected recoveries and savings
Recovered or saved $5.56 billion from Medicare and Medicaid over six months (Oct 2025 to Mar 2026), a $12.70 return per dollar spent, built on 604 criminal and civil actions and 1,212 exclusions from federal health programs
- Jul 14, 2026 CMSRadiology Partners posts 631% of QPA median No Surprises Act award as batching cuts filing costs
Providers win 88% of No Surprises Act IDR disputes with 87% of awards exceeding the qualifying payment amount; Radiology Partners posted a median prevailing offer of 631% of QPA in H1 2024, and new batching rules effective May 2026 lower per claim administrative fees
- $112,475 MedAxiomHospital-employed vs private-practice cardiologist pay gap widens to $112,475
2024 median total compensation for hospital-integrated cardiologists topped $700,000 for the first time while private-practice cardiologists fell to a median of $588,479, a $112,475 gap, the widest in more than five years
- Jul 13, 2026 MedAxiomNearly half of private cardiology practices now PE owned as Humana adds value-based partnerships
Close to 50 percent of private-practice cardiology groups now have private equity ownership, up from effectively zero a few years ago; separately Humana expanded value-based cardiology partnerships to four platforms for Medicare Advantage members
- $22.6B Galen GrowthDigital health funding holds flat at 22.6 billion dollars, deal count falls 38 percent
H1 2026 digital health funding held flat at 22.6 billion dollars globally across 608 rounds, down roughly half the deal count of a few years earlier, with deal count falling 38 percent as average check size climbs and capital concentrates in fewer, more mature companies
- Jul 11, 2026 FTC and DOJFTC and DOJ report 18 merger enforcement actions, healthcare named a priority sector
Fiscal Year 2025 Hart-Scott-Rodino annual report shows 18 merger challenges filed last year, 2,006 transactions notified with nearly 32 percent valued above 1 billion dollars, and 41 formal Second Requests issued, with healthcare named a priority sector under the FTC's Healthcare Task Force
- $12B Government Accountability OfficeGAO finds $12 billion in federal assisted-living spending, room-and-board gap
Medicare and Medicaid spent about $12 billion on assisted living in 2024, while Medicaid still cannot pay the room and board that keeps most seniors out of nursing homes