Kaiser raises operating margin to 1.1% in 2025

Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente recorded an operating income of $1.4 billion (1.1% operating margin) in 2025, up from an operating income of $569 million (0.5% margin) in 2024, according to its Feb. 6 financial report.  Kaiser’s results for the 12 months ended Dec. 31, include Risant Health, the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit it formed “to expand […]

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HCA’s outpatient boom reshapes its care network

Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare is accelerating its push into outpatient care, building on years of aggressive urgent care expansion and a growing slate of freestanding emergency departments as care continues to shift toward lower-cost, more convenient settings. In early February, HCA announced two Texas acquisitions that expand its urgent care and freestanding emergency department footprint, […]

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Watch: Is MAHA the New MAGA?

Republicans have hitched themselves to the “Make America Healthy Again” campaign, banking on its popularity to give them an electoral bounce. But the strategy carries risks. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist who rails against Big Pharma and ultraprocessed food, is the leader of the movement. And Americans’ […]

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MUSC Health, Clemson U break ground on $71M medical facility

Charleston, S.C.-based MUSC Health and Clemson (S.C.) University are partnering to build a $71.2 million medical facility on the university’s campus, which will open in fall 2027. The project cost includes an $11.5 million grant from HSS’ Health Resources and Services Administration, a spokesperson for MUSC confirmed with Becker’s. The two parties broke ground Feb. […]

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Viewpoint: Healthcare needs AI ‘bubble to burst’

With so much money flowing into healthcare AI and funding many unproven solutions that will ultimately fail, a correction will be good for medicine, a Health Affairs commentary argues. AI spending in healthcare outpaces other sectors by a factor of 2.2, reaching $1.4 billion in 2025, triple the year before, the authors noted in the […]

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