Category: Medical

Twenty-six rural hospitals have launched the Ohio High Value Network for a clinically integrated system covering 2.5 million patients.

The network will share clinical and business initiatives, operations and best practices. It will collaborate to control contracting costs, OHVN said. It is expected to drive care coordination and reduce administrative burden.

The network features 25 Ohio hospitals and other care sites in more than 115 cities and towns serving 37 of Ohio’s 88 counties. It also includes a hospital in West Virginia.

The network is in discussions with other rural hospitals in Ohio interested in joining as members and expects to grow.

Why this matters
The Ohio High Value Network follows other rural hospital collaborations: The Rough Rider High-Value Network in North Dakota, launched in 2023, and the Headwaters High-Value Network in Minnesota, started in 2024.

All are operated by Cibolo Health, a for-profit company specializing in the financial processes of independent rural hospitals and medical practices. Their services include medical billing, coding and accounts receivable management.

The active daily management of the network will be led by principals from Cibolo Health, including Nathan H. White, president, and Dr. A. Clinton MacKinney, chief medical officer.

A Clinical Integration Committee will include a clinical representative from each health system.

The larger trend
With close to half of rural hospitals operating in the red, sharing services is seen as crucial to managing costs to keep doors open. Since 2013, 73 rural hospitals have reportedly closed and another 58 rural hospitals have ended inpatient services.

Many members of the Ohio High Value Network are already working together in one of several regional hospital collaborations in Ohio.

On the record
“We already know that working together not only provides benefits for our hospitals, but also for our patients, our employees and our communities,” said Jeff Graham, president and CEO of Chillicothe-based Adena Health. “It’s been a goal of mine for more than seven years to form this level of collaboration among our independent hospital systems. With the size and scope of the Ohio High Value Network, we can collaborate on even more impactful areas to enhance our ability to deliver advanced, high-quality care and do so efficiently.” Healthcare Finance News

The maiden hospital by the Azim Premji Foundation, being set up in Jharkhand, would offer free health services to the poor and the project is expected to be completed in January 2027, an official said on Tuesday.

The project, if successful, will be replicated across the country with 15 similar ventures, the official said.

The 230-bed super-speciality hospital and medical college is being constructed on about 150-acre Azim Premji University campus in Ranchi’s Itki block, Anand Swaminathan, who leads the health project at the foundation, said.

“The facility will eventually have 1,300 beds. We plan to begin operations with a 230-bed hospital by January 2027. Construction for both the hospital and medical college has commenced. This will be the foundation’s first hospital in the country,” Swaminathan told reporters.

“Following the success of this hospital, we aim to establish 15 more facilities across the country in future,” he added.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren laid the foundation stone for Rs 5,000-crore private university project on January 24 last year.

The first phase of the university is expected to be completed by July 2026, with academic sessions likely to commence the same year, he said.

Swaminathan emphasised that treatment would be free for the poor, with charges structured to remain affordable for others.

A school is also being developed on four acres within the university campus, offering free education up to Class 12.

The school will provide mid-day meals, health check-ups, uniforms, textbooks, and notebooks, Swaminathan said.

“We plan to enrol at least 1,200 students in the school, which will follow the CBSE curriculum,” he added.

Besides, the Foundation is making efforts to improve the health parameters of the members of tribal communities in Jharkhand.

It has identified 100 districts nationwide, half of which are tribal-majority with poor health indicators. In Jharkhand, the districts would include Ranchi, Gumla, Simdega, and Lohardaga, he said.

“We are currently working in two blocks – Dharmajaigarh and Lailunga – in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh, and Bero and Itki blocks of in Jharkhand’s Ranchi district. Our team of health professionals collaborates with the government to strengthen frontline health systems,” Swaminathan said.

The Foundation envisages investment of up to Rs 7,500 crore per annum on health across the country, he said.

While the health status of tribal populations has improved over the past few decades, there remains a significant gap between health indicators among tribal and many other social groups.

National Family Health Survey-5 data shows that tribal people suffer from various health-related issues such as low immunisation coverage and institutional delivery, besides anaemia and child malnutrition. PTI

The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency this past week published new guidance and best practices designed for Oracle Cloud customers, following public reports of “potential unauthorized access to a legacy Oracle cloud environment.”

Why it matters
The Homeland Security division notes that while “the scope and impact remains unconfirmed, the nature of the reported activity presents potential risk to organizations and individuals.”

In particular, CISA notes that anywhere login credential material could be exposed or reused across separate and unaffiliated systems, or “embedded” – hardcoded into scripts, applications, infrastructure templates, or automation tools – organizations could be at risk of compromise

“When credential material is embedded, it is difficult to discover and can enable long-term unauthorized access if exposed,” the agency notes.

