Rural providers are among the more vulnerable care sites in the US.

Remote areas often struggle with staffing levels and distance between facilities and patients’ homes. These challenges can sometimes lead to closures, and as we reported in March, 768 rural hospitals in the US were at risk of shutting down.

Hospitals with a large population of Medicaid patients are also more likely to struggle financially, according to health policy research firm KFF, meaning additional cuts could create bigger problems.

So when the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed in July and estimates put it at cutting $1+ trillion in Medicaid spending over 10 years, the rural health community started sounding the alarm on how services might be impacted. (States have already gotten started on those cuts, despite federal cuts not being in effect yet.)

Following the bill, the American Hospital Association reported 1.8 million people in rural areas could lose their Medicaid coverage by 2034.

Here’s why experts think it could fall short.—CM

Welcome back to Signed and Scrubbed, a monthly roundup of hospital deals, developments, and bankruptcies.

To close out 2025, health systems—all nonprofits this month!—from New Jersey to California made moves, including calling off deals and opening new facilities. Here’s your December news.

ChristianaCare/Virtua Health. Wilmington, Delaware-based ChristianaCare, which includes the 1,039-bed Christiana Hospital, called off a merger deal on Dec. 18 with 833-bed Virtua Health in Marlton, New Jersey. In a press release, the health systems said they had “mutually agreed” to cancel the letter of intent signed in July and they “can best fulfill their missions to serve their communities by continuing to operate independently.”

CommonSpirit Health. Becker’s reported Chicago-based health system CommonSpirit is scheduled to open Memorial Hospital-North Georgia in Ringgold on Jan. 11, which would effectively replace the current CHI Memorial Hospital Georgia facility in Fort Oglethorpe. The hospital will have 64 beds.

See the full list here.—CM

Each week, we schedule our rounds with Healthcare Brew readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

There’s a new leader at the helm of Dexcom, the $26+ billion glucose monitoring company.

Jake Leach, a 21-year company veteran, officially became CEO on Jan. 1, though he began serving as CEO in an interim capacity in September when former CEO Kevin Sayer took medical leave.

Leach has been with the company since 2004, the year it debuted its first glucose sensor for people with diabetes. He became COO in August 2022 and president in May 2025.

The company, meanwhile, has released the seventh generation of its continuous glucose monitor (CGM), boasting sensors that can last up to 15 days, along with an over-the-counter device, Stelo. Dexcom revenue reached $4.7 billion in 2025, up 16% YoY, according to a preliminary and unaudited report from Jan. 12.

Healthcare Brew sat down with Leach at CES 2026 to talk about what’s next for Dexcom during his first full year as CEO.

See the full conversation here.—CC