March 12, 2026

Rising costs for labor, supplies, drugs and administrative burdens caused by corporate insurers, combined with caring for sicker patients, have created challenges for hospitals and health systems. These strains are jeopardizing hospitals’ ability to provide around-the-clock care and services that patients and communities need.

The Department of Justice’s complaint accused Aetna of operating a chart review program in 2015 in which the company paid coders to review medical records and find new conditions it could use to increase its members’ risk scores. CVS did not admit liability and said it agreed to the settlement to avoid the expense of drawn-out litigation.

The trend of primary care doctors banding together highlights how distorted incentives in U.S. healthcare undervalue prevention and longitudinal patient care. If policymakers fail to address reimbursement disparities and workforce shortages, consolidation among providers may continue - not just to survive financially, but to regain bargaining power in a system that rewards specialization over primary care.

The findings reinforce long-standing concerns that Medicare Advantage’s payment structure allows insurers to profit through aggressive coding and favorable benchmarks rather than genuine efficiency.

Microsoft’s AI assistant, Copilot, is expanding into healthcare with a new spinoff called Copilot Health, designed to answer users’ health-related questions. The chatbot can provide more informed insights when users upload medical records, health histories, and data from personal tracking devices. According to Microsoft AI’s vice president of health, Copilot Health is intended to combine the broad knowledge of a general physician with the expertise of a medical specialist.