The larger trend
In March, reports emerged that Oracle had experienced two separate data breaches in recent months, one affecting Oracle Health customers and another said to result from an exploit targeting Oracle Cloud login servers.

The website Bleeping Computer cited reports from customers that suggested millions of records may have been compromised after an alleged breach of Oracle Cloud federated SSO login servers and pointed to an online account that claimed to have gained access to authentication data and encrypted passwords of as many as 6 million users.

Despite other security researchers offering similar evidence, Oracle initially disputed the claims.

“There has been no breach of Oracle Cloud,” the company told Bleeping Computer. “The published credentials are not for the Oracle Cloud. No Oracle Cloud customers experienced a breach or lost any data.”

Since that time, Oracle did confirm one hack, affecting a pair of “obsolete servers,” but again reiterated its insistence that its Oracle Cloud servers were not compromised.

“Oracle would like to state unequivocally that the Oracle Cloud – also known as Oracle Cloud Infrastructure or OCI – has not experienced a security breach,” officials said in an email to customers. “No OCI customer data has been viewed or stolen. No OCI service has been interrupted or compromised in any way.”

In light of those reports, CISA recommends a series of actions for healthcare and other organizations using Oracle Cloud, as a preventative best practice to help them reduce risks associated with any potential credential compromise:

• Reset passwords for any known affected users across enterprise services, particularly where local credentials may not be federated through enterprise identity solutions.
• Review source code, infrastructure-as-code templates, automation scripts and configuration files for hardcoded or embedded credentials and replace them with secure authentication methods supported by centralized secret management.
• Monitor authentication logs for anomalous activity, especially involving privileged, service or federated identity accounts, and assess whether additional credentials (such as API keys and shared accounts) may be associated with any known impacted identities.
• Enforce phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication for all user and administrator accounts wherever technically feasible.
• It also points to information sheets on cloud security best practices from CISA and NSA.

For individual end users, CISA suggests immediately updating any potentially affected passwords that might have been reused on other platforms; create strong, unique passwords for each account; and enable phishing-resistant MFA and stay alert against phishing attempts such as referencing login issues, password resets or suspicious activity notifications.

On the record
“The compromise of credential material, including usernames, emails, passwords, authentication tokens, and encryption keys, can pose significant risk to enterprise environments,” said CISA officials in the announcement.

“Threat actors routinely harvest and weaponize such credentials to escalate privileges and move laterally within networks; access cloud and identity management systems; conduct phishing, credential-based, or business email compromise campaigns; resell or exchange access to stolen credentials on criminal marketplaces [and] enrich stolen data with prior breach information for resale and/or targeted intrusion.” Healthcare IT News

India’s leading hospital chains are undertaking aggressive expansion plans over the next 3–5 years to bridge the widening demand-supply gap in the country’s healthcare infrastructure.

Cumulatively, over 34,000 new beds are expected to be added by the private sector by FY29, according to industry estimates, entailing an investment of around Rs 40,000 crore.

Geographically, the expansion is heavily concentrated in North and South India, accounting for roughly 46 per cent and 30 per cent of the new capacity respectively, followed by West India at 13 per cent and the East and Central regions at 11 per cent.

A significant 38-40 per cent of this new capacity, equating to around 14,000 beds, is targeted towards Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, indicating a broadening reach beyond the major metropolitan areas.

This comes amid a steady rise in healthcare demand driven by growing urbanisation, increased lifestyle-related ailments, and higher health awareness post-pandemic.

The private sector currently accounts for 60–65 per cent of hospital beds in India.

With public health infrastructure struggling to keep pace, private providers are stepping in to fill the void, announcing sizable capacity expansion plans to tap into this unmet demand.

According to industry estimates, the expansion will entail a capital outlay of over Rs 40,000 crore, a mix of greenfield, brownfield, and acquisition-led growth, backed by internal accruals, existing cash reserves, and incremental debt.

Apollo Hospitals, one of the largest private healthcare providers in India, is rolling out a two-phase expansion to add 3,512 beds — a 34.5 per cent increase from its current capacity of 10,169 beds.

The total investment earmarked is Rs 6,100 crore. Phase 1 expected by FY26 will lead to the addition of 1,737 beds in Pune, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Gurgaon at an investment of Rs 2,880 crore.

Phase 2 which will commence from FY26–FY29 will add 1,775 beds in Chennai, Varanasi, Mumbai, and Lucknow with Rs 3,220 crore investment.

“We are focused on expanding our presence and enhancing specialised centres of excellence across key locations,” said Suneeta Reddy, Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals.

“Better asset utilisation in existing facilities, volume growth, and a combination of high-end tertiary care and congo specialties will drive revenue, ARPOB and EBITDA growth.”

Apollo’s expansion is largely focused on metropolitan and Tier-1 cities, leveraging its brand recall and integrated care ecosystem.

The group is also open to selective Tier-2 expansion, particularly where it has demonstrated strong ROCE (Return on Capital Employed).

Max Healthcare is planning to increase its bed capacity by 76 per cent by FY28, adding approximately 3,700 beds to its existing base of 5,036 beds as of Q3 FY25.

The planned capex stands at Rs 5,000 crore for FY26–FY28. About 76 per cent of the new capacity will be in metro cities, while the remainder will cater to Tier-2 cities. Additionally, Max has land parcels with the potential to add over 4,000 beds post-FY28, though formal plans for these are still under development.

“We have outlined an estimated capital outflow of Rs 5,000 crore to be incurred over the next three years,” stated Abhay Soi, Chairman and Managing Director, Max Healthcare.

“About 76 per cent of the new capacity will come up in metro cities, with the rest in Tier-2 locations.”

Gurgaon’s Artemis Medicare is set to more than double its current bed strength of over 800, targeting a total of over 2,000 beds in the next five years.

The expansion will focus on Delhi-NCR and select Tier-2 cities in northern India.

The company has already raised Rs 330 crore from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and is planning projects that will bring in 800–1,000 new beds, including a over 300 bedded hospital in Raipur.

“This growth will fill healthcare gaps in large northern cities, reduce patient load at urban hospitals, and increase access in underserved regions,” said Ashutosh Jha, Chief-Strategy, M&A, Investor Relations and Organisation Growth, Artemis Hospitals.

Mumbai-based Jupiter Lifeline Hospitals is investing Rs 1,350 crore to build three greenfield hospitals in Western India, adding 1,300 beds — effectively doubling its current capacity.

Ankit Thakker, Executive Director and CEO, Jupiter Lifeline Hospitals said, “Our focus remains on Tier-1 cities in Western India, where demand for advanced healthcare is growing rapidly.”

According to credit rating agency ICRA the addition of 34,000 new beds by FY29 represents a 2.3-2.5 per cent increase in the country’s private hospital bed base, necessitating a capital expenditure exceeding Rs 40,000 crore.

This investment is expected to be financed through a combination of internal accruals, existing cash reserves, and incremental debt, supporting a diverse range of expansion strategies including greenfield projects, brownfield developments, and strategic acquisitions. Rediff.com

A draft budget proposal circulating among federal officials would dramatically deepen cuts at the nation’s top health agency, eliminating some public health programs entirely and serving as a roadmap for more mass firings.

The document suggests a cut in the US Department of Health and Human Services’ discretionary spending by as much as one-third, or tens of billions of dollars, according to public health experts familiar with its contents.

Though it’s preliminary, the draft gives an indication of the Trump administration’s priorities as it prepares its 2026 fiscal year budget proposal to Congress. It comes amid massive funding and job cuts already underway across much of the federal government.

The HHS plan lays out a reorganization of its many agencies and offices and calls for eliminating or whittling away dozens of programs. Among them: Head Start, a development program for more than half a million of the country’s neediest children, as well as programs focused on teen pregnancy and family planning, Lyme disease, and global health.

The National Institutes of Health — the world’s largest funder of biomedical research, and long called the government’s crown jewel – would see its budget shrink to $27.3 billion, from $48.5 billion. Beyond the monetary cuts is a proposed restructuring, reducing the NIH’s 27 institutes and centers to eight. Many institutes that specialize in distinct diseases — involving, for example, the heart and lungs, diabetes, and skeletal and skin conditions — would be combined.

NIH-funded research has played a part in the development of most treatments approved in the US in recent years, and until recently, had strong bipartisan support. It’s not clear whether Congress would go along with the proposed changes. During the first Trump administration, Congress rejected a major cut to NIH’s budget.

“I just have not heard anybody say, ‘We wish the government would spend less money trying to cure cancer or trying to deal with Alzheimer’s,’” said Jeremy Berg, a University of Pittsburgh professor and former director of an NIH institute.

Yet that’s what the $20 billion budget cut will mean, he said, adding that restructuring will cost time and money, too.

The budget of the Food and Drug Administration would be cut by nearly half a billion dollars, to $6.5 billion, in part by eliminating some longtime agency responsibilities and shifting them to states. For example, the FDA would no longer handle routine food inspections. It already contracts with state inspectors for some of that work and would now do so to cover “100 percent of all routine foods,” according to the document.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s core budget would be slashed to about $5 billion, from more than $9 billion, with a number of programs eliminated and some transferred into a proposed new agency to be called the Administration for a Healthy America.

The cuts include the complete elimination of the agency’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, which had 1,000 employees at the beginning of this year. That center houses CDC programs on adolescent health, reproductive health, cancer prevention, heart disease and stroke prevention, and smoking prevention, as well as nutrition, physical activity and obesity.

The draft was not officially released or confirmed by the Trump administration, and it’s not clear what will make it into the final budget proposal. “But it’s an important indication about what the administration is thinking about,” said David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, an association that represents people running health department programs to track and prevent sexually transmitted infections. “We are taking it very seriously.”

The proposal was first reported by The Washington Post. The Associated Press saw a copy of the 64-page document, dated April 10.

The draft is the result of discussions between HHS and the White House Office of Management and Budget. It’s called a “passback” document — it’s what OMB passed back to HHS after both had input. The Associated Press

Days after signing the Memorandum of Association (MoU) with the Centre to roll out the Ayushman Bharat scheme in the city, the Health Department has directed more than 100 hospitals to implement the same at the earliest, official sources said.

Officials said contract letters have been sent to these hospitals to enter into an agreement with the Delhi government with a direction to sign them as soon as possible.

“The department has issued an advisory for the implementation of the Ayushman Bharat Yojana in 110 hospitals. As part of the initiative, a copy of the contract letter has been sent to these hospitals to enter into an agreement with the Delhi government,” an official said.

Along with this, the guidelines for implementation have also been shared with all the associated hospitals, the official added.

Officials said the hospitals have been asked to sign the agreement as soon as possible so that the beneficiaries of Ayushman Yojana do not face any problems in availing healthcare services.

The BJP-led Delhi government inked an MoU with the Centre on April 5 to implement the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) in the city. With this, Delhi has become the 35th state/Union Territory to implement the health insurance scheme.

The Ayushman Bharat scheme provides free and cashless treatment for 1,961 medical procedures across 27 specialties, covering the costs of medicines, diagnostic services, hospitalisation, ICU care, surgeries and more. Under the scheme, eligible families in Delhi will receive annual health coverage of up to Rs 10 lakh—Rs 5 lakh from the Centre and an additional Rs 5 lakh as a top-up from the Delhi government.

The BJP, which formed the government in Delhi in Feb after more than 26 years, approved the implementation of the scheme at its first cabinet meeting held right after Gupta and six of her ministers took the oath of office on Feb 20. The New Indian Express

Russia’s Health Ministry has authorized hospitals and clinics to delegate some of the responsibilities of doctors to paramedics and midwives in response to a nationwide healthcare staffing crisis, the Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday.

According to the ministry, Russia faced a shortfall of 23,200 doctors and 63,000 other medical professionals in 2023.

Under new regulations published on Monday, chief medical officers will be allowed to assign primary and emergency care responsibilities to paramedics and midwives “in case of understaffing or insufficient staffing.”

Once reassigned, these mid-level personnel will be permitted to deliver babies, prescribe medications and provide direct medical care typically handled by physicians.

Dmitry Sukhikh, head of the Kulakov National Research Center for Obstetrics, Gynecology and Perinatology in Moscow, said more than 3,600 obstetrician-gynecologist and over 1,730 neonatologist positions in Russia went unfilled last year.

The updated regulations will take effect on Sept. 1, replacing similar rules from 2012. However, the move could place even greater pressure on an already strained workforce.

Adding new responsibilities to ambulance crews will likely increase their already “extreme” workload, said Dmitry Belyakov, who heads a union of paramedics. The Moscow Times

As clouds gather and humidity rises across west Africa, whose annual rains bring an uptick of deadly, malaria-carrying mosquitoes, Musa Adamu Ibrahim, a nurse, is sitting at home, unemployed.

In Nigeria — home to 30 percent of the world’s annual 600,000 malaria deaths — clinics that once served 300 people a day in the conflict-hit Borno state have abruptly shut down, Ibrahim and other laid-off workers told AFP, following the withdrawal of American funding by President Donald Trump.

“The clinics have been closed and (there are) no more free drugs or mosquito nets,” said Ibrahim.

The sudden dismantling of USAID — the country’s main foreign development arm — is unravelling health care systems across Africa that were built from a complicated web of national health ministries, the private sector, nonprofits and foreign aid.

As the effects of the cuts compound, the resulting damage — and deaths — are unlikely to end anytime soon: malaria cases will peak around the end of the rainy season, while threatened American cuts to global vaccine funding would likely be felt later in the year.

In the meantime, the ripple effects continue to spread: alongside laid-off workers, malnutrition clinics have shuttered doors in Nigeria.

Rattled supply chains mean drugs are at risk of being stuck in warehouses in Mali. Children are walking miles to reach care in South Sudan for cholera care and dying along the way, and refugee camps in Kenya are facing medicine shortages.

“People with resources will be able to go and get drugs… but the poorest of the poor, out in remote areas of Nigeria and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, they’re the ones who will be cut off,” said Lawrence Barat, a former senior technical advisor for the US President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI).

“They’re the ones whose children will die.”

During malaria’s seasonal peak, Ibrahim once saw clinics he worked at treat 300 patients a week. Fatima Kunduli, another laid-off aid worker in Borno, said her clinic was seeing 60 children per day for malnutrition and malaria care before it shut down.

As downpours progressively cascade across west Africa — Nigeria’s have just started, while Senegal’s rains won’t arrive until May — countries that have made in some cases significant progress in stamping out malaria in recent decades will now be doing so without a major financial backer.

Forecasts developed by ministries of health across the continent to plan for the rainy season have deep holes blown in them, said Saschveen Singh, an infectious disease specialist with Doctors Without Borders in France.

The complex mix of funding sources in each nation — from local governments to internationalnonprofits — means US programmes worked differently in every country.

In Mali, seasonal malaria chemoprevention drugs given to young children won’t have an issue coming into the country — but American funds were crucial for coordinating their distribution, Singh told AFP.

Meanwhile, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the USAID-supported PMI was the primary malaria drug and test provider to government health facilities in nine provinces.

“Suddenly, they’ll just not have drugs, and it’s going to be very difficult for other actors to step in,” said Singh, adding her co-workers are “scrambling” to map out where gaps may arise.

In South Sudan, USAID-funded clinics have closed amid a cholera outbreak. Children are walking hours to the next closest treatment centre, with at least five dying along the way in the country’s eastern Jonglei state, British charity Save the Children reported earlier this month.

In neighbouring Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp, which hosts more than 300,000 people, protests broke out in March when it was announced rations would be lowered, and doctors are running out of medicine.

“All the clinics around, you can get paracetamol. But all other drugs, no,” one camp elder, who asked to remain anonymous, told AFP during a recent visit.

At Kinkole General Hospital, in Kinshasa, doctors were recently treating 23 mpox patients isolated in tents free of charge thanks to American support. But workers have no idea if that funding will continue, despite an outbreak that has infected 16,000 and killed 1,600.

“We’re thinking a disaster is coming,” said Yvonne Walo, an epidemiologist at the centre.

The hits to health care systems are set to keep coming.

Washington is reportedly considering pulling back its funding to Gavi, the organisation that procures vaccinations for the world’s poorest countries.

Cuts would be almost guaranteed, with Gavi chief executive Sania Nishtar telling AFP that “this is too big a hole to be filled.”

If confirmed, John Johnson, a vaccination and epidemic response advisor with Doctors Without Borders, expects programmes to start coming under strain later this year.

In Borno, whose governor recently warned of a resurgence of the Boko Haram jihadist group, Kunduli, the laid-off aid worker, said even with US funding the work was “overwhelming.”

Now, “I could only imagine.” AFP

The administration of US President Donald Trump is looking to cut some $40 billion in funding from its Department of Health and Human Services, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing a preliminary budget document it had obtained.

This cut would represent roughly one third cut of the health department’s discretionary spending, it said. Reuters

The Telangana government is working to improve government hospitals and make them more attractive like private hospitals. Many people don’t trust public hospitals because they feel they won’t get proper help or answers to their questions. To change this opinion and improve healthcare, a new policy is being prepared.

As part of this plan:

• Hospitals will be painted in bright colors and look neat like private hospitals.
• A reception and helpdesk with staff in uniform will be set up to guide patients.
• Children’s wards will have toys and fun pictures.
• Hospitals will have good lighting and clean facilities.

The government is also focusing on:

• Better care for the elderly (geriatrics).
• Special services like trauma care, cancer care, and palliative care.
• Controlling chronic diseases through NCD clinics in every district.
• Using artificial intelligence (AI) to speed up services in hospitals.
• A plan to get a ₹4,150 crore loan from the World Bank to support these changes.

Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha is leading this effort to brand and improve government hospitals across the state. The Hans India